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by John Hutchins: (3rd Edition published 1868) Transcribed by Michael Russell OPC for Dorchester - Dec 2021. Dissenting Congregations Pages 362-364 But little is known of the early history of dissent in this Town. It is certain, however, that during the seventeenth century no place in the West, or indeed in any part of England, was more deeply imbued with the rigid piety of the Puritans -- a feeling which seems to have been strongly fostered by the ministry of the "Patriarch od Dorchester," Mr WHITE , and his coadjutors and successors. The records of this Corporation show that, whilst largely tinged withthat mistaken zeal which sought the aid of the civil law to support and instil their religious opinions, there was yet a deep and fervant spirit of practical charity and piety, all but universal amongst the inhabitants(1) Mr BENNE, who was ejected from the rectory of All Saints at the Restoration, preached to a congregation in this town until his death in 1680. Savage, in his account of Dorchester, says "The Baptist congregation at Dorchester appears to have existed among the very earliest communities founded upon the Independent plan of church government. During the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell the celebrated Mr. Henry Jessey visited the congregation at this town, together with many otyhers in the West of England."Whether this congregation is to be identified with that which adheredto Mr. BENNE on his ejection is uncertain, but not improbable. That there were however, during the Commonwealth any other congregations than those which belonged to the several parish churches seems doubtful. The "dissenters" from the doctrines there taught, were of a different character. In continuing the account of the Baptist Congregation, Mr Savage says, "From the year 1689 to 1692, Mr Thomas COX was the pastor of the congregation here, and represented it in each of the three yearsat the General Assemblyin London. Little is known of its subsequent history, as all papers relating to this congregation are lost; but it is certain that the Baptists had for many years a small chapel here, now converted into a beer-store, and a burial ground, now used for gardens.For many years this was the only dissenting plkace of worship in this town, until a gongregation of Presbyterians met that the Priory in the early part of the last century. Long after the Baptist congregation declined the few remaining members continued to have a sermon preached once a year." The present Baptist meeting house, which stands at the bottom of High East Street, adjoining Fordington, was built in 1830, the congregation having been revived about two years previously. The Presbyterian Congregation before mentioned , as assembling in some part of the Priory pemises, eventually erected a meeting-house in Pease Lane about 1720, which belongs to the present Unitarian congregation.(2) The old meeting-house of the Independents or Congregationalists stood in Durngate Lane, and was erected in 1776. It is now occupied as a British school. The present Independent meeting-house stands near the lower end of South Street, on the east side, and is a modern building of geometrical Gothic character, the front elevation or pulpit enf of the chapel being in line with the street, inwhich it forms a conspicuous architectural feature. As an architectural subject, the interior is effective and rich, and at the same time substatial and appropriate. The freehold of the site was purchased by Mr DEVENISH, of this town, of H.C.STURT Esq. and presented in fee to the Congregation. The Wesleyan Methodists have a meeting-house built in 1824. The inhabitants of Dorchester have not been slow in improving their town and rendering it attractive, as well for health and conveinience as for beuty of appearance.Within the last four years measures have been completed to provide an abundant supply of pure and wholesome water, and the drainage has been greatly improved. The principal streets of the town have received accessions of new buildings, as well of a public as private character, whilst many new dwellingshave been erected in the outskirts. With regardto the extension of the town, however, in this direction Dorchester labouers under a great disadvantage, its limited area being in a great measure surrounded and confined by the parish of Fordington, which belongs to the Dutchy of Cornwall, where land can hardly be procured for building purposes. The Town Hall is a handsome building of brick, with stone dressing (erected in 1848, fromdesigns by Benjamin FERRY, Esq), standing on the north side of the High Street, near the centre of the town, opposite the east end of St Peterschurch, from which it is separated by a narrow street, which leads to the Gaol and the site of the Priory. The basement dtory is at present used as a Corn-Exchange, but some considerable alterations are contemplated, by which a spacious buildingwill be added at the back, on the site of the Vegetable Market, for this purpose. On the first floor is a largeassembly room and a council room behind. The former is an handsome apartment, lighted on the south by five windows, with a semi-circular oriel of seven lights at the west end. The open timber roof has five bays, with principalsspringing from carved wooden corbels of stone, and is at once effective and substantial. On the front of the corbels are painted the arms of the Recorders of the Borough since 1629; and on a central band of blind panels, which divides the oriel window like a transom, are carved and painted shields as follows:
(II) Argent a saltire azure between four roses gules, Napper (III) Quarterly; 1 and 4 Argent, three bulls passant sable, Ashley; 2 and 3, Gules, a bend engrailedbetween six lioncels rampant or, Cooper (IV) Sable, on a chevron between three escallops or three wyvern's heads erased of the first, Hardy, (V) Quarterly: viz. Williams, De La Lynde, Herring, Argenton. (VI) Argent, a lion rampant sable, on a canton gules a cinquefoil ermine, Whetstone. (VII) Azure a cross or accompanied by four bezants, Chubb. There are three banking establishments in Dorchester besides the Savings Bank, viz. The Dorchester Old Bank and Dorsetshire Bank of MessrsRobert and Herbert Williams and Co, a branch of the Wilts and Dorset Joint Stock Bank, and another of the Weymouth Bank of Messrs Elliot, Pearce and Eliot. There are three newpapers published in this town, The Dorset County Chronicle and Somerset Gazette, The Dorset County Express, and the Telegram, which last are published for a limited Liability proprietary entitled "The Church and County Newspaper Company." A Workhouse for the Dorchester Union established under the Poor Law Act was built in 1836. It stands about half a mile south-west of the town. The Railway stations are on the south side of the town, a short distance right and left of the turnpike road to Weymouth. The Police station stands on an adjoining site on the south side of this road SCHOOLS: Besides the Grammar School and Trinity School before mentioned, there are, an establishment called the County School in connection with an association for the promotion of middle class education in Dorset; a National School for boys in Pease Lane; another for for girls in Bell Street; and a school for infant children on the north west side of Trinity Church. This latter school is held in a newly-erected building of appropriate character. A British school in Durngate Street has been already mentioned. There is a Cemetery on the south side of the town on the Weymouth road, with chapels for the services of the established church and dissenters. Races were formerly held annually at Dorchester, but have been for some time discontinued. Dorchester derives much prosperity from being a county town. and various public institutions of the county have their sites either within it or its neoghbourhood. The whole of these institutions will be treated of in detail in the introductory section of this work; yet some nitice of thosewhich stand within the immediate limitsof the townwill be appropriate under the present head. The installation now affords accommodation for between 50 and 60 in-patients; besides dispensing to a large number of out patients. It has been thus far under the patronage of the third and fourth Earls of Ilchester; and its committeeof which the late A.D.TROYTE Esq was the laborious and efficeint chairman for the first seven years to 1848, has since that period been under the presidency of the Rev.C.W.BINGHAM. The DORSET COUNTY MUSEUM In the year 1845, under the auspieces of several influential persons of the town and county. an institution called the Dorset County Museum and Library was established. It containes a good collection of fossils, especially of the fishes and testacea of the Purbeck beds, carefully arranged and named and also many interesting objects of British and Roman antiquity. Neither is the library destitute of useful books of reference. Still it has failed to command the sympathy and assistance which it justly deserves, and of late years has not made that progress which might have been anticipated.
MILITIA STORES and BARRACKS have been recently built on the west side of the town near the cavalry barracks, in the parish of Fordington. The buildings at present erected stand on two opposite sides of a quadrangle yard. One side, which forms the front of the building. comprises a central tower of three stories, through which is the entrance between a guard room and offices, and on each side are punishment cellsand dwellings for non-commisioned officers. The other side of the quadrangle is occupied by the storeroom, and behind this the infirmary stands detached. Notes by Hutchins:- (1) There are several instances of punishments by the magistrates for speaking disrespectively of the ministry and doctrines taught by Mr WHITE and Mr BENNE in an old sssions book of the borough. Absence from church, coming late, or leaving before the service anbd sermon were over, were frequently punished by fine and imprisonment (2) In the last edition of this work it is stated that "In rebuilding the Presbyterian meeting some years since were discovered two or three subterraneous caverns of considerable dept, which were supposed to have communicated with the town". |