Ashbourne Derbyshire

Zion (or Sion - original spelling) Methodist Chapel, Derby Hill, Ashbourne
& Cooper's Arms Houses

This section is an extract from the Derbyshire Record Society book "Sion Chapel, Ashbourne - Letters and papers 1801 - 17" edited by Edwin Welch ISBN 0 946324 21 2 (300 page hardback)

This book gives a fascinating insite into the chapel from contempory letters and acounts.

The chapel is no more, although the buildings are now used by a nursery school.

Cooper's Almshouses, to the right of the Chapel

Introduction

Sion Chapel was a product of the Methodist revival of the eighteenth century. That movement split on the doctrinal question of Calvinism or Arminianism.

John Wesley and his followers chose Arminianism - a belief that all could be saved.
George Whitefield, Lady Huntingdon and others were Calvinists - believing that only those chosen would be saved.

As most of the older dissenting denominations in England, Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Particular Baptists, were also Calvinists, many Calvinistic Methodists eventually joined their ranks. However, Selina, Countess Dowager of Huntingdon founded a Connexion which still retains its independence. Sion Chapel was associated with, but not legally a part of, that Connexion. Before its closure (now a kindergarten) it joined with Congregationalists and Presbyterians in the United Reformed Church.

John Cooper

Little is known about the early years of the builder of Sion Chapel and Cooper's Almshouses at Compton in Ashbourne, and most comes from a letter written to the trustees in London by Sarah Hollis, wife of the minister of Sion Chapel, in 1866.

Cooper was born about 1732 in Mutton Lane(now King Street), which was then a poor area of Ashbourne colonised by squatters in the previous century. His parents were poor and his father died when he was young. His relations were probably poor too. In the will which he had drawn up in 1797 he gave small annuities to six relations and legacies of ten pounds to a considerable number of their children. Cooper went to work in the local brickyard at an early age. After saving a guinea he gave half to his mother and used the other half to go to London, where he worked in an inn, took service, and finally saved enough money to set up in business as a brandy merchant.

In 1778 he joined a partnership of William Peryer of Moorfield, gent, Thomas Bennet, haberdasher, and Thomas Henshaw, dealer in brandy, both of Dean Street, Southwark. At that time Cooper was described as a brandy merchant living in Petticoat Lane. When Peryer left the partnership in 1785 Cooper was able to buy his share in the business. When in 1792 his partnership with Thomas Bennet and Thomas Henshaw was dissolved he received £6,876 for his share and had sufficient fortune to describe himself as a 'gentleman' of 94 Goswell Street in the parish of St James, Clerkenwell. This was the parish in which Lady Huntingdon's Spa Fields Chapel had been opened in 1779. Cooper found the preaching there, Calvinistic and evangelical, suited him-as it did other London merchants and master tradesmen.

In 1791 he began to subscribe five guineas a year to Lady Huntingdon's College to which his wife Mary added of Spa Fields Chapel's management committee.
However, he had continued to maintain links with Ashbourne while living in London, and planned to retire there with his wife. He bought part of Armitage Meadow in Compton from Robert Miers, a timber merchant of Ashbourne, and John Latham, a farmer of Atlow, in April 1799.
According to Mrs Hollis he was persuaded by James O. Oldham, perhaps the most important member of the Spa Fields chapel committee, to found a chapel in Ashbourne. Unfortunately he did not buy sufficient land and his trustees later had to purchase a small part of Armitage Meadow from Miers's son to protect the chapel. To the chapel which he built he added six almshouses following a long-standing tradition in the town. The buildings were completed in 1801, and Cooper and his wife returned to Ashbourne to live in the house attached to the chapel, where he died seven years later

Ashbourne Calvinistic Methodists

The first Methodist preacher in Ashbourne was probably Thomas Hanby, a follower of John Wesley, who had been stationed at Ashbourne in 1754. He was followed in April 1755 by John Wesley himself, who formed a society of 17 or 18 people. A building was soon found for their meetings, and a chapel built in 1822. Another Arminian denomination of the evangelical revival, which was very successful in the Midlands, the New Connexion of General Baptists, did not reach Ashbourne until 1827 and had little success. Their congregation was dissolved in 1840. The Calvinistic Methodists, who arrived about 1786, were more successful, but were in need of their own building for worship.

Thus Cooper found a congregation in Ashbourne ready to occupy his new building. There had been a Calvinistic element in the town since the early seventeenth century. Three successive lecturers in the parish church were later to be ejected from their benefices in 1662 for Presbyterianism. A Presbyterian meeting was established in Ashbourne in 1662 by other ministers, but it did not flourish. In 1715 it was served by non-resident ministers once a fortnight. Although it had a resident minister in 1772, the congregation shrank and its chapel near the bridge in Compton was disused before the end of the century.

From at least October 1786 the chapel was rented by a succession of Calvinistic Methodist ministers and theological students to preach to a religious society. The earliest known preacher there was David Jones, who baptised the daughter of Thomas Bullock there on 12 October 1787. He was probably David Jones of Llangan, who frequently preached for Lady Huntingdon, but may have been one of her students who shared the same common Welsh name. Another of her students, Edward Irish, was preaching there in 1790 and 1791. When leaving the town for Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire he wrote to the Countess hoping that his successor 'will be at Ashbourn by the time appointed Or the People will be greatly disappointed'. The preachers at Ashbourne were supported by a charity set up by Lady Glenorchy, and administered by the Revd Jonathan Scott of Matlock. Irish received five guineas in 1790, and Mr Brown, minister at Ashbourne, received a similar amount in the following year 'to help out his small salary'. In 1793 the donation was received by a Mr Williams, and from 1796 to 1798 it went to a Mr Lewis (or Lewes). Similar payments were made until 1808, according to the accounts printed here.
Scott was present at the opening of Sion Chapel on Wednesday 20 May 1801. He describes the occasion in a letter to a friend:-

I am this day returned from Ashburn where I have been 2 Nights-I went by the particular desire of Lady Anne Erskine myoId Friend-to open a new Chapel just finished and erected by a Friend with several Almshouses, at his own sole Expence-'twas opened yesterday-I preached in the Morning, Brother Roley of Manchester in the Afternoon, and another Minister in her Ladyships Connection in the Evening. 'tis a very pretty Chapel-we had it full all the day.

The Revd William Henry Crockford, who went to Ashbourne as minister in 1800, was not mentioned by Scott in this letter. Crockford was not trained at Lady Huntingdon's College, and spent his later career as an Independent (Congregational) minister in the north of England. It was probably under his influence that the society had decided to leave the Established Church and become an Independent congregation. On 31 March 1801 he and seven 'Inhabitants of the Town and Neighbourhood of Ashbourn' had registered Sion Chapel at the county quarter sessions for the use of 'Independents'. Cooper, however, had determined that his chapel should conform to Lady Huntingdon's Connexion, adopting a middle position between the Established Church and Dissent. The Connexion required its ministers to subscribe to the Fifteen Articles, a revised version of the Anglican Thirty-nine Articles with some additions from the Westminster Confession. The Independents used the Westminster Confession or the Savoy Declaration as their doctrinal standard. The Connexion used an adapted version of the Book of Common Payer for its services, but the Independents had no printed service books. The Connexion had strong central control, originally maintained by the Countess and her successors, but later by a series of regional and national committees. The Independents believed in the independency of each congregation, and only later in the century established voluntary county associations.
Crockford wished to be ordained as an Independent (Congregational) minister. He also wanted a house for himself and his parents and a fixed stipend. The first was contrary to Cooper's wishes, and the latter probably impossible for the congregation to grant. Crockford was removed and Cooper was able to attach the congregation to Lady Huntingdon's Connexion. For a time Crockford returned to Ashbourne to preach in other buildings, which caused some concern to the Sion Chapel ministers. However, he soon became minister of Halifax Lane Independent Chapel in Nottingham and ceased to trouble Sion. The congregation apparently conformed to Cooper's wishes without any problem. Of the seven men who signed the certificate to register the building in 1801 five were prominent members of the congregation for many years. Cooper, though successful, stilI had the further difficulty of linking Sion Chapel with the Connexion because it had no legal existence at that time. The reason for this is to be found in the life of Lady Huntingdon.

Selina, Countess of Huntingdon

Although Lady Huntingdon died ten years before Sion Chapel was opened and John Cooper probably never met her, her influence on the development of Sion Chapel and its trust lasted for many years. She became a convert to Wesleyan Methodism in 1739 and to Calvinistic Methodism in 1748, but it was not until 1768 that she began to be active in evangelism. In that year, fourteen years before her Connexion was established, she erected a college at Trefeca, in the Breconshire parish of Talgarth, for the education of evangelical ministers, who might enter the Church of England or the dissenting ministry. She chose Trefeca because it was the home of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist, HowelI Harris, who had established a Moravian-style community in the hamlet. The founder met the entire cost of the establishment, aided only by occasional donations from friends. Students received free tuition, board and clothing. She provided horses for their transport to college and for their preaching 'rounds'. She spent much time at Trefeca, helping to teach and providing medical advice when necessary. Until 1782 she remained a loyal member of the Church of England.

In 1778 the minister of St James ClerkenwelI attempted to close or take over a building which had been opened as Northampton Chapel by Calvinistic Methodist clergymen. Lady Huntingdon bought the building, renamed it Spa Fields Chapel, and by taking up residence in the attached house tried to protect it as her private chapel. When she failed to win the various lawsuits she seceded from the Established Church and formed her Connexion. At this time neither her college nor her Connexion had been placed in a trust registered under the Mortmain Act of 1736, and could have been claimed at her death by her daughter and heir, Elizabeth, Lady Moira. In 1787 a group of London merchants worshipping at Spa Fields, Sion and Mulberry Garden chapels in London agreed with the countess to
establish an 'Apostolic Society' to collect funds for the college, and assume responsibility for it after her death.

A similar attempt by Lady Huntingdon to establish an elected body for the Connexion failed because of clerical opposition. At her death in June 1791 neither institution was held in trust and the income which she had devoted to them ceased. Fortunately Lady Moira chose not to exercise her legal right to take possession of them.
Almost the first action of the committee of the Apostolic Society was to place the college in trust. By 1792 the deed was enrolled in Chancery and the college moved to Cheshunt in Hertfordshire where the trustees could exert better control over both staff and students. The Connexion was left to a group of Lady Huntingdon's friends, who nominated one of their number to live at the Spa Fields chapel house and continue to run it as the countess had done. The first of these was her companion Lady Agnes Anne Erskine, who died in 1804, and was succeeded by the Revd John Ford D.D. It was not until Ford died in 1806 that the last of those appointed by the countess, the Revd Thomas Haweis, vicar of Aldwinkle All Saints (Northants.), joined with another minister and four of the college trustees (all laymen) to sign and enrol a trust deed. In 1801 Cooper made the only possible choice and placed Sion Chapel and his almshouses in the college trust to be used as 'a place of public and religious worship for the Society or Congregation of Protestant Dissenters in or near Ashbourn'. No mention is made of the Connexion, but it is clear from the correspondence printed here that his intention was that it should be maintained as a Connexion chapel. This was continued by the college trustees, and the letters which they wrote to Ashbourne are sometimes valuable confirmation of the countess's intentions and practices which is not otherwise available. However, the ambiguous position of the chapel, halfway between the Congregational Union and the Connexion, was to cause problems for more than a century.

Sion Chapel and Cooper's Almshouses John Cooper was obviously well acquainted with the problems of religious trusts and transferred the ownership of the buildings to the college trustees almost immediately they were completed. The trust deed is dated 5 January 1801 It included the chapel itself with the minister's house on one side and the six almshouses on the other, together with a cottage and land later used for a school and a burial ground. Also included in the trust was £3,500 3 per cent Bank annuities and the reversion of a further £1,000 when the annuitant died. The trustees were to permit the chapel to be used as 'a place of public and religious worship for a Society or congregation of Protestant Dissenters', to allow the minister to reside in the house, and to establish a burial ground at the rear of the chapel. The seats in the chapel were to be rented at 'reasonable' prices and the profits used for repairs and maintenance. From the revenues received the trustees were to pay the minister forty guineas a year and each of the six almspeople ten guineas a year. The residue of the interest from the Bank annuities was to pay a clerk or pew opener or other minor officials. The minister was to be chosen by the trustees and to be an evangelical paedobaptist who would sign the Fifteen Articles of the Connexion. The almspeople were also to be chosen by the trustees who gave the preference to members of the congregation and Cooper's own relations.

Because all the eight college trustees resided in the neighbourhood of London it was impossible for them to carry out the day-to-day administration of the trust. They followed the example of Lady Huntingdon by choosing a local committee which was responsible for keeping them informed about progress and carrying out their instructions. This committee was not elected by the congregation (though its wishes were usually considered by the trustees) and had no power to act independently. The minister was equally under the control of the trustees and the manager of the Connexion. It was likewise in conformity with Lady Huntingdon's views that the conduct of the chapel was in lay hands, and it was not until the middle of the nineteenth century, when ministers had been appointed as college trustees, that the Ashbourne ministers began to be active in the administration of the chapel and almshouses. The trustees did voluntarily allow some input from the congregation into the choice of almspeople, and by the middle of the century the local committee was allowed to hear potential candidates for minister and to indicate its preference. A trustee, or later the college secretary (who was also the Connexion secretary), made increasingly frequent visits to Ashbourne to consult, advise on repairs and solve problems. These journeys became considerably easier after the railway reached Ashbourne in 1852.

The correspondence between the trustees and Ashbourne was carried on by a trustee chosen to do so and the secretary-treasurer of the local committee. William Hodson, the first trustee chosen, was a London merchant and a man with a considerable administrative flair. He demanded careful accounting for all the revenue, and kept both incoming letters from Ashbourne and copies of his replies. When Hodson died in 1816 his successor, James Arundell, ceased keeping the Ashbourne letters, and the copies of his own letters are less informative and more routine. It was not until 1844 that the keeping of the incoming letters was resumed and the replies become more interesting again. William Pearson, the first Ashbourne correspondent, was probably a tradesman in a small way. He was described as a furrier and hat dealer in 1829, but when he died in April 1837 and was buried by the chapel vestry door he was living in Cooper's almshouses. However, this does not mean that he was poor since his will implies that he owned considerable property in Ashbourne. This was to be sold by his trustees and invested for the benefit of his daughters, Maria Pearson, Dorothy Salt and Ann Conway.

John Cooper and his wife Mary left London for Ashbourne in June 1802 and took up residence in the house intended for the minister. The itinerant ministers boarded with them or other members of the congregation until after Mrs Cooper's death. From time to time both Cooper and his wife interfered in the conduct of chapel and almshouses, leading to various quarrels, and resignations by Pearson. John Cooper died on 2 March 1808 and was buried in a vault in the chapel by the minister, George Steward. The vicar, Samuel Shipley, may also have taken part in the ceremony since it is recorded in both the chapel and the parish registers. Cooper's will had been drawn up by a London lawyer in 1797 and contained a considerable number of bequests and annuities to various relations and friends. At that time he held leasehold property in Islington High Street as well as his house in St James Walk, Clerkenwell. He left small bequests to the Spa Fields Chapel school, the Hoxton Academy, and the Society for the Relief of Poor Pious Anglican Clergy. The bulk of his possessions, including the minister's house and furniture, was to be his widow's for life. His executors were two college trustees, William Hodson and William Langston of Gutter Lane, London, a wholesale haberdasher, and Thomas Holmes of Newgate Street, cheesemonger. Between 1803 and 1805 Cooper drafted four codicils which revoked many of the legacies and altered the terms of others. His widow survived him by fifteen years and was buried beside him in March 1823.

John Cooper's death was the reason for a visit to Ashbourne by a trustee. Somewhat surprisingly this was not by Hodson or Langston, but a third trustee, William Astle, who was supplied with a long list of questions to be asked. The next report which has survived was made by Henry Stroud, a trustee of the college and the Connexion, in September 1829. He was a lawyer who spent some time visiting Connexion chapels throughout the country and compiled a volume of surveys of those included in the Connexion trust deed. There were two reasons for his visit. The first and more important was probably the deficit in all the college and Connexion accounts which had been found at the death of James Arundel!. This had led to a demand by the Connexion ministers for the production of accounts by the trustees. It was a matter which later involved the Ashbourne minister in correspondence with the trustees. The second reason was the visit by the Charity Commissioners to Ashbourne. Their report, of which an abstract appears in the church book, criticised the trustees both for selling stock to make repairs and for failing to make an annual visitation. As might be expected, Stroud concentrated on the trust's income and not its buildings, and his report provides a detailed account of Cooper's investments. To Cooper's endowment were later added Elizabeth Peach's £100 in Consols in 1867 and Septimus Bradley's £50 legacy in 1871.

The Buildings

Seven visits to Ashbourne between 1816 and 1856 were noted, and thereafter the development of the railway system made it possible for a visit to be made every second year. Most of the later reports which have survived are concerned with the poor condition of the buildings, which suggests that the original builder was not a good craftsman. In 1854, for example, the trustees' secretary reported that the cottage, which had given trouble from the beginning, was untenanted:-

It is a very inconvenient habitation and I am surprised that any family will pay rent for it. It has no back door, no yard, not a foot of ground in the front, neither water closet nor privy, nor a space for one. The person who lives at the next cottage has erected a privy against one of the side walls of the above dwelling and an open cess pool from it lies up to the same wall.

The almshouses were also bad, and the secretary 'should be sorry for any Lady or Gentleman of the Town to look into them'. He was, however, able to congratulate the minister and his wife for the excellent condition of the house. In May 1865 when the Revd IT. Beighton, another secretary, visited Ashboume, he found that his predecessor's recommendations had mostly been carried out. The almshouses were in 'a fair state', the minister's house 'admirably neat and clean', and the chapel needed only minor repairs. The cottage was still :-

in a most unsatisfactory condition. Two of the walls are built right up against the Bank and the damp permeates up to the very roof. A disgusting cesspool is on the other side. The cottage is now tenanted and something like £3 obtained for it. The parish authorities should be addressed by the Trust Solicitor on the matter of the cesspool.

Beighton was also concerned by various irregularities which he found at Ashbourne. People had been admitted to the almshouses who were younger than 60. One almshouse was empty because the occupant was too senile to live alone, and lived with her son-in-law, who was also the local treasurer. The Ashboume committee held no formal meetings and the conduct of affairs was in the hands of two members of the same family who served as secretary and treasurer, and a local builder who carried out all the repair work needed. Beighton provided the trustees with ten recommendations which did much to improve the irregularities, but did not solve the problems of maintenance. The establishment of a local board for Ashbourne resulted in the demolition of the cottage in 1872 and various improvements in the drainage.

In 1844 the trustees gave permission for a burial ground in front of the Sunday School rooms, and three years later approved extensive repairs. The years in which large approved alterations were made to the other buildings seems to be in doubt. The chapel historian states that the chapel had extensive alterations in 1872, but the trustees' records make no mention of this. The schoolroom, which the congregation had erected before 1854, was badly damaged by fire in the early months of 1868, but the cost of rebuilding was covered by insurance. In June of that year the minister informed the trustees that the congregation would pay £400 to £500 'for repairing and renovating the Chapel' if the trust would provide another £200. This work was apparently carried out and in July 1870 work was done on the minister's house. Problems may have arisen with all this work because in July 1870 the trustees passed four 'Rules as to Finance for the Managing Committee at Ashbourne'. These required a resolution by the local committee for all expenditure, and from the trustees if a grant was required. Proper accounts were to be kept in future and two estimates obtained for all work. In 1874 and again in 1879 the schoolhouse was enlarged at the expense of the congregation.6 In 1902 the congregation appointed a building committee to supervise the demolition and rebuilding of the minister's house and school, which was completed about two years later. No more major work was done for many years, although various minor improvements were made to the chapel. In 1955 a report on the state of the almshouses resulted in a major overhaul, and after the almshouse trust was transferred to four local trustees four years later the number of houses was reduced to four to provide more space for the residents.

French Prisoners of War

During the Napoleonic War (1803-15) large numbers of prisoners of war were billeted in different parts of the country after they had given their word of honour not to attempt to escape. This provided them with a more comfortable existence than imprisonment in the hulks at Plymouth or the prison on Dartmoor. However, the introduction of so many of the enemy speaking different languages (because many were not French) produced difficulties in small towns such as Ashbourne. Five prisoners (three French and two Polish) died while living in the town and three married local women, but there is no record of the violence which occurred elsewhere.

The congregation meeting at Sion had reason both to rejoice and to lament the presence of the prisoners. A determined effort was made to convert prisoners from Roman Catholicism, and at least two joined the congregation. Tracts in French were purchased from London and prisoners welcomed at services. One convert was A. Dupin, about who little is known. In 1810 he published at Ashbourne a small pamphlet on the life of Alexander Peden, a seventeenth-century Scottish Covenanter, a somewhat unusual choice for a convert. By 1813 Dupin had been transferred at his own request to Chesterfield. The other convert also published a pamphlet during his stay in Ashbourne. He was Honore Lazarus Lecompte, born of French parents in Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic) in the West Indies. In the 64 pages describing his life and conversion he crammed sufficient incidents to fill a novel by Smollett or Fielding. As a boy he was sent to France for his education, was caught up in the French Revolution, while at the same time the family fortune was lost in an uprising in Santo Domingo. On his return to the West Indies he was captured, but escaped from a British prison ship at Martinique. He took advantage of the Peace of Amiens in 1802 to attempt to return to France, but was shipwrecked and captured by a British ship after the outbreak of war in the following year. After a month in the hulks at Plymouth and five months on parole at Tiverton in Devon, he was sent to Ashbourne on 17 December 1803. There he made two attempts at suicide and unsuccessfully sought consolation at 'the Methodist Chapel'.

At Sion Chapel in 1807 he was converted by two sermons preached by the Revd Samuel Franklin. His pamphlet ends at this point with a 'West Indian Hymn' which may have been his own composition, but several references to 'Honorius' can be found in the letters printed here, including his presence at John Cooper's deathbed.
The other side of the picture is to be found in William Pearson's account in July 1813 when he suspected that a member of the congregation, a married woman, was meeting a prisoner of war called Lewgar. It was a great surprise when he followed her one night and found that she was also meeting 'a Young Gentleman' of the town. Hodson also found the scandal so great that he kept a copy of his reply with Pearson's letter to him, and did not copy it into his letter book where others might see it.

The Ministers

The early ministers at Ashbourne were all itinerants spending various periods there and moving on. The Connexion adopted a somewhat different system of itinerancy to the Wesleyan Methodists who usually moved their ministers on at stated intervals. The larger town chapels in the Connexion were Usually served by senior ministers, often Anglican, during the summer, and the students who served there in the winter were sent out to preach in the country. In a smaller town such as Ashbourne ministers (usually students from the Countess's College) would stay a year or two before moving. The Travelling Fund of the Connexion, to which Ashbourne contributed, was intended to pay the cost of these moves, but was often insufficient. The Ashbourne congregation frequently helped a minister, or his widow, to move elsewhere. Gradually throughout the century congregations insisted on a 'stated' minister, who only left on a call to another church, retirement or death. Ashbourne followed this pattern, and it helped the transition from Connexion to Congregational church.

In his return to the 1851 Religious Census the minister noted that 'The Chapel is generally considered as belonging to the Countess of Huntingdon's Connection [sic] but the form of Church Government is independent'. An Independent Church was at this date an alternative name for a Congregational one. A further indication of the change can be seen in the training of for their last outside trust, but legal problems prevented the transfer. In 1961 the Congregational Union refused to accept transfer of the trust because Sion was not 'strictly a Congregational Church', even though it appeared in the Union's Year Book as such. It suggested instead that the chapel and its endowments should be handed over to Lady Huntingdon's Connexion. This solution was rejected by all concerned. By 1974 Sion had followed the Union into the United Reformed Church (formed by the Congregational Church and the Presbyterian Church of England). It had appointed a minister without informing the trustees, and the requirement that he should assent to the Fifteen Articles had been abandoned long before. In December 1979 a successful request to the United Reformed Church was made by the congregation, but it was not until February 1982 that the links between Cheshunt College and Sion Chapel were finally broken.

The Society

It was usual for an eighteenth-century nonconformist congregation to consist of a small number of members, and a much larger body of attendants. The members were those who had signed a covenant or a set of rules for the government of the church. A covenant defined the theological position of the congregation, often by reference to the Westminster Confession, whereas the rules were concerned with the administration of the congregation. The members had the responsibility for finances, appointment of ministers and similar matters. A few of the more senior members would serve as trustees for the buildings and would license the building at quarter sessions or bishop's registry. Attendants on the other hand had no responsibilities and might move from chapel to chapel either frequently or when offended by doctrine or manner of preaching. If prosperous they would rent a seat in the chapel, but would leave for a variety of reasons. Because of this dependence on their payments, the pewholders could exert an influence on the choice of minister.

The situation was somewhat different at Sion Chapel because all the trustees were Londoners and appointed without any reference to the congregation. The local committee was chosen by these trustees, though they would take local opinion into consideration, but as it was closely supervised from London for much of the century it had less power than in other congregations. It was not unti11ate in the century that the congregation was able to exert much pressure on the choice of minister, who was appointed by the Connexion. As a result there was no clear distinction drawn between members and attendants until September 1813 when the Revd T.T. Coales formed 'a society' of members.

This body was known as a society because many of the early Calvinistic Methodist congregations had begun as voluntary societies within the Anglican Church. The name was probably adopted from the Moravians. As the societies broke away and became nonconformists the term 'society' came to be used for those attendants who wished to become full members. Because the society served little useful purpose at Ashbourne it had little success. Between 1813 and 1818 the minister recruited 38 members, but three died, three left town, and six were removed from the list. In July 1818 the Revd Thomas Keyworth was obliged to 're-establish' the society under the same rules. His results were even worse: in 1818 five members joined, in 1819 the same number, in 1820 three and in 1824 only one. In 1839 when the Revd Alexander Start renewed the effort and compiled a list of members he found only eight remaining, seven of them admitted in 1825 and one in 1833.

Start, however, had more success, admitting 89 members during the decade 1839-48, although 24 were lost by death or removal from Ashbourne during this period. Because Start gives addresses it gives a much better picture of chapel membership. Most were working class, many from families long established in Ashbourne. A few, giving addresses in the Market Place, were more prosperous tradesmen and others, giving their addresses as one of the 'Yards' off the main streets, were poorer. The list is probably typical for a nonconformist congregation of the period. The poor were usually to be found amongst the attendants being unable to afford the pew rent.

The Congregation

Whenever the trustees pointed out that the income intended for Ashbourne was limited and nothing more could be provided for repairs or the minister's salary, the local committee would reply that its congregation was small and poor. Nevertheless the numbers seem to have remained fairly constant, and
included a number of substantial local tradesmen. In 1829 the minister reported 60 male and 80 female attendants, and in 1851 the minister reported an average attendance of about 150 hearers:

There were 240 rented and 100 free seats. In 1877, when the minister made a return to the Connexion,3 numbers were still low, despite the union with St John's Hall in 1873:

Only 100 of the 260 seats were rented, and the number of members of the church was 36. In 1879, with a new minister in charge, there were 75 members, and attendance had improved:

This was achieved even though the 'outstation' at Yeaveley had been closed.

RULES FOR THE SOCIETY BELONGING TO ZION CHAPEL

1 .
Whoever is acquainted with the nature of Christian communion, will not hesitate to acknowledge, that it is productive of great advantage, as well as to allow it to be a divine command. Being in some measure sensible of the benefits arising from the fellowship of the saints, and at the same time lamenting that at present we have no means of enjoying these benefits; a few of us have agreed to unite ourselves into a Christian Society for this important purpose.
The design of this Christian Society, shall be expressly to promote among us, personal piety, mutual love, and exemplary zeal; and for the accomplishing of this design the following rules shall be strictly observed. Rule 1. That this society shall consist of persons professing themselves to be the sincere followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, and who exemplify that profession by their walk and deportment.

2.
That it shall be required on the admission of persons into this society, that they give some account [to the Minister added later] of the work of grace upon their hearts, and also their reasons for wishing to become members; and if their experience and sentiments correspond with the above specified design, and such persons are willing to conform to the Society's rules, they shall be proposed [replacing considered] as members at one meeting and be admitted [at] the next meeting if two thirds of the members present agree thereto.

3.
That this society shall assemble at the Vestry in Zion Chapel, on the Monday Evenings for the sole purpose of reading the scriptures, prayer, praise, and especially spiritual conversation disclaiming all interference with the temporal concerns of the chapel.

4.
That the business of each meeting be conducted solely by the Minister, or in lieu of his absence, by one of the senior members deputed by him for that purpose.

5.
That every member is at liberty to state the object of this society, yet the particulars of each meeting shall be made known to none but those who are members.

6.
That on the non-attendance of any member for three successive meetings, without previous notice he shall be visited by two or three members deposed for the purpose. If persisting in non-compliance with this or any of the rules shall be considered as an intimation of withdrawing himself from the society and by such conduct, shall on the part of the society, be reckoned no longer a member.

7.
That every member on his admission shall have these articles read over to him and his assent shall be a sufficient testimonial of membership.

8.
That the book containing the rules and the names of the members be kept by the Minister.

9.
That if any of the members be guilty of improper conduct, they shall be admonished in the spirit of meekness privately by the person [replacing anyone] who may be acquainted with it, according to our Lords rule laid down in Mat. 18.15. But should any member persist in rejecting such admonition on their conduct shall be [laid before the Society who shall depute two or more to endeavour to restore the wanderer and if he neglect to listen to them such conduct shall be added later] considered a sufficient reason for expulsion from the society.