Thomas Hazlehurst (chapel builder)

Thomas Hazlehurst was known nationally as "the Chapel Builder" and more locally as "the Prince of Methodism" or "the Prince of the Wesleyans". He was given these titles because of his generosity in paying wholly or largely for the building of some 12 chapels and three schools in the area of Runcorn, Widnes and the villages in north Cheshire. His father, also called Thomas, had founded a profitable soap and alkali manufacturing business, Hazlehurst & Sons, in Runcorn in 1816.

17 April 1816

Born on the same birth day (17 April): Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius • Colin Tyre, Lord Tyre • Demetrios Petrokokkinos • Emil Fuchs (baseball) • Ferdinand Piëch • Henry Erskine, 10th Earl of Buchan • Ivan Goff • Muttiah Muralitharan • Norman Cowans • Tsuneo Matsudaira • Tsutomu Wakamatsu

Born in the same month (April 1816): Bogoslav Šulek • Charles Gavan Duffy • Charles-Denis Bourbaki • Charlotte Brontë