Croft Chapel - Hastings

Probably the Oldest NonConformist place of Worship in Hastings

A piece of land in the croft was given as a site for a meeting house for Independents in 1805, but as no local tradesman dared to erect such a structure, a wooden building was made in London and brought down by sea.   The Croft Chapel was later built on the same sight but was pulled down in 1972 to build flats.

The clergymen of the Croft were:

Richard Simmons   1808 – 1816  (died 27^th Dec 1816)

John Morley Clack 1817 Ordained 21^st Aug 1817  (died 31^st Aug 1817)

William Davis        1819 – 1855 Ordained 15^th Sept 1819  (died 19^th Jan 1855)

Richard Stewart     1855 – 1857

Ransom Cooper     1858 – 1860

Evan Berry             1860 – 1862

Halley Stewart       1863 – 1873

C.R.Howell            1873 - ?

In 1972 the Croft Chapel was pulled down and flats were built on the site – but the remains of those interred in the adjacent Burial Ground were reverently interred in Hastings Cemetery.  

This transcription was made possible because, towards the end of the 19th Century Alfred Ridley BAX, FSA, transcribed the MI`s on the stones in the Croft Chapel Burial Ground. These MI`s were then duly printed in the “Sussex Archaeological Collection” Volume 49, Pages 120 - 125, from where this copy came.

Over a century ago, the transcriber was very concerned at the speed in which the stones were becoming illegible, and we must extend our most sincere appreciation for his excellent transcription, without which the information on the stones would have been lost to Family Historians for ever.