PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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The Unitarian movement locally holds its origins in the refusal by the clergy of St Andrew's, the parish church of Plymouth, to use the new Prayer Book that Parliament imposed upon the church in 1662. Over 2,000 clergy were ejected from their churches throughout the country at the time. Amongst them were the vicar of St Andrew's, the Reverend George Hughes, and his lecturer, Thomas Martyn. Both were imprisoned on Drake's Island. One of their supporters, the Reverend Nicholas Sherwill, is accredited with holding the first Unitarian meeting in September 1662. The first meetings were held in the old "Marshalsea" in Southside Street on the Barbican. This building is now the Plymouth Gin distillery. In 1689 they are recorded as meeting at a house owned by Mr William Rowe in Bilbury Street (which was later Treville Street). In the thirteenth year of the reign of King William III, when the congregation was led by the Reverend Nathaniel Harding, they built their own meeting-house in Treville Street. That building was put under a Trust in 1708, the trustees being Mr Mark Batt, gentlemen; Mr Joseph Willcocks, goldsmith; Mr Nathaniel Northcott, gentlemen; and Mr Joseph Fuge, mariner. They continued to use the building for worship until 1831. On May 13th 1832 they opened a new meeting-house in Treville Street, the preachers being Mr Henry Acton, of Exeter, and Mr W J Odgers, who was then appointed as the minister. They remained in that home until the building was destroyed in the bombing of March 1941. Once again they were forced to move around the City, meeting at first ion a house in Thorn Park, Mutley, and then in premises in Houndiscombe Road. There they remained until, on May 31st 1958, the new Unitarian Chapel was opened in Notte Street. The building was designed by Mr R Fraser of Messrs Louis de Soissons, architects of London, in the traditional square shape favoured by the movement. It has an 80 foot high spire. The original plaque off the former premises in Treville Street can be found in the side wall. Devonport also had a Unitarian Chapel, at first in Granby Street and then Christ Church, in Duke Street.
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