Catalogue description NEW COURT CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, CAREY STREET

N/C/069/1-3 1871 - 1974 1943 - 1948 Registers of baptisms, marriages

N/C/069/4 1934 - 1947 Register of members' attendance

N/C/069/5 1905 - 1941 Register of deacons' attendance

N/C/069/6-7 1896 - 1953 Registers of preaching engagements

N/C/069/8-11 1889 - 1971 Applications for fellowship

N/C/069/12-27 1707 - 1974 Church Meeting Minute Books

N/C/069/28-39 1877 - 1967 Deacons' Meeting Minute Books

N/C/069/40-41 1924 - 1969 Choir Meeting Minute Books

N/C/069/42-46 1870 - 1934 Minute Books of Trustees Meetings, General Purposes Committee, Supply Committee, Deacons Finance Committee, and Committee for Alterations and Additions

N/C/069/47 - 48 1932 - 1961 Sunday School Teachers' Meeting Minute Books

N/C/069/49-51 1917 - 1975 Women's Council Minute Books

N/C/069/52-64 1871 - 1972 Accounts

N/C/069/65-76 1754 - 1959 Deeds

N/C/069/77-108 1813 - 1975 Correspondence and related material

N/C/069/109-132 1885 - 1974 Church Magazines

N/C/069/133-159 1873 - 1962 Church Manuals

N/C/069/160-166 1792 - 1921 Printed material relating to New Court Chapel

N/C/069/167-169 1872 - 1967 Sketches and photographs

The records were deposited on three separate occasions but for the purpose of clarity they have been listed as one collection.

New Court Congregational Church

Ac 76. 18, 76.48 and 78.38.

New Court, one of the earliest nonconformist chapels in London, dates from 1662 when under the Act of Uniformity Dr. Thomas Manton was ejected from the church of St. Paul's, Covent Garden. He established himself as a nonconformist minister in a chapel built for him in Bridges Street in the same parish. The church remained there until 1682 when as a result of the Five Mile Act it was forced to close due to the imprisonment of its minister, Richard Baxter. James II's Declaration of Indulgence in 1687 enabled another nonconformist minister, Daniel Burgess, to re-open the chapel and after nine years the congregation moved to more substantial premises in Russell Court, Drury Lane, to a building between an old burial ground and the theatre.

On the expiry of the lease in 1705 another move was necessary and a new building was erected in New Court, Carey Street. The congregation remained there for over a hundred and fifty years and as a result the chapel thereafter was known as New Court Chapel.

While at Carey Street the chapel was attacked by a mob supporting Dr. Sachaverell, a high church fanatic who had preached a libellous sermon against dissenters, and this caused it to close for a short time. It was also during this period that New Court was specified as being a Congregational chapel for the first time. Until then the differences between the Presbyterians and Congregationalists had not been well defined. Thomas Bradbury, a minister who had come to New Court from a nearby nonconformist church at Fetter Lane, stipulated that the chapel should be run on the Congregational model.

The extension of the Law Courts in 1866 forced the congregation to move again and a new church was built at Tollington Park. Mission premises at Lennox Road were acquired in the 1880s. Due to a decrease in the number of its members New Court moved to Regina Road in 1961 where it remained until its closure in 1976.

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