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History of Low Row United Reformed Church
The history of Low Row United Reformed
Church has to start with Philip Lord
Wharton who was born in 1613. On the
death of his grandfather in 1625 he became the fourth Lord Wharton, his own
father having died when Philip was only nine years old. He inherited land,
money and responsibilities, but all these were held in trust until he was 21
years old. He entered Exeter College in
Oxford at the age of 13, and later spent three years travelling on the
continent of Europe with his brother Thomas and a Tutor. He was called to the
Court of Charles 1 where he quickly became known for his abilities in
dancing. At the age of 19 he married. All this before he was 21!
At the age of 21 (in 1634) he should
have taken his seat in the House of Lords but could not do so because the King
refused to call Parliament. The House of
Lords did not sit until 1640. From then
on Philip Lord Wharton was active in Parliamentary affairs.
In 1642 Philip Lord Wharton raised
a regiment of foot and a troop of horse to fight in the Battle of
Edgehill. They behaved less than
gloriously as Wharton himself reported later to Parliament. Lord Wharton not
only ran away but is said to have hidden in a sawpit, thus earning for himself
the parliamentary nickname of Sawpit Wharton.
In 1645 during the Commonwealth
period Philip Lord Wharton wrote to Lord Fairfax concerning the vacancy in the
Parish of Grinton. He inherited/owned land and property extensively in
Swaledale, including Smarber Hall which had been used as a shooting lodge.
In 1690 towards the end of his life Philip Lord Wharton founded and endowed Smarber Chapel (later known as Low
Row United Reformed Church).
Smarber Chapel
Today, the foundation stone is
found set into the surviving walls of the old Smarber Chapel up on the hillside
above Low Row. Philip Lord Wharton built
the Chapel, appointed the first minister and endowed the church in 1690.
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| Site of the first Independent Church in Swaledale, founded by Philip Lord Wharton in 1690. The ruins of the old Smarber Chapel were on a hill above the present Church. |
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| Joy visited the ruins of Smarber Chapel in 2007. |
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| Site of the First Independent Church in Swaledale Founded by Philip Lord Wharton in the year 1690 |
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| Peter at Smarber Chapel, Low Row. We found the ruins by walking up a track about 200 metres west of the Church, across two fields, remembering to shut the gates as we went. We saw rabbits and lots of wildflowers. |
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| View across the dales from Smarber Chapel at Low Row was beautiful. Very green, grey stone houses and fences. Swaledale River meandered it way below. |
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| View from Smarbar Chapel, Low Row |
John Allason wrote in 1821:
“Smarber Hall Chapel was situated upon the side of a steep mountain
in a central station for the accommodation of the surrounding population. Being a large old thatched building much
exposed to boisterous storms it was repeatedly unroofed and otherwise damaged
particularly in 1739. In 1759 it was
nearly demolished. The roof blown away
and end wall destroyed. A collection was
made and 12 Pounds 15 shillings obtained,
In 1761 Thos Wainwright Esq of Hatton Garden, London, generously sent 50
Pounds for its enlargement and reparation.
In 1778 Mr Benn collected at Manchester 20 Pounds which was expended in
rebuilding the north wall, then ruinous.
In 1810 in consequence of its ruinous and dangerous condition it was
taken down and a new Chapel erected at Low Row which cost 500 Pounds – a debt
of near 100 Pounds remains upon it”.
A new Chapel was built on the
present site next to the main road in 1809.
The land was given by the Rev Thomas Smith, Lord of the Manor, and the
building was registered or licenced in the Consistory Court of the Archdeaconry
of Richmond on September 27th 1810.
The building was extensively
renovated in 1874 at a cost of about 600 Pounds. It was reopened on December 18th
1874. During 1875 some visitors to Swaledale wrote in the “Christian World
Paper”:
“We noticed by the roadside a
simple, substantial-looking little stone chapel, with a bell, and a much more
ecclesiastical and comfortable aspect than is usual in such out of the way
regions. It has been nearly rebuilt and
repewed, and now it is a model of simplicity and neatness, and we hear is well
attended every Sunday.”
In the 18th century
the Church was occasionally described as a Presbyterian Church but in the 19th
century was clearly Congregational and a member church of the Congregational
Union. In 1972 there was a national union of Congregational and Presbyterian
churches to form the United Reformed Church, so the church fellowship is now
United Reformed Church.
From 1690 to our present time
there has been 28 Ministers serving the Low Row area.
Rev David Simpson served from 1787 - 1807
David Simpson was born at Orwell,
near Kinross in Scotland and was educated at both St Andrew’s & Edinburgh
Universities before working as a domestic tutor in a nobleman’s family. He came to England in 1780 and ministered at
Eastwood near Halifax and Holcombe near Bury before coming to Swaledale on
November 25th 1787.
He married Lydia Phillips who was
the daughter of the Rev Daniel Phillips of Hopton, Norfolk. The Rev Dr Nathaniel Phillips, Presbyterian
Minister in Sheffield, was Lydia’s brother.
David Simpson ministered at Low
Row for 20 years and died there on March 22nd 1808 aged 69
years. He was buried at Smarber Chapel
on March 25th 1808. On his
death he left 50 Pounds to pay a schoolmaster in Low Row.
Rev John Allason served from 1807 - 1835.
John Allason was born at Cotherstone, near Barnard Castle, and was
educated at Homerton Academy. He became
a minister of a dissenting church in Uppingham Rutland in January 1802 and it
was there that he met and married his wife Susannah Sewell on 21 February 1804
(she was 16 years at the time). He left
Uppington to come to Swaledale in 1807 as assistant to David Simpson. After David Simpson’s death John continued as
minister. He started a day school and by
1833 there were 20 boys and 6 girls attending this school but most of the 50
Pounds left by David Simpson to pay for a schoolmaster had been spent on debts
on the building.
John and Susannah Allason had eight children but tragically only three
survived to mature adult life. Susannah
herself died in 1833 aged 43 years and John Allason died in 1836 at the age of
62 years. There is a monument to the Allason family on the wall of the present
church.
A number of John Allason’s
letters have survived showing him to have had a keen interest in, and knowledge
of local dissenting church history, to have often been in poor health because
of comsumption and lumbago, and to have often be seen seeking to improve his low
income with applications for various grants and charities. At the same time he generously sent gifts of
grouse or cheese to his benefactors.
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| Low Row United Reformed Church, built 1809. Joy & Peter Olney visited in 2007, 200 years after Joy's great great great grandfather John Allason was the minister from 1807-1836. |
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| Interior of United Reformed Church in Low Row. Peter in the pulpit 200 years later. Memorial Plaque on the wall to remember Rev John Allason, his wife and 5 children who died between 1828 and 1836. |
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| Rear of United Reformed Church in Low Row in 2007. |
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| View from United Reformed Church at Low Row in 2007 |
Bible Charity established by Philip Lord Wharton.
Philip Lord Wharton also
founded and endowed his Bible Charity in 1693, a scheme devised on a grand
scale for encouraging children from poor families to read and study the
scriptures. He left land near York which subsequently became known as the Bible
Lands Trust. His intention was to present
Bibles to children to be their personal possession (not just for use in Sunday
School or Church). Initially Bibles were
available in those parts of England where Philip Lord Wharton had lived or
owned property but by the twentieth century this became expanded to include all
parts of the United Kingdom. The
conditions were that the recipient had to be able to read, and to be able to
recite from memory Psalms 1,15,25,37,101,113 and 145.
Lord Wharton was a puritan and a
non-conformist. His original instructions
were that the Shorter Catechism as approved by the Westminster Assembly of
Divines (and still known today as the Scottish Catechism) should be distributed
with the King James translation of the Bible to the recipients. Over the years
the original trustees died and were replaced in the main by Anglican clergymen
who misinterpreted Lord Wharton’s wishes and began including the Church of
England Catechism instead of the Scottish Catechism, and by the nineteenth
century the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer (sometimes in separate volumes,
sometimes combined) were distributed almost exclusively through the Church of
England.
However a few free church
ministers (including John Boyd from Low Row in Swaledale) knew the history of
the Trust and approached the Charity Commissioners for re-dress. This was partially successful in that the
Charity Commissioners decreed that the Trust should be divided into two - one
half to be administered by the Church of England and the other half by the free
churches. Although at the time some
free-churchmen still felt that they had been cheated it is to be remembered
that Lord Wharton himself was always in favour of toleration and comprehension
and so would probably not have disapproved of the present day arrangement.
Today the Trust is still alive
and active and presents Bibles to under 18 year olds. In keeping with modern educational practice
the conditions now require bible study rather than too much learning by rote,
and modern translations of the Bible are also available.
Many thousands have been
presented through more than 300 years but it does show that the original
recipients worked hard to earn their Bibles and will probably have treasured
them for a lifetime.
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| Portrait of Philip Lord Wharton by Van Dyk in 1632 at 19 years of age. |
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| Portrait of Philip Lord Wharton by Kneller in 1685 at 72 years of age. |
If you have any comments or corrections, please contact the author, Joy Olney by email:
joyolney@gmail.com
