Gidley's Meeting Chapel

From The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales, 1870:

"The United Free Methodist chapel, in Musgrave-alley, belonged formerly to the Wesleyans, is very old, and has a massive Norman entrance. "

 

According to the Churches of Devon gallery at hhtps://www.historyfiles.co.uk "Musgrave's Alley Chapel stood on what is now Musgrave Row, on the eastern side of the short north-south section at its centre - this was formerly part of Musgrave's Alley which reached the High Street. The present stone-surrounded doorway to the BT Centre is noted by SW Heritage as 'doorway to chapel', seemingly the chapel's only surviving remnant. Presbyterians began worshipping here in what had been Holy Trinity (above) at a point in the 1700s."

The founding father of the Chapel, known as Gidley's Meeting, was Gustavus Gidley (1736 - 1810). He was an Officer of Excise, and a former sailor, the son of John Gidley, a clerk, and his wife Margaret nee Ellicombe. Gustavus was their youngest child, born in Crediton in 1736. His great great uncle was Bartholomew Gidley of Civil War fame, and his nephew was Philip Gidley King, governor of New South Wales. He was also distantly related to John Gidley, an exceptionally modest early non-conformist minister of exceptional abilities, but who could hardly be persuaded to say Grace at table, and who died in Marlow, Buckinghamshire in 1711. In 1764 Gustavus married Joan Coombe of Hatherleigh (Philip Gidley King also married a Coombe), and he was transferred from Port Isaac in Cornwall to Exeter, where the correspondence with John Wesley began. 

The extracts below are taken from The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, 3rd edition, published in London in 1830. All are addressed to Mr Gidley, Officer of Excise.

London, 18th January 1776

My dear brother,

I am glad to hear that you are ordered to Exeter... We have a small society there, which is but lately formed, and stands in need of every help; so that, I doubt not, your settling among them will be an advantage to them.

Dublin, 4th July 1778

My dear brother,

I am glad to hear that the work of God begins to increase even in poor Exeter... As to the house, it would, undoubtedly, be a means of much good, if it can be procured. All the difficulty is, to procure the money.

London, 25th January 1779

My dear brother

ANY house is ipso facto licensed, if the demand is made either at the Bishop's Court, the Assizes, or the Quarter Sessions. The Act of Parliament licenses, not the Justices. They can neither grant nor refuse. If you have witnesses, your house is licensed: you need trouble the Justices no farther.

Bolton, 11th April 1779

There is no doubt but our brethren at the Conference will readily consent to your asking the assistance  of your neighbours for your preaching-house. And the time appears to be now approaching, when poor Exeter will lift up its head. There is no danger at all of your being a loser, by any bond or security that you have given. If I live to the latter end of summer, I hope to call upon you in my way to Cornwall. 

Bristol, 22nd September 1780

If  I should live till the next autumn, I shall endeavour to see you at Plymouth.

So it seems that Gustavus was transferred to Plymouth, roughly during the years 1780 - 1789. There he was also involved in administering financial support for the Methodist Society's missions for the "Instruction and Conversions of the Negroes in the West-Indies". 

So successful must he have been that by 1793 he had become the Secretary of the Methodist Society in London, which he combined with being the Inspector General of Permits, as listed in Holden's Directories 1805 - 1807. There seem to have been some serious Society matters to settle in the law courts in which he was involved.

Gustavus died in 1810. It is not known where he, nor his wife Joan, were buried. He lived, or possibly his Inspector General's office was based,  in Old Broad Street in London, was the proprietor of properties in Shoreditch, and died in St Luke's parish in North London. He was probably looked after in his final illness by his younger daughter, Margaret Howden, as evidenced by the affidavit she gave when his will was proved in April 1810. Gustavus was not interested in his final resting place "no matter when or where", but made detailed provision for the disposal of his valuables, such as gold sleeve buttons from a late Captain in the Navy, knives and forks brought from the Savannah in 1762, and all his Methodist magazines.

He left three surviving children: sons John and Bartholomew Gidley, and daughter Margaret Ellicombe Howden. Two daughters had pre-deceased him, the older, Ann, having married Thomas Dakin. She had been educated at the Moravian School in Derbyshire in its very earliest days. His elder son, John, followed him into the Excise and as a tax collector, and founded a family in Chipping Ongar in Essex. His younger son, Bartholomew, founded the firm of Sparks and Gidley in South Street in Crewkerne, Somerset, in 1789 to produce linen and woollen girth webbing. It continued to produce webbing until the 1990s under the name Arthur Hart Webbing. 

The photo below of the webbing mill was taken by David Lovell.