Historical notes on the Church at Sowerby.

SOWERBY:
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Sowerby Church having been erected, an attempt was made to obtain parochial rights and privileges for the new church, and at the same time to throw off all responsibility and surrender all rights, in connections with the Halifax Parish Church. A correspondence was opened with the Archbishop of York, and the scheme promoted by Sowerby was as strenuously opposed by Halifax. The following curious letters throw some light on these times, and show that the relations of some of the out-townships with the Parish Church at Halifax are not of the most friendly character;-

Sowerby the 18th November, 1763. "May it please your Grace, "We beg leave to return you, our humble thanks for the favors receiv'd at Brodsworth; and as then directed, to lay before your Grace the following reasons for making our township into a distinct parish.

"1     Our Parish Church is not large enough to contain the parishioners to whom it belongs; and being distant three miles from the nearest part of Sowerby, and above seven miles for the farthest part thereof, is therefore not only very inconvenient for the inhabitants, but all publications of banns of marriage, being at the Parish Church, the intention of the act for preventing clandestine marriages is not answered; as the inhabitants of our own township do not resort thither to divine service.

"II     Our township is from east to west, viz. From Sowerby Bridge (where the Calder Navigation is to end) to the upper part of Blackwood, above four miles; and from north to south viz. from Mytholmroyd Bridge to Soyland Mills Bridge, above three miles, has all its own parish officers; make all assessments within itself, distinct from the other townships of the parish; and is computed to contain above five thousand inhabitants, who carry on a great trade in different kinds of woollen goods, whereby the number of inhabitants has of late years very much increased, and is still likely to increase more and more every year.

"III     By reason of which increase our chapel formerly built became too small, and our cemetery also not large enough for burying of the dead. We have therefore provided ground to enlarge the cemetery; and have thereon (as being a more convenient situation) built solely at the expense of our own inhabitants and landowners, and are now finishing, a sufficiently large and commodious church, computed with the pews, to cost above two thousand pounds; towards raising whereof we have not, nor do we intend to trouble the country with a brief.

"IV     Having thus built our selves a commodious church, we are very desirous to have it made parochial by act of parliament; and are willing to give up to the town of Halifax all our rights in our old Parish Church; which rights are only about forty shillings a year short of our usual quota towards the repairs of the said Parish Church. And should your Grace think us deserving of a Parish Church of our own we very humbly submit it whether our paying any thing besides giving up our rights to the inhabitants of Halifax, wou'd not be laying a burden upon us, to ease them at the same time that their church lay scarce amounts to one peny halfpeny in the pound.

"V     In order to make the living also distinct, we hope to obtain (as in other acts of Parliament) the Easter dues (which we suppose are about £30 a year as an augmentation, which with the lands now belonging the curacy will make £105 a year; and as we make so large a settlement upon the church, we farther hope with the assistance your Grace kindly offered us, to obtain as much from the governors of the bounty, as will make it £120 a year.

"VI     Being sensible (from what has happen'd in other places) of the confusion and disorder that may arise on every vacancy of a minister when the election is in the inhabitants; we never proposed having the patronage of our Church vested in our selves; but intending to pursue the plan of the acts for the 50 churches, and various others enacted for the service of populous trading places like ours; such as Bethnal Green, and St Philip and Jacob in Bristol. We had thoughts of having our living after a vacancy, under the same patronage as Halifax; but as hinted at Brodsworth , we should think ourselves peculiarly happy under the patronage of your Grace, and you successors Archbishops of York; as we should thereby have the strongest assurances and confidence that we and our posterity should always be supplied with able and discreet ministers, worthy of the maintenance we intend to secure to them.

"VII     We have in our township great numbers of sectarists of different denominations, who are rather moved to dissent from the Church by reason their own meeting houses have full as many privileges as our own chapel., but if parochial privileges were granted to us they would be strong motives to conformity to the Established Church.

        "If my Lord, these improvements meet with your approbation, and you should advise us to lay our petition before parliament; we have yet another very important improvement of a different nature, which we desire to have included in the act, and which we therefore, thinking it our duty to mention. - We have, my Lord, in our township some waste barren moors, of little, or no benefit to us in their present state. But as lands are much wanted, if power was obtained to improve them; they would not only make room for an additional number of useful hands for the manufactory, but also produce some necessaries towards their subsistence, and be of public utility. These my Lord are the improvements which an industrious people earnestly wish to be enabled to make, and in or ler thereto humbly crave your Grace's advice and assistance. We are, My Lord,

"Your Grace's most dutiful and most obliged servants. JOHN WELSH, Curate of Sowerby

on behalf of the inhabitants}     GEORGE STANSFELD     JOHN PRIESTLY

"P.S. We have taken the liberty to send your Grace under two covers, the act for dividing the parish of St Philip and Jacob in Bristol - We have also the acts for the 50 churches and various others, which we shall also send up, if your Grace pleases to permit us. In all these acts the new parishes are exempted from all charges and impositions to the old church, and the dues go to the new rector of vicar."

Probably a copy of this letter was ordered by the Archbishop to be sent to the vicar and churchwardens at Halifax, for their remarks thereon. The following answer was returned by Halifax;

Halifax, Jan. 17, 1764

"1         The Parish Church may not be large enough to contain all the parishioners to whom it belongs, which is probably one reason (tho' not the principal one) why so many chapels of ease have been erected in the parish; but it is large enough to contain those who usually resort to it, and the inhabitants of Sowerby besides, shou'd they chuse to come to it, and may be still much more enlarged. They are constant attendants at Halifax markets weekly; and being in general within three or four miles of the church (the chapel of Sowerby being within three miles of the said church, and within about half a mile of another chapel, in the said parish; which other is within about two miles of the said church, and within about half a mile of another chapel, in the said parish; which other is within about two miles and a half of the said Parish Church, in a good turnpike road) can be in no danger of suffering any inconveniences from clandestine marriages; the intention of the late act is as well answer'd here, as in any large parish, and banns of marriage having never been published in Sowerby chapel previous to the making that law, they are not put into any worse situation by it. We humbly submit it to your Grace whether that law was ever intended as a foundation for the division of parishes.

"II         Sowerby has not all its parish officers, neither does it make all assessments within itself; for it is connected with Soyland within the parochial chapelry of Eland, as to the constable tax; and is divided into four quarters or districts, viz. Sowerby, Blackwood, Westfield and Soyland, and has commonly been call'd Sowerby cum Soyland, Soyland having been reckon'd equal in value to any of the other three quarters or districts which are now all call'd Sowerby and has been assess'd accordingly; but great disputes have of late arise between the inhabitants of the districts, as to the particular value of each; and the method of assessing , much like those now on the carpet between Halifax and Sowerby. They have greatly mistaken the number of their inhabitants; for computing five to a family which we apprehend to be the common method of calculation in a case of this sort (tho'; in this particular case above the truth) they do not appear according to the vicar's list (which may be depended on, being yearly regulated with great exactness to be more than 2700, and if the lists deliver'd in on rising the militia are to be regarded (and surely they shou'd, for they are deliver'd in upon oath) and a calculation is to be made from them; the inhabitants of Sowerby including those of Soyland, which is part of their constablry; and which contains about 1300 inhabitants don't amount to two thirds of the number they have stated

"III         The walls of the old chapel were extremely good, and the chapel was itself sufficiently large and commodious and more than capable in the state it then was, without adding an additional gallery, of containing all the inhabitants of the township, nay it was even capable of holding more than the new one in its present state; and as to what is said as to the cemetery being too small, is not founded on fact, for there was fresh ground sufficient to bury numbers in many parts of it, even immediately after the greatest mortality ever remembered in the neighbourhood, which happen'd just before they pull'd down their chapel. But supposing the cemetery had been too little, it might have been enlarged very conveniently without erecting a new chapel ln new ground; which they say is a more convenient situation but in that we beg leave to differ from them, unless by convenient they mean ostentatious only.

"IV         They say their rights in the Parish Church are only about 40s. a year short of their usual quota towards the repairs of it. But to bring them so near upon a ballance they have made use of various evasive methods; one of these evasions being that of refusing by their warden to consent to so much money being laid out in repairing the church, as has been necessary or the proper immediate support of the fabrick, over and above its other necessaries in repairs, &c, arising from neglects (those neglects arising from the perverseness of Sowerby, and of some of the other tributary unparochial townships) which other necessaries amount to one thousand pounds, as the very man at the head of these proposals to your Grace has acknowledged. Another of their said evasions being that of their making at every year's end unusual and arbitrary deductions from the accounts of what has been laid out; By means of which deductions the quota of Halifax is much increased, at the same time that the church is every year in worse repair than before, and the inhabitants of Halifax have for peace sake, and to avoid law suits, for several years last, submitted to reimburse their own wardens the sum of such unreasonable deductions, rather than they shou'd lose the money, which has in fact been giving up so much to Sowerby, and may probably have induced them, to expect the further gratuity they now seem to have in view; But even after all these unfair deductions, their rights in the church are above 40s. a year short of the quota they now pay; and they must have acknowledged them to be far more than 40s. short, had they not in their calculation supplied the offertory money they receive from the wardens of Halifax, not obligatorily but gratuitously, in part of payment; which we are well assured your Grace will think a very improper disposal of it. And tho' the church lay in Halifax may not be quite so high as the church lay in Sowerby, yet their ancestors paid their quota to the repairs of Halifax church, without making any deductions; well knowing they had purchased their estates subject to the payment of the church lay; and that it wou'd be iniquitous to withhold what they had had an adequate allowance for, in making those purchases.

"V         The Easter dues arising in their township don't amount to so much by nearly one third, as they have stated; and several of the principal inhabitants who have been made acquainted with the scheme, and who 'till they heard of it at Halifax, were totally ignorant of it notwithstanding Mrs Stansfeld and Mr Priestly have sign'd the letter to your Grace on behalf of the inhabitants, and who utterly condemn the said letter and declare they are so far from being willing to charge their estates with £30 per annum, or any other sum for the purpose mention'd in the said letter, that they are determin'd never to consent to it.

"VI         With respect to the patronage, we can only say it is not in their disposal; and if it was, from the knowledge we have of the people we conclude they wou'd not be happy in having it vested in themselves. And whether the Vicar of Halifax for the time being, be not more likely to supply them with able and discreet ministers, and such as are suitable to their dispositions and the place (as having them more immediately under his eye) than the most worthy and prudent patron at a distance (unacquainted with them and the place, can be supposed to be; we beg leave to submit it to your Grace's superior judgment being well assured, that the hint given by them of their peculiar happiness under your Grace's patronage, will have no influence with you Grace in the determination of a matter so important to your people and their posterity.

"VII         We grant there are many sectarists in their township; and so there are in most trading places in this part of the country; far more in proportion in many places than in Sowerby, but it can never be believed that they dissented from the Established Church because their meeting houses had more (which we suppose to be the meaning of full as many) privileges than the late chapel at Sowerby; for it is very evident it is more expensive to be a sectarist there, than to resort to the Establish'd Church.

"VIII         The inclosure of some of the commons and waste ground within Sowerby, to be annexed to the chapel, wou'd no doubt be a great improvement, and what the inhabitants may reasonably desire; but when it is consider'd, that by a law now in being they have a right to inclose sixty acres of their commons or wastes or a sixth part not exceeding that quantity, with the consent of the lord of the manor, and three parts in four of the freeholders, and others having right of common therein according to their number and the value of their respective estates, and to vest it in trustees for the benefit of their Minster pursuant to the statue of the 12 of Queen Ann, stat. 1 c 4. It is hoped no new law will be thought immediately necessary for such purpose; nor wou'd any act of parliament for a further inclosure be wanted for many generations, if ever, for such sixty acres (even taking the best of their commons) cou'd not be properly cultivated in a great number of years, and when cultivated would be so valuable that the curacy of Sowerby being at present about seventy pounds per annum, would stand in no need of further augmentation; And if the money which would be expended in an application to parliament shou'd your Grace advise 'em to prefer their petition (which we hope will never be the case) was frugally laid out in inclosing and cultivating their commons pursuant to the above statute, we humbly submit it to your Grace, whether it would not be a more eligible disposal of it as it wou'd tend to the certain private advantage of them and their minister, and to the good of the public in general; whereas an act of parliament for the purpose they desire would not only impoverish the vicarage, but tend to it's utter ruin without any real advantage to themselves. For if they obtain any such act, all the other chapelries in the parish (not to say every other chapelry in England, for no unparochial chapel can be more dependent upon and have stronger connections with its parish church that the unparochial chapel at Sowerby has with its Parish Church at Halifax) may with equal propriety ask the like( some have hinted that already) and as we may naturally conclude all of them may intend it; and if the whole attempt succeeded in this manner the mother church which is a very ancient, venerable, and cathedral like structure whose ordinary wants require at least one hundred pounds per ann, the burden of which is now divided among ten townships to supply them; must in a few years be reduced to ruins; for no tax in Halifax only, which wou'd have the least appearance of reason, wou'd be sufficient to support it; neither wou'd the profits of the vicarage maintain the Vicar and his family tho ever so frugal, and keep the vicarage house and building upon the glebe in tenantable repair.

        "The hazard of future damages to the church by fire, tempest, and other unforeseen accidents, as well as the repairs immediately wanted, through the late designing neglects, may likewise deserve a very serious consideration; before any innovation can be admitted which would lessen the number of those persons who ought to contribute their rated proportion towards making good such damage and repairs; and wou'd increase the burden of those who are to be charged with the expense of other people's shares as well as their own, in the repairs and maintenance of such a large and costly church, as that of Halifax.

        "Add to this, that the first fruits and tenths of Halifax, paid by the Vicar, are rated remarkably higher than livings of above thrice the value of Halifax, this being charged in the king's books for first fruits at eighty four pounds, thirteen shillings and six pence halfpenny, and for tenths, eight pounds nine shillings and ten pence farthing."

TO BE CONTINUED

Unfortunately this is where the cuttings end, if I can find the continuation on Sowerby in the Halifax Guardian Archives, I will post it at a later date

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