Coppull Chapel

During the reign of Henry VIIIth, Rowland Kirby sought sanctuary in Coppull Chapel, while fleeing from the local constables. In his marriage settlement of 1520, Richard Worthington left land at Preston “for the use of a priest for ever to say a mass in the Chapel of Coppull”.

By 1650, the chapel may have fallen into disrepair. A document states “there hath formerly been an ancient chapel within Coppull aforesaid, near unto a place called the Cow Moss”. This area is not far from the railway bridge leading from Chapel Lane to Spendmore Lane.

In 1650 the intention was to build a church “on the same place where the old hall of Chisnall formerly stood”, this is slightly to the west of Chisnall Hall and outside the modern day boundaries of the village. This church was to serve the villages of Coppull, Welch Whittle, Charnock Richard, Eccleston and Wrightington, and was to be built on land offered by Edward Chisnall. He had donated land at Mossy Leigh as a graveyard and it was intended to build a “freeway for cart of carriages for all the necessaries and for carrying of corpses unto the said church from Copley Moore to Mossy Leigh.”

Whilst Edward Chisnall’s church was never built near his home, it was built on Chapell Hillock in about 1656, by a group which we could think of as Coppull's Puritans. A document of that date lists the following as the trustees of the Chapel: Edward Chisnall, William Crook of Coppull and his brother Richard of Bretherton, Ralph Lowe, Richard Fisher and George Browne It was licensed as a Presbyterian meeting house from its construction until 1680. The mother of William Crook and Thomas Alker, a former resident of the village, between them left £120 towards maintaining a minister at the chapel in the 1670s. William Crook regularly paid the 30s a quarter wages to the minister of the day.

 The chapel was licensed as a dissenters’ meeting house in 1671and by the early 1670s, the preacher was called Ichabod Fournesse. He was followed by Josiah Bullough in 1678-9, then John Bullough in 1680. Fournesse returned in 1681-2 and was replaced by Rachell Warburton in 1683, before coming back the next year.

 The Bishop of Chester licensed the Chapel as an orthodox place of worship and installed Thomas Walkden as the first curate. The families of the old trustees, however, retained some rights over the Chapel and in 1713 Sir Edward Chisnall and Richard Crook granted to “Samuel Crook his heirs and assigns the said ground and buildings thereon erected to hold to him his heirs and assigns” – the building being the church and its grounds. The right of appointment of the chapel’s curate was included in this grant. In 1714 Samuel Crook, in his turn, granted his rights over the Chapel to Charles Lord Willoughby. Hugh Willoughby, the son of Charles, granted them to Sir Henry Houghton in 1733.  Sir Henery nominated George Hargreaves as curate in the same year, and Hargreaves remained at Coppull Chapel until he died in 1763. Samuel Crook junior appointed Benjamin Cooper to the curacy, but he died before taking up the post and was replaced by Richard Dewhurst who served until 1793.

Shortly after John Pearson became Lord of the Manor in 1736, there was a dispute regarding the potential sale of a cottage which had been left to help pay for a curate for Coppull. This was known as the Coppull Chapel Case.

 In 1793 a controversy arose which led to a seven year long court case involving the rector of Standish, the Revered Richard perryn, and Samuel Crook, grandson of William, one of the original trustees of the Chapel. Perryn prevented James Hampson, Samuel Crook’s nominee, from becoming curate of Coppull and claimed the nomination rights for himself. Crook maintained his rights to nominate the curate by virtue of hist trustee’s rights and because his ancestors had traditionally repaired the chapel building. In a letter to his father, Sir Richard Perryn, the Reverend Perryn says that Crook had recently made some repairs to the Chapel, but only to strengthen his case. However, Samuel’s father had paid a considerable sum of moneyi the 1750s to help with the rebuilding of the Chapel.

 Perryn eventually won the argument because Joseph Taylor, his nominee, became curate in 1793 and kept the post until 1839. In 1816 a gallery was built in the chapel capable of holding 150 people. Taylor was suceeded by the Henery Worsley Jackson who repaired the chapel and raised its ceiling in 1840. In 1841, Jackson was living at Coppull Hall with the family of John Gartan. He was something of an artist and painted a watercolour of the Hall. Coppull chapelry was extended to include Welch Whittle and Charnock Richard in 1842 and then in 1846 came Coppull’s change from a chapelry to a Parish, when Coppull Chapel became Coppull Church.