A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. It had a similar status to a township

Township (England)

In England, a township is a local division or district of a large parish containing a village or small town usually having its own church...

 but was so named as it had a chapel

Chapel of ease

A chapel of ease is a church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently....

 which acted as a subsidiary place of worship to the main parish church. Such chapelries were common in northern England

Northern England

Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...

 where the parishes had been established in medieval times when the area was sparsely populated, thus obliging parishioners to travel long distances to the parish church.

A chapelry also had a role in civil government, being a subdivision of a parish which was used as a basis for the Poor Law

Poor Law

The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief which existed in England and Wales that developed out of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws before being codified in 1587–98...

 until the establishment of Poor Law Unions in the 19th century.