Although not a direct connection you may find this of interest.
My great-grandmother married in the Zion Chapel in Dover. The date was 21st January 1894. She was Lucy Harriet Hills and her husband was William John Matson.
There is also a link between the two Zion chapels via a family named Reakes/Tritton.
Henry Tritton REAKS' appears in 1823, 1824 and 1826 directories with an academy/school at High Street, Ramsgate.
Walnut Tree House Academy, Ramsgate.
Two of his children Selina Ann and Frederick are born in Dover and Albert is christened in Dover Zion Chapel although born in Deal.
When William III ascended the throne, there were three bodies of non-conformists in Dover, the Baptists, the Society of Friends and the Presbyterian followers of the Rev. John Davies, who had been ejected from St James's Church. They met in part of an old malthouse in Last Lane.
Zion Chapel on the site of the old malthouse, at the junction of Last Lane and Queen Street, then came into existence. Apparently the small congregation of Presbyterians that had gathered around Mr. Davis had occupied the old Malthouse on sufferance, and in the year 1703, the year following the death of Mr.Thomas Papillon MP, his son Philip, who was a candidate for the representation of Dover, purchased and leased the old Malthouse to the Presbyterians who transformed it, without much structural alteration, into a chapel.
In 1708, when David Papillon succeeded Philip as Member of Parliament for Dover, he gave them the chapel and helped to improve it. But Presbyterians, being few in Dover, the congregation dwindled, and the chapel was closed from 1769 to 1771.
Then some preachers of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion re-opened it, and re-built it, with the exception of the north wall, in 1782. In 1802 the chapel was handed over to the Congregationalists, the Rev. W. Mather being the minister. In 1814 the chapel was re-built and enlarged. When the new church in the High Street opposite the Maison Dieu, was opened on 7 September 1904, Zion Chapel, the original home of the Dover Congregationalists, was disposed of to a Baptist congregation.
This photo shows the building in Dover in the late 1960's/early 1970's when it was an amusement arcade.
Hope that's interesting an please let me know if you find any links to Dover and/or the families I've mentioned.
I doubt the Zionist congregation would have been impressed by the future use of their chapel.
