Going to the Chapel – 52 Ancestors # 23

I am of the age that my first two responses for this topic were to think about ancestors getting married and then to hear the old song “Going to the Chapel” in my head – and the song has been there every time since when I think about this topic and what to write.  However, in order to get rid of that earworm, I’m not going to write about getting married or the song.

In English church history, which has a long and bloody story, a chapel was what the nonconformist sects called their place of worship.  The other term often used was meeting house.  I am aware of two family lines, one on my father’s side and one on my mother’s, that were members of one of the non-conformist religions.  I have written something about each family in the past.  My mother’s Denman line from Sussex was General Baptist from about 1738 until migrating to the new country of the United States in 1795.  After that I have little evidence for the next generations about religious preferences, so looking into that goes on my To Do list for the future.  Since they were in New York state, and there was no required religion (as there had been in some of the colonies like Connecticut) their choice was likely first dictated by nearness of a church or chapel, or group.  On my father’s side, the direct connection is not clear but a predominant Salt family in Yorkshire that might be ours was Congregationalist from at least the early 1800s and perhaps earlier.

The organization of the General Baptist congregation in Ditchling is tricky to pin down from this point in time and place, however, it seems to have existed in some form since the late 1600s or very early 1700s¹.  The traditional date used is 1698, with Robert Chatfield thought to be the founder.  By 1734 he owned the cottage, likely first owned by Robert Marchant,  where the Ditchling congregation first met after the Declaration of Indulgence when they met in houses instead of having a separate building for a chapel.  The Ditchling Meeting House or General Baptist Chapel (now known as the Old Meeting House) was built next to the cottage and was part of the bequest from Robert Chatfield to the Congregation in his will dated 1734.

This particular Congregation, at the time of my ancestors, was a part of the General Baptist Assembly which is said to have originated in 1608 and been organized before 1651².  Ditchling and Sussex in general were centers of Protestant Dissent and there were a number of “flavors” of Nonconformists in the population from the mid to late 17th century.  Apparently the Ditchling group was somewhat split on its religious beliefs, so going to the chapel could mean worship but it also (sometimes) meant philosophical arguments.  A number of the families in the area connected with the Ditchling Chapel sent some of their relatives to the United States soon after the Revolutionary War, and it is apparent to me in my research that some of these families continued to live in proximity of each other and to inter-marry for generations after.

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