Primitive Methodism in the Yorkshire Wolds C. 1820-1932
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Primitive Methodism in the Yorkshire Wolds c. 1820-1932 Priscilla Mary Truss Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of History March 2016 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. ii Dedication and Acknowledgements In Memory of my Grandparents: George Grasby, born Langtoft 1890, and Mary Grasby, born Wetwang 1895. Primitive Methodists both. I would like to thank my supervisors, Simon Green and Malcolm Chase, for their helpful and positive criticisms, my friends at Leeds University past and present – particularly Gordon Forster, and Mike and Vicky Spence – for all their support, and finally my family for putting up with it all. iii Abstract This thesis concerns the establishment and development of Primitive Methodism on the Yorkshire Wolds from the arrival of missionaries in Hull in 1820 to the Connexion’s final sublimation into the wider Methodist Church in 1932. In its nineteenth-century heyday Primitive Methodism was a vibrant, evangelistic faith which enhanced the lives of many working people. It gave them purpose, conviviality and a shared spirituality which few had experienced before. In the later nineteenth century it became a cohesive force in village life through its services, Sunday Schools and links with the Friendly Societies. The thesis examines why Primitive Methodism put down such powerful roots in the Wolds, a relatively isolated area with virtually no industrial development, and compares its progress there to that in other areas where it was equally strong – Durham, North Lincolnshire and Norfolk – and to those where it had a firm foothold – Shropshire, Derbyshire and Bedfordshire. Primitive Methodism was religiously radical; it believed in the priesthood of all believers and in the capacity of all to embrace the word of God and commnicate it to others through preaching and extempore prayer. Its religious radicalism sometimes led on to political radicalism, to links with Chartism, trade unionism and the nascent Labour Party. Much recent historical writing has concentrated on this aspect of its past while neglecting its religious impact and the fact that it remained – as did all branches of Methodism – socially conservative. The thesis will consider Wolds Primitive Methodism in the context of the general historiography of the Connexion and assess the contribution it made. iv Contents Dedication and Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Contents iv Abbreviations v Map vi Chapter 1 – Introduction to Primitive Methodism and its Historiography 1 Chapter 2 – The Social and Economic Background : the Wolds 1790-1900 25 Chapter 3 – The Birth of Primitive Methodism and its Development on the Wolds 63 Chapter 4 – The Beliefs and Religious Practices of Primitive Methodism 95 Chapter 5 - A Great Hunger for Souls: the Primitive Methodist Experience 125 Chapter 6 – The Organisation and Discipline of Primitive Methodism 161 Appendix: Five Wolds Circuits 1820-1932 188 Chapter 7 – The Public Face of Primitive Methodism 1820-1869 201 Chapter 8 – The Public Face of Primitive Methodism 1870-1914 225 Appendices 1 and 2, the School Boards 255 Chapter 9 - The Decline of Primitive Methodism 259 Chapter 10 – Conclusion 291 Bibliography 297 v Abbreviations ERA East Riding Archives at Beverley JRL John Rylands Library Manchester PM Primitive Methodist PWHS Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society VCH Victoria County History Note on the use of ‘Circuit Reports’ and ‘Station Reports’. These terms were used interchangeably by the Driffield, Pocklington and Bridlington Circuits to describe the reports that were sent to Conference each year. I have not attempted to make any distinction between them. vi Map 1 Chapter 1 Introduction to Primitive Methodism and its Historiography Primitive Methodism was a religious movement of huge importance. Never numerically as large as the Wesleyans, it nevertheless epitomised all the characteristics of Methodism in larger and fuller measure than did the dominant group.1 It was religiously radical; its services were loud, vulgar and exuberant; its membership and its leadership were predominantly working-class and it had stronger links with political radicalism than either the Wesleyans or the Independents. Moreover, the established church, old Dissent and Wesleyan Methodism suffered from the challenges of industrialism, enclosure and Jacobinism, and struggled to accommodate themselves to the revolutionary conditions of the early nineteenth century. The Primitives, however, were born into them and from their beginnings accommodated themselves to this new world. Primitive Methodism did not just become a working-class church; it was born as one and its leadership was the product of early industrial society. The Primitives split away from the main body of Wesleyan Methodism in 1811. It was not the first or the last secession from the parent body but it was the largest and the most important. Although the Primitives claimed to be a national movement and were certainly represented in all English counties and in the dominions, their main strength was concentrated in the north Midlands (where the movement began), in Northumberland and Durham, in Yorkshire (particularly in the East Riding) and in Lincolnshire and Norfolk. It never made much headway in London or the south east or in Scotland. Wales, although it was strongly Nonconformist, was dominated by the Baptists and the Calvinistic Methodists.2 Much modern (i.e. post-1918) literature about Methodism does not differentiate between its various branches and assumes that Primitives and Wesleyans and members of the New Connexion had a common point of view – which was not always the case. The Primitives practised a particular style of popular devotion, which flourished in the nineteenth century, lost fire in the early twentieth and died at Methodist Union in 1932. Primitive Methodism had a different constituency from Wesleyan Methodism – more rural and more working-class – and its public activities, namely temperance, trade unionism, and social reform, were generally more radical than those of the Wesleyans. Nineteenth-century writers on Primitive Methodism knew this, not least because they 1 There were 220,000 Primitive Methodists and 517,000 Wesleyans at Union in 1932. 2 Edward Royle, Modern Britain: A Social History 1750-1985 (London: Edward Arnold, 1987), p. 302. 2 were often themselves members of the Connexion. Twentieth-century historians, however, were not (with the exception of Wearmouth). The following sections of this study will evaluate historical treatments of Methodism after it first burst upon the religious scene in the mid-eighteenth century. Specific treatments of Primitive Methodism will be described as such; otherwise ‘Methodism’ can be taken to cover all branches of the movement. The Nineteenth-Century Tradition Nineteenth-century histories of Primitive Methodism were generally uncritical. Indeed, they often verged on the hagiographic. These were mainly written for other Primitive Methodists and their chief purpose was to show how the growth and development of the Connexion had demonstrated the workings of the hand of God – ‘Providence’ as it was usually described. Thus William Patterson describes a camp meeting at Cockfield (Co. Durham) in 1860: […] some followers of the devil set fire to whins which sheltered the spot [where the meeting was held] […] but in answer to prayer the wind changed its course almost immediately turning in the opposite direction. The change turned the fear of the multitude into joy and God gave them a marvellous day.3 Bourne’s History of 1823 was mainly a personal account, detailing and often justifying his part in the Connexion’s affairs.4 He made no mention of the radicalism of some of the early preachers (of which he disapproved) and drew a veil over his disagreements with Clowes about the ‘Tunstall non-missioning rule’ of 1815 which Clowes flouted.5 Thomas Church’s Sketches, published in 1847, concentrated on the Primitives’ spiritual mission and rejected any notion that the Connexion should involve itself in external affairs: ‘We think that our Connexion is not providentially called to take a part in seeking the separation of church and state; but to aim with its original simplicity and increasing ardour to convert sinners from the error of their ways and to save souls from 3 William Patterson, Northern Primitive Methodism; A Record of the Rise and Progress of the Circuits in the Old Sunderland District (London: E Dalton, 1909), p. 77. 4 Hugh Bourne, History of the Primitive Methodists, Giving an Account of their Rise and Progress up to the year 1823 (Bemersley: Primitive Methodists Book Room, 1823). 5The ‘non-missioning rule’ was intended, by the conservative Clowes, to rein in some of the more reckless of the early preachers and to consolidate Primitive Methodist gains before moving on elsewhere. Julia Werner, The Primitive Methodist Connection: Its Background and Early History (London: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984), pp. 78-79. 3 death’.6 John Petty’s History was commissioned by the Conference of 1859 and published in 1860.7 It was primarily a narrative describing the origin and spread of Primitive Methodism and the various triumphs of its preachers, but it was not entirely uncritical. It admitted the failure of the mission to Scotland and the problems caused in Hull by the ‘false prophet’ John Stamp.8 It also alluded to the Durham pitmen’s strike of 1844, which the Connexion did not support, although the strike was largely led by Primitive Methodists. Petty remarked that ‘It is not within the scope of our design to discuss the merits of this unhappy contest […] We state the painful facts merely to show how they militated against the work of God.’9 Early Primitive Methodist biographies and collections of sermons also concentrated on the overriding importance of personal religious experience.