n different ages there have
been different classes of Unitarians; in these days there are at
least two--the conservative and the progressive; but in the past the
following points were generally believed, and in the present there
is no diversity of opinion regarding them, viz., that the Godhead is
single and absolute, not triune; that Christ was not God, but a
perfect being inspired with divine wisdom; that there is no efficacy
in His vicarious atonement, in the sense popularly recognised; and
that original sin and eternal damnation are in accordance with
neither the Scriptures nor common sense.

The origin of Unitarianism in Preston, as elsewhere, is mixed up
with the early strivings and operations of emancipated
Nonconformity. We can find no record of Nonconformists in Preston
until the early part of the 18th century. At that period a chapel
was erected at Walton-le-Dale, mainly, if not entirely, by Sir Henry
de Hoghton--fifth baronet, and formerly member of parliament for
Preston--who was one of the principal patrons of Nonconformity in
this district. Very shortly afterwards, and under the same
patronage, a Nonconformist congregation was established to Preston--
meetings having previously been held in private houses--and the Rev.
John Pilkington, great uncle of W. O. Pilkington, Esq., of the
Willows, near this town, who is a Unitarian, was the minister of it,
as well as of that in Walton. In 1718, a little building was erected
for the Nonconformists of Preston on a piece of land near the bottom
and on the north side of Church-street. This was the first
Dissenting chapel raised in Preston, and in it the old
Nonconformists--Presbyterians we ought to say--spent many a free and
spiritually-happy hour. Eventually the generality of the
congregation got into a "Monarchian" frame of mind, and from that
time till this the chapel has been held by those whom we term
Unitarians. The "parsonage house" of the Unitarian minister used to
be in Church-street, near the chapel; but it has since been
transmuted into a shop. One of the ministers at this place of
worship towards the end of the last century, was a certain Mr.
Walker, but he couldn't masticate the Unitarian theory which was
being actively developed in it, so he walked away, and for him a
building in Grimshaw-street--the predecessor of the present
Independent Chapel there--was subsequently erected.

The edifice wherein our Unitarian friends assemble every Sunday, is
an ol