Here he employed himself in educating students for the ministry, probably with the concurrence of the "provincial meeting" of Cumberland and Westmorland.
In 1700 he was chosen as colleague to John Chorlton at Cross Street Chapel, Manchester.
His most distinguished pupils were Samuel Bourn the younger and John Turner of Preston, famous for his exertions against the rebel army in the 1715 Jacobite uprising.
During the reign of Queen Anne, Coningham was several times prosecuted for keeping an academy; and though a man who combined orthodoxy with a broad spirit, he was not strong enough to cope with the divergences of theological opinion in his flock.
He left Manchester for London in 1712, being called to succeed Richard Stretton, M.A.