Hello Peter, My husband's ancestors William ESSEX and Esther SEAL were married at The Parochial Chapel Market Harborough on March 8th 1840 by W. SCARBOROUGH. Is this the same church as the Congregational church or another one? William was Christened at The Union Chapel in Canterbury on 29th October 1815. Would this be the same type of denomination as the congregational church? Please forgive my ignorance as I am Church of England and get a bit confused!! Kind regards, Linda

Hello Linda Your feeling of confusion is understandable. Not being a Harborian myself, I have had to look this up. William and Esther ESSEX must have been married in the Chapel of St Dionysus (Church of England) which became the Parish Church of Market Harborough in 1880, but before that was only a parochial chapel, the Parish Church being St Mary in Arden (now a ruined shell). The Congregational, formerly the Independent, Chapel was quite separate from either of these, and was the leading nonconformist chapel in the town. A number of its members, including two of my great great aunts who kept a milliner's shop in the High Street, were taken to court for refusing to pay the church rates. By law, in spite of having their own chapels, the nonconformists had to be baptised and married in the parish church or the parochial chapel, and normally buried in the parish churchyard. According to David Clifford's book 'My Ancestors were Congregationalists' (Society of Genealogists, 1997), the Union Chapel in Canterbury was indeed an Independent chapel like the Market Harborough one; and is now St Andrew's United Reformed Church, Canterbury (the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches of England combined in the 1960s to become the United Reformed Church, but the Market Harborough Congregational Chapel never joined the URC and is still an independent Congregational chapel). So, William ESSEX may well have been an Independent and a member of the MH Independent Chapel as well as having been married in the Parochial Chapel. I hope that clarifies things a bit for you. Best wishes, Peter Peter B Freshwater MA MCLIP FSAScot Edinburgh, Scotland peter@hillfoot.demon.co.uk Researching BRUCE, FOLWELL, FOX, FRESHWATER, PERKINS, SWINGLER (Beds, Leics, Northants) HAUGHAN, JOHNSTONE, RICHARDSON (Annandale, Cumberland, Durham) DOW, FINDLAY, GRAY, JACK(SON), KENNEDY (Angus, Glasgow, Perth) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Linda Fawcett" <linda-fawcett1@supanet.com> To: <LEICESTERSHIRE-PLUS@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, June 15, 2008 7:49 PM Subject: [LEI] Congregational Church > Hello Peter, > > My husband's ancestors William ESSEX and Esther SEAL were married at The Parochial Chapel Market Harborough on March 8th 1840 by W. SCARBOROUGH. > Is this the same church as the Congregational church or another one? > William was Christened at The Union Chapel in Canterbury on 29th October 1815. Would this be the same type of denomination as the congregational church? > > Please forgive my ignorance as I am Church of England and get a bit confused!! > > Kind regards, > > Linda > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LEICESTERSHIRE-PLUS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message