NOTES ON OLD BELPKR AND OLD BELPER BOOKS. 1 5 



is in the year 1803, when William McAUum and William France 

 had charge of the Belper circuit. 



The Congregational chapel was erected in 1789, but the 

 members worshipped for some years previously in the Unitarian 

 school-room. Mr. Gawthorne, one of the early ministers, kept a 

 grocer's shop, and was fond of a gossip over his pipe and glass 

 with his neighbours. 



Although, to quote a writer of the day, " The Unitarians, 

 the Independents, and the Methodists, have their respective 

 meeting houses, in which some 700 children are receiving Sunday 

 school instruction," the home of the Established Church 

 still remained concentrated in the old chapel of St. John, the 

 resident curate being the Rev. Matthew Tunstall, who, after a 

 long and useful life, died in 1844, and was buried in front of the 

 remarkable and ancient stone altar still existing in the old chapel. 

 He resided in the bottom house in Long Row, and after officiating 

 in the old chapel, would ride off to Turnditch to conduct service 

 there. Dr. Cox, in his " Churches," gives a long and interesting 

 list of the vicars of Duffield from 1253, whose duties would 

 include the provision for the spiritual welfare of the Belper 

 chapelry. Samuel Charles, M.A., a native of Chesterfield, and 

 educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, one of the 

 ejected of 1662, took up his residence in Belper shortly after his 

 ejection.* From the diary of Mr. James Harrison, referred to by 

 Canon Hey in his lecture at Belper, it appears that a Mr. Christie 

 was the first parson in Belper, about the year 1740. It is stated 

 that Mr. Christie was unfortunate enough to break his leg on the 

 morning of his marriage. The name of Mr. Nadauld is next 

 found on the Belper register. He is said to have been " Incum- 

 bent of Belper and Turnditch for over fifty years. "+ The victims 

 of the plague in 1609 were buried in the yard of the old chapel. 

 The plague was brought from Chesterfield, and between May ist 

 and September 30th, no less than 53 persons were buried. 



* "Minute Book of the Wirksworth Classes." D. A. & N. H. S. J0urn.1l, 

 Vol. iii., p.ige i8o. 

 t" Sunday at Home," February, 1879. 



