John Chater

John Chater (c. 1732-1771) was the son of James Chater and Hannah Pierce, members of Carey Street Independent Church, New Court, London. According to the church records, he was born on 11 September 1734 (there may be an error with the entering or reading of that date) and became a full member there in 1752, when he was at the age of 20 (thus putting his birth around 1732). He was trained for the ministry as an Independent by his pastor, Thomas Bradbury of New Court, and Dr. Zephaniah Marryatt at Plaisterers’ Hall, 1752-53, two of the most orthodox Calvinist ministers (Marryatt was technically a Presbyyterian, having ministered at Zoar Street, 1712-40, and Deadmans Place, both in Southwark; he assumed duties as tutor at Plaisterers’ Hall in 1743) in London at that time. In 1753 Chater became the minister at the Independent congregation at Newport, Isle of Wight (ordained in 1756). Previously he had married Mary Hawker on 25 November 1751 at St. George Mayfair, London (he would only have been 17 or 19, which seems young either way; it is possible the 1734 date is a baptism date but not a birth date, which may have been some years earlier). In March 1759 he returned to London to assume pastoral duties at the Independent congregation in Silver Street, succeeding Samuel Hayward. He gradually became influenced by Sandemanian doctrines and along with Samuel Pike (he was minister at Three Cranes, Thames Street) and a Rev. Prentice was removed by the Congregational Board by 1766 (Chater had left Silver Street in December 1765). Pike and Chater joined the congregation of Sandemanians at Bull-and-Mouth Street, St Martin's le Grand, a congregation founded in 1762 at Glovers’ Hall, Beech Lane, under Robert Sandeman himself.  Chater’s will was proved on 17 September 1771 in London. He was brother to Eliezer Chater of Lombard Street, a banker, and James Chater of Cherry Treet Court, Aldersgate, watchmaker.

    He became a bookseller in association with Thomas Vernor, first in Ludgate Hill in 1766 and then, about 1769, on his own at 39 King Street, Cheapside (where he and Vernor mutually operated a Circulating Library), with Vernor’s main bookshop remaining in Ludgate Hill.  Among John Chater’s imprints are Simple Truth Vindicated, by Samuel Pike and John Barnard (London: T. Vernor and J. Chater, 1766) and John Barnard’s The Religion of Antichrist or, Notes on the Book of the Revelation of John (London: T. Vernor and J. Chater, 1770); he published a sale catalogue on 31 March 1767. After his death in 1771, Chater was succeeded by his wife, Mary Chater (c. 1730-1822), also working from the same address in King Street. Vernor established his own Circulating Library eventually operating from St. Michael’s Alley, Cornhill (1770-1784) and Fore Street (1779-84) before settling at Birchin Lane, Cornhill, from 1786 until his death in 1793, when he was succeeded by his son-in-law, Thomas Hood (1759-1811).  Eliezer Chater, John Chater’s nephew (1763-1835), married Rachel Vernor (b. 1769), Thomas Vernor’s daughter, in 1786 in Islington, thus linking the two families together through marriage. It may be that Vernor did not continue the Circulating Library but rather that was taken over by Boosey, with Vernor operating his own printing and bookselling business after that.  It appears that Vernor joined the London congregation of the Sandemanian Church about the same time as Chater and the others, and became a Deacon in 1765 and an Elder in 1776. His house may have been a base for Scottish members of the church when they came to London, with Thomas Hood from Dundee, staying with him for example. He named one of his sons, George Glas Vernor.  Vernor was buried on 12 October 1793 at Bunhill Fields.

   Mary Chater married John Boosey (1740-1820) at Hackney on 10 September 1772. He was a widower listed as from Old Buckingham, Norfolk, but he was the John Boosey who became a bookseller from the same location in King Street, where the Chaters had been booksellers as well and where he operated his Circulating Library. He had studied for the Independent ministry at Mile End, in a similar fashion to that of Chater, and may have preached somewhere for a time, before joining Chater, Vernor, and the others at the Sandemanian congregation. Boosey’s son, Thomas Boosey, took over the business for his father upon his retirement in 1792, moving the establishment to 4 Old Broad Street in 1792 (he had been apprenticed by his father from 1782 until 9 January 1792). The Booseys were all members of the Sandemanian congregation meeting first in St. Martin's le Grand and then at Paul’s Alley, the Barbican (1778-1862). Mary Chater Boosey died in 1822 at Old Buckingham, though it appears they lived in King Street after their marriage until his retirement. See Alan P. F. Sell, “John Chater: From Independent Minister to Sandemanian Author,” Baptist Quarterly 31:3 (1985), 100-117; Walter Wilson, The History and Antiquities of Dissenting Churches and Meeting Houses, in London, Westminster, and Southwark; Including the Lives of Their Ministers, from the Rise of Nonconformity to the Present Time, 4 vols. (London: W. Wilson for W. Button, 1808–1814), 3:112-13; James Bennett, History of the Church in Silver Street, London (1842), 19; David Bogue and James Bennett, History of Dissenters, 4 vols. (London: Printed for the Authors, 1808-1812), 4.121; Congregational Historical Society Transactions, I, p. 384; II, pp. 57, 58, and 60. For more on Chater and other members of the Sandemanian congregation, see the exceptional work done by Trevor Pickup at 

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Sandemanian_%28Glasite%29_Church#Introduction.