Maberly Chapel, Islington - Tracking Down Records

[rebeccaclaire86]

Hi all, hoping someone can help me here! 

I've been trying to find a baptism for my elusive 3x great-grandmother Maria Elizabeth Yarroll (born 1845) for several years now, and have just read that there was an independent chapel named Maberly Chapel on Ball's Pond Road.  Since she was born on Union Row, just off Ball's Pond Road, I think it's well worth checking the records - however, I'm struggling to find where the records would be kept. 

The IGI only covers up to 1837, so baptisms aren't indexed on there, and I can't find any reference to them being kept at the LMA and they're not mentioned in the National Archives catalogue.  The only thing I can find, repeatedly, is the reference to some Sunday School records that have survived!  I did wonder if the church had been disbanded, but one website gave attendance figures from 1851, so it seems to have still been active within the timeframe I'm looking at.

Any ideas?  I'm a bit puzzled on this one!  I've also double checked the non-conformist records transcribed by TheGenealogist and can't see them on there...

Thanks!

Becky

[jennifer c]

Who were her parents?

Jennifer

[ciderdrinker]

Hi There,
The earlier baptisms up to 1837 are at the National Archives at Kew.Could you try e-mailing them for more information on the latter records.Maybe there's a local history society or local Islington archives that might have a copy or know where one is.
Could they have kept the latter records and still be open?Try dropping them a letter.
Ciderdrinker

I assume you have seen the registration of her birth June 1845  3 241 and the 1851 census with parents John and Caroline 28 and 30,younger brother Henry age 4?They married St James Clerkenwell 9.5.1841 (bride Elizabeth Bull presumeably using middle name of Caroline on census ie.death Mar 1891 Hackney 1b 335 age 70)

[Valda]

Hi

At the start of civil registration 1st July 1837 the government did a deal with most non-conformist churches. In exchange for them handing over their registers to the government, the government in turn would acknowledge them as legal documents. There was a much smaller deposit of further registers to the government in 1855 mostly of churches that had not deposited in 1837. Government records are deposited at the repository for government archives which in The National Archives, which is how some church registers ended up there whereas most Anglican and later deposited non-conformist church registers are deposited in county record offices. The deal the government made was fortuitous since non-conformist registers have a much poorer survival rate than Anglican registers. Bizarrely it often means earlier registers survive while later ones don't.
If the registers for this particular chapel don't appear to be at TNA then any request for further information to TNA is likely to say have you checked the county record office, the non-conformist church archives or if the church survives the church itself. Other than these registers TNA is not a repository for this sort of record. These are the registers transcribed on The Genealogist website (Non-conformist BMDs website is owned by the same company).
Hackney Archives seems to hold the only records post 1837 the Sunday School committee minutes.

http://www.hackney.gov.uk/c-archives-comprehensive-page8.htm

The chapel building is still in existence but not the chapel itself.
Hackney and Islington had a large number of non-conformist chapels.

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22714

See information on this website under the heading Brethren, Paragon Road. It states the chapel was Congregationalist until 1900 and then used by the Brethren 1922-1952.
The Islington information on non-conformist churches states it closed circa 1888.

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=9522

The earlier it closed the less likely it is that records have survived, but the three likely archives would be Islington, Hackney or the London Metropolitan Archives. With so many non-conformist chapels in the area though have you any evidence the family were Independents/Congregationalists?

The Congregational church now the United Reform church archives holds few church registers.

http://www.dwlib.co.uk/congregational/collections/union.html


Regards

Valda

[Joany]

Hi There,
The earlier baptisms up to 1837 are at the National Archives at Kew.Could you try e-mailing them for more information on the latter records.Maybe there's a local history society or local Islington archives that might have a copy or know where one is.
Could they have kept the latter records and still be open?Try dropping them a letter.
Ciderdrinker

I assume you have seen the registration of her birth June 1845  3 241 and the 1851 census with parents John and Caroline 28 and 30,younger brother Henry age 4?They married St James Clerkenwell 9.5.1841 (bride Elizabeth Bull presumeably using middle name of Caroline on census ie.death Mar 1891 Hackney 1b 335 age 70)

  Perhaps she chose to use the name Caroline due to another Elizabeth Bull from Clerkenwell.  That Elizabeth Bull was sent to Australia as a convict. Cheers Joan