William Haworth d 1703

Harding also has this to say about William Haworth

Another pioneer of Congregationalism in St Albans at this time was William Haworth, minister of St Peter’s Church from 1660 to 1662. His stay was marked by one very tragic happening. On 4th May 1662, just three months before the Act of Uniformity became law, Haworth was called from St Peter's to the Abbey to conduct the funeral service of a Mrs Tervil, one of his own parishioners. During the service, the proceedings were rudely interrupted by the entry of a Major Crosby “swearing in a furious manner, calling them rogues and rebels, and directing his speech to the preacher” and ordering him out of the pulpit.21 Leaving the Abbey, Crosby returned at once, flourishing a pistol and accompanied by an armed constable, threatened the minister. At this, one of the congregation, John Townsend stepped forward to intervene and was shot dead by the irate officer. Instead of arresting Crosby, the constable took Haworth and other members of the congregation into custody. When the prisoners were brought to trial Haworth was imprisoned, but no action whatsoever was taken against Crosby. The judge who acted in so infamous a manner was Sir Harbottle Grimston.

Released from prison, Haworth was obliged to leave St Albans. He retired to Hertford, where we find him ministering in secret to a small company of Independents until 1672, and then as the appointed minister until 1703. At Hertford, Haworth succeeded a John Singleton, MD who was ejected from Oxford in 1660 for his nonconformist sympathies. The Congregational Church in Hertford, situated in Cowbridge, still have in their possession the original church book, dating from 1673. A former minister of the church there, states that the book “...is worn and discoloured by age and the writing is not always easy to decipher...unfortunately the pages that contained the record of Mr Haworth's ministry are missing; but from the list of members, which was written by Mr Haworth, we may surmise that the district was large and the work heavy.”

A memorial tablet in the vestibule of the present building bears the inscription:

The Congregational Church assembling in this place was instituted AD 1673.

The Rev William Haworth of St John's College, Cambridge,

afterwards Vicar of St Peter’s, St Albans, was the first pastor.

Haworth died in January 1702/3 and was succeeded in the pastorate by Mr (later Dr) John Guyse who remained until 1727, when he proceeded to a church in New Broad Street, London. As regards the church itself, Turner, a local historian of the early nineteenth century, has this to say: “The Independent Chapel is situated at Cowbridge. It is a freehold, secured to the Protestant Dissenters of this faith and order; and comprises a neat and commodious building, fitted up with galleries, capable of accommodating about 500 persons. The first Independent or Congregational Church in England was established in the year 1616, and there is every reason to believe that a chapel for their accommodation was erected in Hertford shortly after that period.”

(Haworth or Hayworth was born in Preston)