Complex sentence: On 24 June 1870 the Lord Bishop of Chester, William Jacobson, in whose diocese Liverpool then was, refused to consecrate the church because, as the Liverpool mercury reported, "of the objectionable features in the decorations".
Split into simpler sentences: On 24 June 1870 the Lord Bishop of Chester, William Jacobson refused to consecrate the church. Indeed the Lord Bishop of Chester, in whose diocese Liverpool then was, refused to consecrate the church because, as the Liverpool mercury reported, "of the objectionable features in the decorations".