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PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHURCH, THE

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 339 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PRIMITIVE METHODIST See also:CHURCH, THE , a community of nonconformists, which owes its origin to the fact that See also:Methodism as founded by the Wesleys tended, after the first See also:generation, to depart from the See also:enthusiasm that had marked its inception and to See also:settle down to the task of self-organization. There were, however, some ardent See also:spirits who continued to See also:work along the old lines and whose watchword was revivalism, and out of their efforts came the See also:Bible See also:Christian, the See also:Independent Methodist and the Primitive Methodist denominations. These enthusiastic evangelists esteemed zeal a higher virtue than discipline and decorum, and put small emphasis on church systems as compared with conversions. One of the men to whom Primitive Methodism owes its existence was See also:Hugh See also:Bourne (1772-1852), a millwright of Stoke-upon-See also:Trent. He joined a Methodist society at See also:Burslem, but business taking him at the See also:close of 1800 to the colliery See also:district of Harrisehead and Kidsgrove, he was so impressed by the prevailing See also:ignorance and debasement that he began a religious revival of the district. His open-See also:air See also:preaching was accompanied by See also:prayer and singing, a departure from See also:Wesley's practice and the forerunner of the well-known " See also:Camp See also:Meeting." A See also:chapel was built at Harrisehead, and a second revival occurred See also:im See also:September 1804, largely the result of a meeting held at See also:Congleton by some enthusiasts from See also:Southport. One of the after-fruits of this revival was the See also:conversion (See also:Jan. 1805) of the See also:joint founder of Primitive Methodism, See also:William Clowes (178o-1851), a native of Burslem, who had come to See also:Tunstall. Clowes was a See also:man of See also:fine See also:appearance and open disposition, with a compelling See also:personality that found expression in a steady glance and a thrilling See also:voice. He was a See also:potter by See also:trade, and had a See also:national reputation as a dancer. He joined a Methodist class, threw his See also:house open for love-feasts and prayer-meetings, and did a See also:great See also:deal of itinerant evangelization among the cottages of the See also:country-See also:side. Lorenzo See also:Dow (1777-1834), an See also:eccentric See also:American Methodist revivalist, visited See also:North See also:Staffordshire and spoke of the camp-meetings held in See also:America, with the result that on the 31st of May 1807 the first real See also:English gathering of the See also:kind was held on See also:Mow Cop, since regarded as the See also:Mecca of Primitive Methodism.

It lasted from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Bourne and his See also:

friends determined to continue the experiment as a counterblast to the See also:parish wakes of the See also:time, which were little better than See also:local saturnalia. Opposition from a See also:master potter of the district, who threatened to put the Conventicle See also:Act in force, was overcome, but more serious difficulties were presented by the antagonism of the Wesleyan Methodist See also:circuit authorities. But Bourne and his friends persisted against both See also:Conference and the local super-intendent, who issued bills declaring that no camp-meeting would be held at See also:Norton in See also:August 1807. The meeting was held and ten months later Bourne was expelled by the Burslem Quarterly Meeting, ostensibly for non-attendance at class (he had been away from See also:home, evangelizing), really, as the Wesleyan See also:superintendent told him " because you have a tendency to set up other than the See also:ordinary See also:worship " which was precisely the See also:reason why, fifty years earlier, the See also:Anglican Church had declined to See also:sanction the methods of See also:John Wesley. The camp-meetings went steadily on, and their See also:influence is reflected in the writings of See also:George See also:Eliot, George See also:Borrow and William Howitt. The See also:societies which Bourne formed were for a time allowed to go under (Wesleyan) Methodist See also:protection, but the crisis came in 181o, when the See also:Stanley class of ten members declined to See also:wash their hands of the Camp-Meeting Methodists, and so were refused See also:admission. About this time, too (1809), Bourne appointed See also:James Crawfoot, a Wesleyan local preacher who had been removed from the See also:list for assisting the Independent Methodists, as a travelling preacher at See also:ros. a See also:week, instructing him to give his whole time to evangelization and to get his converts to join the denominations to which they were most inclined. Clowes, who, in spite of his revivalist sympathies, was more attached to Methodism than Bourne, was cut off from his church for taking See also:part in camp-meetings at Ramsor in 18o8 and 181o. His personality See also:drew a number of strong men after him, and a society meeting held in a See also:kitchen and then in a warehouse became the See also:nucleus of a circuit, a chapel being built at Tunstall in See also:July 1811, two months after the See also:fusion of the Bourne and Clowes forces. Clowes, like Crawfoot, was set apart as a preacher to " live by the See also:gospel," and in See also:February 1812 the name "Primitive Methodist" was formally adopted, although for nearly a generation the name " Clowesites " survived in local use. The first distinct See also:period in the See also:history of Primitive Methodism proper is 1811-1843. It was a time of rapid expansion, marked by great missionary fervour, and may be called the Circuit Period, for even after the circuits were grouped into districts in 1821 they did not lose their See also:privilege of missionary initiative.

The See also:

line of See also:geographical progress first followed the valley of the Trent. The See also:original circuit at Tunstall no sooner See also:felt its feet than it favoured consolidation rather than See also:extension. But irrepressibles like John See also:Benton See also:broke through the " non-See also:mission See also:law," and pressed forward through the " See also:Adam See also:Bede " country to See also:Derby (which became the 2nd circuit in 1816) ; See also:Nottingham, where a great camp-meeting on Whit See also:Sunday 1816 was attended by 12,000 See also:people; See also:Leicestershire, where See also:Loughborough became the 3rd circuit, with extensions into See also:Rutland, See also:Lincolnshire and See also:Norfolk; and ultimately to See also:Hull, which became the 4th circuit, and where a meeting which deserves to be called the First Conference was held in See also:June 1819. The Hull circuit during the next five years, through its See also:Yorkshire, Western, North-Western and See also:Northern See also:Missions, carried on a vigorous See also:campaign with great success, especially among the then semi-See also:savage colliers of See also:Durham and See also:Northumberland. During the five years 1819-1824 there had been made from Hull 17 circuits with a membership of 7600, and Hull itself had 3700 more. Simultaneously with this work in the north, Tunstall circuit, having thrown off its lethargy at the Wrine See also:Hill camp-meeting on the 23rd of May 1819, was carrying on an aggressive evan-'gelism. In the See also:Black Country, Darlaston circuit was formed in 1820, and John Wedgewood's See also:Cheshire Mission, begun in 1819, led to work in See also:Liverpool on the one See also:hand and in Salop on the other. From See also:Macclesfield a descent was made on See also:Manchester; from Oakengates in See also:South See also:Shropshire came extensions to See also:Herefordshire, See also:Glamorganshire and See also:Wiltshire, where the famous Brinkworth circuit was established. The succeeding years, however, 1825-1828, showed a serious set-back, due to the lack of discipline. But drastic See also:measures were taken, and in one See also:year See also:thirty preachers were struck off the list. Thenceforward, while the See also:Oxford See also:Movement was awakening one See also:section of the people of See also:England the Primitive Methodists were making themselves felt among other classes of the See also:population. John Oxtoby, who evangelized See also:Filey and became known as " Praying Johnny," was known to spend six See also:hours at a time in intercession.

See also:

Robert See also:Key at Saham Tony in 1832 won over a See also:young woman who converted her See also:brother, Robert Eaglen, who, eighteen years later at See also:Colchester, proved so decisive a See also:factor in the See also:life of See also:Charles Haddon See also:Spurgeon. The Times of the 27th of See also:December 1830, referring to the disaffected See also:state of the See also:southern counties, said: " The See also:present population must be provided for in See also:body and spirit on more liberal and Christian principles, or the whole See also:mass of labourers will start into legions of banditti—banditti less criminal than those who have made them so, and who by a just and fearful retribution will soon become their victims." These were the classes the Primitive Methodists tried to reach, and in doing so they found themselves between two fires. On the one hand there was the See also:mob violence that often amounted to sheer ruffianism, especially in Wessex and the home-counties. On the other hand there was legal persecution all over the country, and the preachers suffered many things from the hands of rural See also:clergy and See also:county magistrates. There are a See also:score of cases of serious imprisonment, and a countless number of arrests and temporary detention. Local preachers received See also:notice to quit their holdings, labourers were discharged, those who opened their cottages for meetings were evicted, and to show any hospitality to a travelling preacher was to See also:risk the loss of home and employment. But the spirit of the evangelists was unquenchable. At the Conference of 1842 both Clowes and Bourne became supernumeraries with a See also:pension of b5 a year each. Clowes, indeed, had been See also:free from circuit work since 1827, and he continued to pray and preach as he was able till his See also:death in See also:March 1851. Bourne, who worked at his trade more or less all through life, spent his last ten years in advocating the See also:temperance cause; he died in See also:October 1852. The years 1842–1853 See also:mark a transition period in the history of Primitive Methodism. It was John Flesher who chiefly guided the movement from a loosely jointed Home Missionary Organization on to the lines of a real Connexionalism.

One of the first steps was to move the See also:

Book See also:Room and the meeting See also:place of the executive See also:committee from Bemersley to See also:London. Soon after came the See also:gradual See also:process by which the circuits handed over their mission-work to a central Connexional Committee. The removal to London was See also:proof that the leaders were alive to the See also:necessity of grappling with the rapid growth of towns and cities, and that the Connexion, at first mainly a rural movement, had also See also:urban work to accomplish. The famous Hull circuit See also:long retained a number of powerful branches, a survival of the first period, but by 1853 it had come into line with what was by that time regarded as the normal organization. The period 1853–1885 (where typical names are W. and S. Antliff, See also:Thomas See also:Bateman and See also:Henry See also:Hodge) finds Primitive Methodism as a connexion of federated districts, a unity which may be described as See also:mechanical rather than organic. The districts between 1853 and 1873 were ten in number, Tunstall, Nottingham, Hull, See also:Sunderland, See also:Norwich, Manchester, Brink-See also:worth, See also:Leeds, See also:Bristol and London. Conference—the supreme See also:assembly—was a very jealously guarded preserve, being attain-able only to preachers who had travelled 18 and superintended 12 years, and to laymen who had been members 12 and officials 10 years. This exclusiveness naturally strengthened the popularity and See also:power of the districts, where See also:energy and See also:talent found a See also:scope elsewhere denied. Thus Hull district inaugurated a bold policy of chapel-buildings; Norwich that of a See also:foreign mission; Sunderland and Manchester the ideal of a better-educated See also:ministry, Sunderland See also:institute being opened in 1868; Nottingham district founded a See also:middle-class school; Leeds promoted a See also:union of Sunday-See also:schools, and the placing of chapel See also:property on a better See also:financial footing. The period as a whole had some anxious moments; See also:emigration to the See also:gold-See also:fields and the strife which afflicted Wesleyan Methodism brought loss and confusion between 1853 and 1860. Yet when Conference met at Tunstall in the latter year to celebrate its See also:jubilee it could See also:report 675 ministers and 11,384 local preachers, 132,114 members,2267 chapels, 167,533 scholars and 30,988 teachers.

Over-seas, too, there was much activity and success. Work begun in See also:

Australia and New See also:Zealand prospered, and the former country finally contributed over 11,000 members to the formation of the See also:United Methodist Church of Australia, New Zealand with its 2600 members preferring to remain connected with the home country. In the United States there had been a quiet but steady growth since the first agents went out in 1829 and Hugh Bourne's advisory visit in 1844. There are now three Conferences—the Eastern, See also:Pennsylvania and Western, with about 70 ministers, too churches and 7000 members. The See also:Canadian churches had a See also:good See also:record, consummated in 1884 when they contributed 8000 members and too ministers to the United Methodist Church of the Dominion. In See also:January 2870 the first piece of real foreign missicnary work was begun at Fernando Po, followed in December of the same year by the mission at See also:Aliwal North on the See also:Orange See also:River in South See also:Africa. This station is the centre of a polyglot circuit or district 150 M. by 5o m., and there is a member-See also:ship of 1731 and an efficient institution for training teachers; evangelists and artisans. In 1899 another South See also:African mission was started, ultimately locating itself at Mashukulumbwe, and a few years later work was begun in Southern See also:Nigeria. Since 1885 Primitive Methodism has been developing from a " Connexion " into a " Church," the designation employed since 1902. At home a Union for Social Service was formed in 1906, the natural outcome of Thomas See also:Jackson's efforts for the hungry and distressed in Clapton and Whitechapel, and of similar work at St George's See also:Hall, See also:Southwark. Other significant episodes have been the Unification of the Funds, the Equalization of Districts and the reconstruction of Conference on a broader basis, the Ministers' Sustentation Fund and the Church Extension Fund, and the enlargement and reorganization of the See also:college at Manchester. This undertaking owes much to the liberality of See also:Sir William P.

See also:

Hartley, whose name the college, which is a school of the See also:Victoria University, now bears. The Christian Endeavour movement in Great See also:Britain derives, perhaps, its greatest forte from its Primitive Methodist members; and the See also:appointment of central missions, connexional evangelists and mission-vans, which tour the more sparsely populated rural districts, See also:witness to a continuance of the original spirit of the See also:denomination, while the more cultured side is fostered by the Hartley lecture. In celebration of the See also:centenary of the Church, a fund of £250,000 was launched in 1907, and this was brought to a successful issue. See also:Statistics for 1909 show 1178 ministers, 16,158 local preachers, 212,168 members, 4484 chapels, 465,531 Sunday scholars, 59,557 teachers. In the United States there were, in rgo6, 202 church edifices and a See also:total membership of 7558. See H. B. See also:Kendall, The Origin and History of the Primitive Methodist Church (2 vols., 1906) ; and What hath See also:God Wrought? A Centenary Memorial of the P.M. Church (1908). (A. J.

End of Article: PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHURCH, THE

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