I've just watched the programme and really enjoyed it. My ears pricked up when they mentioned he was baptised (as were some of his ancestors) at Hatherlow, as my husband's 3 x g.grandfather was buried there. We haven't been able to find a grave though, even though we looked in the present church grounds and also at Chadkirk chapel as the one shown on TV didn't open until 1845.
Hatherlow Church traces its history back to 1645, services then being held in Chadkirk Chapel, and it was the oldest Congragational body in Cheshire. The first independent minister at Chadkirk was Gamallel Jones, who settled there in 1688 or 1689. In the latter year the "Meeting Place" at Chadkirk was certified as a licensed place for religious worship shortly after the passing of the Toleration act. When they were finally ejected in the reign of Queen Anne, a new building was erected in 1706 on the site now occupied by Hatherlow Sunday School.
The present church was opened as Hatherlow Congregational Church in 1845, although the burial ground surrounding it goes back to 1793.
I was also interested in his connection to Warehousemen and Drapers schools for orphans, as my mother and her younger brother both went to a Warehouseman, Clerks and Drapers school (they obviously added the clerks later) in Purley, Surrey after their father died. As they lived in Manchester, I'm not sure why they didn't go to the Cheadle school, it would have been much nearer and far more convenient for everyone.
