Dissenting Chapels Bill
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The Lady Hewley Trust, now a charity, began as Sarah, Lady Hewley's charity to support English Presbyterian, Congregationalist and Baptist ministers, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The trust was later at the centre of a 12-year legal suit in the nineteenth century, noted in Unitarian history, and turning on the current beliefs of ministers who were supported by its funds. While the legal judgement went against the Unitarians, the introduction of the Dissenters' Chapels Act (1844), which followed on the case, improved their position.


Sarah, Lady Hewley

Sarah Wolrych was born in 1627 and she had money from her mother before she married
John Hewley Sir John Hewley (1619–1697) was an English magistrate and Member of Parliament for Pontefract, an early Whig. He sided with parliament against the king. After his death his widow, Sarah Hewley founded the Hewley Trust in 1705, now known as the ...
. As his widow, Sarah spent large sums in works of charity. In 1700 she built Lady Hewley's Almshouses and funded charity schools founded at York by Archbishop John Sharp. In 1705 she created the Hewley Trust. She died in 1710. Portraits of Sir John Hewley and his wife are preserved in the vestry of St. Saviourgate Chapel.


The Trust

On 13 January 1704–5 Sarah, Lady Hewley conveyed to trustees a landed estate, of which the income was, after her death, to be devoted to benevolent objects, including the support of ‘poor and godly preachers for the time being of Christ's holy gospel.’ The benefactions were increased by a further deed (26 April 1707) and by her will (9 July 1707, codicil 21 August 1710). The will was contested without result. Though the trustees were all Presbyterian, grants were made to ministers of the ‘three denominations;’ in other words Congregationalists and Baptists were included.


Unitarian influence

By the end of the eighteenth century all the trustees and a majority of the Presbyterian recipients were Unitarian. Independents from Manchester objected to this controlling influence, and they brought a lawsuit concerned with the enforcement of the terms of Lady Hewley's will in 1830; Owen Chadwick, ''The Victorian Church I: 1829-1859'' (1971), p. 393. one of the topics in contention was the funding of Manchester Academy. The initial legal ruling sustained the view that a Trinitarian commitment was necessary, from those with benefits from the endowments. This judgement was then twice appealed, but was upheld by the Lord Chancellor in 1836; and again by the House of Lords in 1842. The outcome was that by a judgment of the House of Lords (5 August 1842) three Congregationalists, three orthodox Presbyterians, and one Baptist were appointed trustees. The income of the trust was then £2,830.


Dissenters' Chapels Act 1844

As a direct consequence of the legal ruling, a group including
Edwin Wilkins Field Edwin Wilkins Field (12 October 1804 – 30 July 1871) was a British lawyer and painter who committed much of his life to law reform. Early life Edwin, a descendant of Oliver Cromwell through his grandmother, was the eldest of thirteen children ...
pressed for legislation. The immediate purpose was to have a retrospective element attached to the date (1813) on which Unitarianism obtained legal tolerance as a belief. (See
Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813 The Act 53 Geo 3 c 160, sometimes called the Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813, the Trinitarian Act 1812, the Unitarian Relief Act, the Trinity Act, the Unitarian Toleration Bill, or Mr William Smith's Bill (after Whig politician William Smith), ...
.) This aim was achieved through Parliament, rather than the courts, with the Dissenters’ Chapels Act 1844. The government supported legislation, which did not reverse the original decision, in order to head off a predicted rush of litigation in hundreds of cases affected by the precedent. A figure of 25 years was established, after which the right of possession of a chapel could not be challenged on doctrinal grounds. Baron Cottenham added a clause to protect two chapels in Dublin over which litigation was already active. Despite extensive opposition from religious groups the bill passed.Chadwick, p. 394.


Notes


Further reading

*
Thomas Smith James John Angell James (6 June 1785 – 1 October 1859), was an English Nonconformist clergyman and writer. Life James was born at Blandford Forum. After seven years' apprenticeship to a linen-draper in Poole, Dorset, he decided to become a preach ...
(1867), ''The History of the Litigation and Legislation Respecting Presbyterian Chapels and Charities in England and Ireland between 1816 and 1849'', from p. 120
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*Richard Potts (2005), ''Dame Sarah's Legacy: A History of the Lady Hewley Trust''. Chester: Lady Hewley Trust {{authority control Christian charities based in the United Kingdom 1705 establishments in England Unitarianism