GATEACRE CHAPEL (continued)

Further registrations include in 1693 the house of Richard Wright in Childwall, licensed by John Jolly; in 1697 Gill's Barn at Halewood, belonging to Henry Harper, registered by Charles Lythgoe; and on the 5th April 1700 a Barn in Much Woolton owned by George Davis/Davies was registered. On the 14th October 1700 "a certain building, newly erected in Much Woolton in the County of Lancaster, was recorded for a meeting place for an Assembly of Protestants dissenting from the Church of England, for the Exercise of their religious worship, according to the Act entitled an Act for exempting their Majesties' Protestant subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the penalties of certain laws ... " (Quarter Sessions at Wigan.)

Having gathered this background material, we can now move forward from our previous cautious dating of the building by the phrase "licensed in 1700" - to a confident "built and licensed in 1700", since if George Davies's Barn was registered in April 1700 it seems pretty clear that the Barn was a makeshift until the Chapel was ready for occupation. Further, there is in James L. Thornely's MSS History record of a Conveyance of 30th September 1700 of the land on which the Chapel stood, from George Davies to William Claughton & John Gill (representing the congregation) for £3. It is also recorded that the Chapel was built at the "cost of William Claughton, John Gill and several other protestants." (In the Association Oath Rolls of 1696 the signatures of 'George Davis' & 'William Clauhton' are adjacent under Much Woolton, a John whose second name is unfortunately illegible signs under Little Woolton (a John Gill signs in Hale).

We do not yet know much of the agricultural background and economic history of Much and Little Woolton, especially in the years after the Restoration, but it is clear from the names and addresses of the early members of the Chapel congregation that the lesser landowners were enjoying sufficient prosperity to be able to afford to build their own Chapel.

These, then, were the men who were commissioning the building.

continued . . .