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The Origin of the Methodist Quarterly Meeting THE ORIGIN OF THE METHODIST QUARTERLY MEETING ETHODISM has been celebrating the bicentenary of one of its most characteristic and important institutions, the Cir~uit Quarterly Meet­ M ing. For two hundred years Quarterly Meetmgs have served to broaden the vision of local Methodist Societies by reminding them of their privileges and responsibilities as members of a widespread Christian community. The Quarterly Meeting has enabled the Methodist Church to become a compact ecclesiastical organization, a 'Connexion', rather than a number of loosely associated congregations. _ · Strangely enough, this institution has been taken very much for granted, and there has been little inquiry into its origins-or at any rate little con­ clusive inquiry. 1 For like many distinctive features of Methodism the Quar­ terly Meeting seems to have arisen almost casually. It was the result of several converging influences, although the crystallizing of the idea was due mainly to one man, John Bennet, whose inspiration came largely from the Society of Friends. The holding of meetings quarterly was not original, of course, not even with the Quakers. The Anglican Church had its quarterly Ember Weeks. The legal quarter-days were even more an integral part of British life then than now. Judges rode their circuits and justices held their Quarter-sessions long before Methodist preachers followed in their steps. A meeting primarily for business at least four times a year would seem quite natural in trying to co-ordinate a scattered religious organization. Monthly business meetings would become tedious, although the Friends and the Moravians held such meetings, and for a time it seemed that the Methodists might follow their example. Annual meetings, on the other hand, would be conducive to slack­ ness. The Religious Societies, upon which the Methodist Societies were largely modelled, while meeting weekly for fellowship and electing their two Stewards annually, also arranged for a quarterly business meeting, the fourteenth rule of Dr. Woodward's own society at Poplar being: That these orders shall be read over at least four times in the year, by one of the stewards; and that with such deliberation that each member may have time to examine himself by them, or to speak his mind in anything relating to them.2 The Religious Societies of London also joined together as a group once a quarter, for worship if not for business, one such gathering providing the opportunity for Dr. William Berriman to issue a warning about 'some persons among us, who have discover'd a great fervour of zeal, but not guided with that prudence and discretion one would wish'-the Methodists apparently being intended. 3 Quarterly oversight of members/of the Methodist Societies was· established 1 The pioneer attempt was that of W. W. Stamp, in the Weslryan Methodist J,,fagaz,ine for 184-3, pp. 376-82. 2 J. Simon: John Weslry and the Religious Societies, p. 14. _ 3 'A Sermon Preach'd to the Religious Societies in and about London, at their Quarterly Meeting in the Parish Church of St. Mary Le Bow, on Wednesday, March the 21st, 1738-g.' ORIGIN OF THE METHODIST QUARTERLY MEETING 29 from the very early days. In February 1741 John Wesley met the Bristol Methodists to issue tickets of membership to those 'who were sufficiently recommended', and by the following year the quarterly renewal of these tickets was an established procedure, later described by Wesley thus: As the Society increased, I found it required still greater care to separate the pre­ cious from the vile. In order to do this, I determined, at least once in three months, to talk with every member myself. • To each of those whose seriousness and good conversation I found no reason to doubt I gave a testimony under my own hand, by writing their name on a ticket prepared for that purpose. Any disorderly member ... has no new ticket at the quarterly visitation.• According to a minute of the 1746 Conference any new members should be received publicly at the general lovefeast, also held quarterly, and three months was the normal period of probation. 5 The Methodist Conference itself had begun in I 744 as a quarterly meeting, the members arranging to meet again 'if God permits, Nov. 1st at Newcastle, Feb. 1st at Bristol, May 1st London'. Actually it was not until 1st August ( 1745 that the -next Conference assembled, and although proposing to meet again 'in January next, if God permit' it was delayed until May, when the members were content to establish it as an annual conference by arranging to reassemble 'at London next summer, if God permit'. 8 The Conference probably acted partly und~r the influence of the Welsh Methodist Associations which had been started a year or two earlier. Like the Friends, the Welsh Methodists gathered together both monthly, quarterly, and annually, the regular Quarterly Associations beginning at Watford on 6th January 17f3· This meeting, like those which followed, had features in common _both with the Conferences and the Quarterly Meetings of Wesleyan Mef?od1sm. That ~here was some reciprocal influence is practically certain, though to gauge its extent is almost impossible.1 Even earlier, however, a~ least as ,earl~ as 1739, the seeds of both types of meeting had been sown m Wesley s mmd, when with two other clergymen he devised a plan for consolidating the efforts both of the scattered Oxford Methodists and of laymen like John Cennick. It was then agreed: - i. To meet yearly at London, if God permit, on the Eve of Ascension-Day. · 2. To fix then the business to be done the ensuing year: where, when, and by whom? 3· To meet quarterly there, as many as can; viz. on the second Tuesday in July, October, and January. 4• To send a monthly account to one another, of what God hath done in each of our stations.a These early gropings after a method of co-ordinating Methodist evangelism were not followed up immediately, but they were not forgotten. The first 'Weslry's Works, 4th edn., VIIl.256-7; cf. Wesley's Journal, Standard Edn., II.429, and Proceedings of the Westry Historical Society, V.36. · . 6 Publications of the W.H.S., I.38, 52, 53; Wesley's Works, VIII.258. 6 W.H.S. Publications, 1:18, 29, 39. The first regulations for stationing preachers were also on a quarterly basis, in answer to the question of the I 746 Conference, 'How are these places to be supplied for this Quarter?' op. cit., p. 38. 7 ~ee M. H. Jones: The Trevecka Letters, pp. 257-306, especially 265, 286-g, 291, 299; cf. Tyennan's Whitefield, II.57-8, etc. 8 Whitehead's Weslry, II.125-6. 30 ORIGIN OF THE METHODIST QUARTERLY MEETING Methodist Conference; for instance, took up the' last suggestion, by agreeing that Wesley should correspond 'once a month with each Assistant and with some other person (at least) in each Society'. 9 As the work spread a full Conference of all the workers, even annually, became impracticable, although all those 'who were or might have been present' were given copies of the minutes and instructed to read them 'to the Stewards and Leaders ofBands'.10 On the last day of the 1748 Conference, 6th June, the problem was evidently discussed at some length. The preachers in 'the distant Societies' were instructed to send details of conversions and deaths to Wesley, and 'assisted by the Stewards' to draw up each Easter a list of members for transmission to the Conference. 11 Even closer co-operation was desired, however: Q[uestion] 8: Would it not be of use if all the Societies were more firmly and closely united together? A[nswer]: Without doubt it would be much to the glory of God, to the ease of the Minister, and to the benefit of the Societies themselves both in things spiritual and temporaI.12 John Bennet had joined in these closing discussions of the Conference, probably with an idea already half-formed in his mind as to how the admitted defi<::iency might be remedied. 13 He and William Darney would talk the question over as they rode back to their respective 'Rounds'. To them, more particularly to Bennet, was due the speedy establishment of Quarterly Meetings in the north, an example soon to be followed in other parts of the country. The arrangements for the closer co-ordination of their Societies were apparently well in hand a month or so after the Conference. Bennet's journal for 27th July was interrupted in order to place on record the planning of the first Methodist Quarterly Meetings, the opportunity of being first in the field being generously accorded to Darney's Societies: The 1st. Quarterly Meeting in Lancashire is held at Major Marshalls at Todmorden Edge on Tuesday the 18th. of Oct. 1748 To meet at a I I a Clock in ye. Forenoon. The 1st Quarterly Meeting for Cheshire is held at Robt. Swindels in Woodley on Thursday ye. 20th of Oct. r r a Clock. 14 In the interval Bennet continued to tour among the Societies, accompanied on occasion both by Wesley and by the Rev. William Grimshaw of Haworth. It was Grimshaw who took charge of the first Quarterly Meeting, and in his hand the first circuit accounts of Methodism were kept. On the fly-leaf of this vellum-bound volume (still preserved in the strong-room of the Temple Street Church, Kdghley) he inscribed the following note: D W.H.S. Publications, I.17. 10 op. cit., p. 38 (1746). 11 op. cit., pp. 58--g.
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