FAIRFIELD MORAVIAN SETTLEMENT

An eligible piece of ground was obtained in the township of Droylsden in Lancashire, lying nearly midway. between Duckenfield and Manchester, at the distance of four miles from the latter town. This ground, containing about sixty acres, the Brethren rented for the term of nine hundred and ninety nine years, and took possession of it in October 1783.

The building of the new Settlement, which received the name of FAIRF1ELD, proceeded so rapidly, that, besides several family houses, a large and handsome chapel with adjoining dwellings for the ministers, two edifices, one for the single brethren, and the other for the single sisters, with the requisite work-shops and offices, were completed, and the streets and gardens, and a burial-ground laid out and inclosed, in less than two years. On the 9th of July 1785 the chapel was solemnly opened for divine worship, with a sermon by Brother Benjamin Latrobe, which was attended by a very large concourse of people from all parts of the vicinity.

For some years after its erection Fairfield, owing to its low situation, and the marshy nature of the soil, was subject to fevers which annually carried off some of its inhabitants. But the gradual improvement of the place by draining and planting, has rendered it as healthy a situation as any in the neighbourhood, while the neatness of the buildings, the beauty of the gardens and shrubberies, and the general regularity of the Settlement, make it one of the most pleasant villages in Lancashire.

Boarding schools for boys and girls have been instituted and received the suffrage of public approbation, and, what is of still higher value, have become nurseries, in which the pupils receive not only a good scientific education, but have ample opportunity of learning the lessons of true piety. Nor have the labours of their instructors been in vain, as is sufficiently evident from the testimony of not a few, and from their Christian conduct in advancing years.

Fairfield has also the honor of being the first congregation of the Brethren, which took an active share in the religious instruction of the, Poor, through the medium of Sunday schools. Institutions of this kind, for boys and girls, were set on foot in 1793, and have ever since been continued. The average attendance is between two and three hundred. They all attend a discourse, specially addressed to the children every Sunday morning, and are likewise present at the public service in the afternoon. The example of Fairfield was soon followed by the congregations at Bedford, Fulneck, Wyke and other places in England.

Not much more than a year after he had assisted at the opening of the chapel in Fairfield, and in organizing that congregation according to the plan of a regular Settlement belonging to the Brethren's Church, Brother Benjamin Latrobe finished his active and useful life on the 29th of November 1786.

From: History of the Protestant Church of the United Brethren by John Beck (pub1830)

This article contributed by Sandra McLaren, 12 July 2008