The Birthing of Bible Christian Methodism Cornwall & Devon … 1815

The Cornish Story of William O’Bryan

Rev Edwin A (Ted) Curnow

The Birthing of Bible Christian Methodism – Cornwall & Devon 1815

The Cornish Story of William O’Bryan

The significance of the Bible Christian Movement, its birth and growth, can only be understood in the context of the period.

Political, Social and Religious ferment were marks of this period. Before the beginning of the 19th century the forces of liberalism and democracy were already questioning the repression imposed by the governing classes. Deep seated prejudices were being fanned as radicalism began to question the Institutions of the Church and State. A passionate Protestantism, the asserted wickedness of the Church of Rome, the hardships of rural laborers and working class miners, marked the latter period of the 18th century and the early 1800’s.

In an article, “The Rock From Whence We Were Hewn” John Thorne paints a dark but picturesque countryside of “cottages clustered in unsanitary villages or scattered along rural lanes. Agricultural laborers struggling with reduced wages. Wives patient drudges and the children ill fed, ill clad and untaught and in a condition scarcely to be distinguished from slavery --- religion, even in its barest and most lifeless form almost forgotten.” 1

Religion for the Rich

The clergy and gentry who should have taken responsibility were often distracted with other priorities such as fox hunting and bull baiting. In a lecture delivered in Adelaide in 1952 for the South Australian Methodist Historical Society, Rev W.T. Shapley recalled that his grandfather, a tradesman in Holsworthy, Cornwall told him it was not unusual for it to be announced in church, “There will no service next Sunday as Parson is going hunting.” Shapley concluded, “It was in the heart of this paganism that the Bible Christians had their birth.” 2

High taxes, rents and tithes were paid to what seemed to be useless Institutions and the Established Church. Even before the Napoleonic wars those with mining skills were being drawn to Latin America and this later led to a greater mass emigration, especially from the Bible Christian heartland north east of Padstow and the border Parishes of North Cornwall. It was in this context that G. K. Clark noted that the early 19th century was marked by “wandering Methodists” whose appeal was often to these farm labourers.3 Congregationalists and Baptists were also experiencing enormous growth. While there were “ranter-type” groups and many reform campaigns being held across the country, there were however continuing rays of light. Obviously some clergy did remain faithful during this bleak social picture of unrest and spiritual neglect.

2 John Wesley 1743

From 1743 John Wesley, with his base at St Ives made regular visits to Cornwall and the stagnant religious life of the County was being stirred. The Cornish with their Celtic roots were an emotional people and responded emotionally to the gospel. One evening on Wesley’s first visit to Cornwall he stayed at the village of Carharrack only to be awakened at 4 am by the sound of singing. A crowd of miners had gathered, and wanting to hear Wesley preach they passed the hours of waiting in the darkness singing. Although there was opposition to Wesley and his ‘methods’ the response of the Carharrack miners was evidence of an early spiritual awakening in Cornwall. There are too many remarkable stories of this period to detail here but Revivals soon became unremarkable, indeed they were a normal feature of Cornish life and culture.

Birthing O’Bryan 1778

Methodism spread rapidly through many neighborhoods across Cornwall including the Parish of Luxulyan. It was there on the 6th February 1778 that William O’Bryan was born at Gunwen Farm to devoted parents. (His father’s name was William Bryan-t) His mother had been a Quaker while his father was of Irish descent and had become a wealthy farmer. They had opened their home for Methodist preaching services and during one of Wesley’s later visits to St Austell they arranged a rather special occasion. Referring to O’Bryan’s mother Shapely wrote, “She took her child, a boy of three years, up the aisle of the church to receive

a blessing from John Wesley, but what he William O’Bryan received that day was more than a blessing. Wesley, an old man of 80 years, laid his hands upon the boy’s head and prayed, “may he be a blessing to hundreds and thousands.” Little did those who gathered that day know that William O’Bryan would give birth to a movement that would span four continents and would see thousands of people come to faith and enter the kingdom of God. Shapely rightly described something of the mystery of the day by calling it an Apostolic Ordination. Years later as John Thorne reflected on the mysteries

3 on God’s ways he wrote, “The more closely the occurrences are examined which led up to the origin of the Bible Christian denomination the more apparent becomes the hand of providence in it all. Its strange and checkered history, the unfrequented way it has had to travel, its destitution of the means to which men naturally look for help in any undertaking, above all its wonderful success, are sufficient to convince any candid mind that the Spirit of God prompted and guided the beginning of our Church” 4

As an eleven year old William had heard a local preacher Steven Kessell preach at Bokiddick Farm House. Later he described what he had experienced not as frightening but as a humbling sense of God’s mercy that almost overwhelmed him. He went and sought God’s pardon for his sins and then as an 18 year old in 1795 he joined a Methodist Society. Bokiddick Farm House From the outset there were a number of features that marked Williams’s life. Firstly, he was born in a period when Cornwall was consistently affected by a series of Revivals. Secondly, he was driven by a passion to see his neighbors and friends come to faith in Christ. Thirdly, his zeal and bold witness was always productive, it always resulted in fruit of some kind.

As the boy grew it was obvious that he was a gifted young man, a strong person of single mind who spoke with power and with a genuine concern for others. He soon became a Local Preacher but his sense of urgency was so intense that when other activities distracted him from evangelism and witnessing he was left depressed and overcome by feelings of guilt and shame.

In 1801 O’Bryan began assisting Methodist Preachers to open new Societies in Devonshire and it became clear to some that he was being called to give himself to ministry. With the encouragement of the lay people who had received his preaching warmly he was led to wait on the Wesleyan District Meeting for a possible opening. For some reason however an opening never seemed to come.

The Persistent Call 1804

A real sense of conviction and urgency returned to William in 1804 at a time when he experienced a serious illness. He prayed “That if the Lord would raise him up again he would go forth in his name to warn sinners to flee from the wrath to come.” After recovering and with a pressing sense of what was described as a “divine commission” he sought advice from others about the way ahead. Eventually it became apparent that there was a need for another Methodist Minister in O’Bryan’s local Circuit (Bodmin) and again with the support of the lay people and preachers he was encouraged to attend 4 the Wesleyan District Meeting with view to filling the vacancy and entering the ministry. The Chairman of the meeting we are told advised O’Bryan to return home and to follow the Local Preaching Plan!! 5

Later in November 1810, a more decisive discipline expelled William O’Bryan from the Gunwen Society. In a sad irony we note that Gunwen was not only the place of his birth, but it was also the Society that William had earlier given land for the building of a Chapel. In addition to this a number of groups he had formed were promptly removed from his care.

Author Cyril Davey notes, “After the century the Wesleyan Church had its own increasingly hardening establishment. There was a sharp division between ministers and layman, who had little real power in their own church. Discipline was more likely to be applied to those who challenged authority than those who neglected the Class Meeting or the Communion --- in the opinion of not a few younger men Wesley’s Methodism had lost its sense of mission and had grown stale --- despite its undoubted strength there were many places in Cornwall and Devon, for instance where Methodist preaching had still never been heard.” 6

William O’Bryan was obviously a strong individual who was ready to challenge authority if he thought it was necessary. As a general principle he was careful to only preach in places where there was no Methodist preaching but the attitude that seemed to prevail went something like this: - “Mr O’Bryan will preach where the Superintendent chooses to plan him and no where else”!!!

The Important Year 1815

The year of 1815 was packed with significance and the fast moving action of this period defies description.7 It was in May 1815 that Mrs Mary Thorne (Snr) who lived at Shebbear in Devon came under heavy conviction about how she had accused her late father of being deluded by his interest in Methodist Preachers. (false apostles) She was later converted by one of the Countess of Huntington’s Chaplains. The importance of Mrs Thorne’s conversion must never be underestimated. The John Thorne family would never be the same again, not only would they come to support William O’Bryan but Shebbear and the Thorne family would become central to a continuing saga that would assume international proportions and reach the remote regions of the Colony of South Australia.

In response to a “pressing invitation” from the Superintendent of the St Austell Circuit O’Bryan was joyfully readmitted to Methodist ranks and his Societies were gladly incorporated into the Methodist Connexion. In January it was decided that William would extend his preaching tours into Devon and a number of new Societies were formed as he visited places along the way including Holsworthy, Bradford, Cookbury and Sheepwash..

5 The Second Rejection

On William O’Bryan’s return the Superintendent of the St Austell Circuit informed him that in line with the disciplines of the church he was withholding his membership ticket because he had not met in Class for three weeks. This meant that for a second time O’Bryan was expelled from the Society and similar to the first occasion he was told, “that he had not been excluded, but he had excluded himself.”

John Thorne records, “On his return home he (O’Bryan) found that the Wesleyan Minister had again dropped his name from the Society and all further efforts at harmonious working with his old friends were defeated. He was thus compelled if he would follow his long standing convictions as to his duty, to embark in an independent career of evangelism.”8 F. W. Bourne continued, “The Methodist Preachers and Laymen who took a leading part in the transactions which led to William O’Bryan’s separation from the Society that he loved so well and served so faithfully, were partly right; but they were wholly wrong in being so utterly blind to the real character of the man whom they so foolishly thwarted – they were harsh and violent when they should have been friendly and conciliatory.”9 William had responded, “I cannot abandon the work – it is my first duty to obey God.”

The Bible Christian Movement was born on 1 October 1815 when O’Bryan wrote, “I entered on my Circuit at Mary Week and Hex.” He had made the important break and drawn up what would be his own first Preaching Plan. The first Class Meeting was held at Shernick farm, Launcells on 3rd October. On October 15th Thorne’s heard O’Bryan again at Halsdon, Cookbury and they renewed their invitation for the Preacher to visit Lake Farmat Shebbear in Devon. It was arranged that on 8th October after preaching at Langtree he would sleep overnight at the Thornes.

Kitchen Birth

The overnight arrangement and hospitality must have been extended because on the next evening of 9 October 1815 William O’Bryan preached at Lake Farm. It was an occasion of monumental significance. All five Thorne children, fifteen of the neighbours and John and Mary Thorne (Snr) filled the kitchen and spilled over into the parlor. The meeting commenced at 6 o’clock and continued late into the night. James Thorne recalled, “It was a very remarkable season and an abundance of Divine 6 influence was felt by many – it seemed as if people were pinned to the floor.” O’Bryan was ‘earnestly requested by the family to form a Society and so after explaining what that meant, people were invited to join. The evening was clearly overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and it could be said that it was the point when the Movement really took root. With other steps along the way this kitchen meeting would lead to a continuing Bible Christian Revival and a Movement that would touch many thousands of people and draw many into the Kingdom of God.

Schism or Division of Labor

Schism and division has often been characterised as part of Cornish Methodism. Many have passed judgment on William O’Bryan and there have been questions about why he was so clearly rejected by Wesleyan Methodism. While today he would probably be embraced as a courageous “church planter” it appears the Wesleyans saw O’Bryan as an erratic man given to irresponsible evangelism. Others tended to look upon the disciplines of the Wesleyans as limiting and harsh. The tone of the response may be represented by a way of thinking that when expressed sounded like this. “The plan and purpose of Methodism was not designed to kindle the zeal of a host of independent workers who fly hither and thither snatching hasty successes and forming Societies --- as an individual O’Bryan was at liberty to do so, but not as a Methodist. Methodism existed to spread scriptural holiness through out the land.”

It was obvious that O’Bryan was a strong single minded leader with a preaching gift that seemingly annoyed those who were in control, yet it would become clear that God had chosen him to give rise to a Mission Movement that reached the poor farm labourer and working class person. There was no doubt about his years of fruitful ministry, his first sense of being called and his desire to join the ministry. All that had gone before had led to the birth of a new church and faith community at Week St Mary and Shebbear.

A Distinct Out-pouring

In his lecture, “Our Bible Christian Heritage” delivered in Adelaide in 1952 W. T. Shapely was adamant that John Wesley was largely responsible for the creation of the Bible Christian Church because he had ignored and by-passed that part of the country in Devon. Shapely also claimed it was, “a break-away from the Mother Church but also a distinct outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God.” It was all part of the, “great revival sweeping through the County with a flame of fire at that time.” Shapely was certainly on target here. Cornish Revivals had swept through the County at regular intervals between 1764 and 1831. The Bible Christian Movement was just a small part of a much larger evangelical uprising that had shaped O’Bryan’s thinking and ministry.

Holy Discontent

As much as diversity can be a mischievous disruption it can also express a healthy vitality. Dr Arnold Hunt clearly recognised this when he wrote, “God sometimes 7 chooses to work outside the best organised of churches as Wesleyanism undoubtedly was.” 10 In his book “Marks of Methodism,” Brian Wibberley (1905) sums it up, “Whatever the demerits of the initial misunderstandings may have been, they are as nothing to the merits of the intense evangelical fervor which everywhere marked the founders of the minor Methodist churches. It was the perception of the urgent need for evangelisation that was the quickening impulse and master-motive of those “great hearts” like—O’Bryan and Thorne—Their efforts were, as the famous Robert Hall declared, “very irregular,” but they were “gloriously irregularities”—Christ like, Apostolic, and Methodistic.”

Enter James Thorne

James was one of three sons born to John (Snr) and Mary (Snr) Thorne. As a young convert he was a humble person but he had a desire to preach. On Christmas day 1815 neighbours gathered in the Thorne home to hear James first sermon. At this time openings for William O’Bryan were multiplying so fast that he began praying for a fellow worker. At the first local Preacher’s Meeting on 4 March 1816, with his parent’s approval, James Thorne still questioning “how shall I be able to preach everyday” commenced his itinerant ministry alongside William O’Bryan. James Thorne would later become the “rock” of the Movement and successor to William O’Bryan. James Thorne

Trouble Makers

At the first April 1816 Quarterly Meeting held at O’Bryan’s home in Holsworthy it was reported that over the Quarter numbers had increased by 175 members now making a total of 412. By the following January 1817, 920 people were recorded as being in fellowship. Soon after this things came to a head and a Lake Farmhouse Shebbear violent persecution raged in Home of the Thornes Holsworthy. Drums were beaten, stones and rotten eggs were thrown and “violence came against the door” of the home where a prayer meeting was taking place. Just as noisy revival meetings were 8 normal so was the public persecution and bullying that followed the ministry. In more than one way it seemed as if the days of the early church were being revisited. Just as it was said of the first apostles, “They have caused trouble all over the world” (Acts 17:6), so in this case, the local revivalists were seen as troublemakers.

By the time six months had passed there were three fully employed traveling preachers. As the Connexion expanded and preaching places were established the Thorne home at Lake Farm became a retreat home for Preachers and people suffering persecution. Preachers faced many challenges. It was a tough, testing job that involved hours of walking long distances. Some walked as far as Exeter or Plymouth and years later we know that James Way, (who was eventually sent to South Australia) walked 80 miles to reach his first Station. Several influential families emerged to bring a needed stability to the development of the fledgling Society. The Reed family, notable land owners in North Devon, also the Courtice and Cottle families offered their homes to weary evangelists.

Simplicity, and Inclusion

One of the early strongholds of the Bryanites/Bible Christians was the small mining village of Hicks Mill where Billy Bray, the well known Local Preacher and later folk hero attended soon after his conversion. The Bryanites were well placed to embrace the rural poor and eccentrics like Billy.

Farmers and agricultural laborers were not inspired by ritualism, or the doctrine of the priesthood, candles, incense and millinery. Liturgies and ceremonies were looked upon with suspicion and being of Popeish practice. The Bible Christians were essentially a Preaching Movement and when the Word was declared it was expected that the Holy Spirit would come. In many ways they were similar to the Wesleyan’s with a simple extemporary presentation, a theological focus on repentance and conversion, a free salvation by grace and an inner witness to justification and sanctification. However there was an added openness to the visitation of the Holy Spirit often referred to as a “Divine influence”. These doctrines would all become normal, characteristic features of the Movement.

This was a period of rapid growth and extraordinary happenings well beyond the possibility of detailing here. William O’Bryan continued to preach in villages in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Farmers and people from different areas Billy Bray ** travelled to meetings held in barns or peoples homes for frequent Love-feasts, times of singing interspersed with testimonies and prayer meetings that extended into the early hours of the morning 9 A Bonded Family

Beyond the support of his wife and daughter O’Bryan had been the ‘engine room’ of the New Movement, the Thorne family provided the foundation or ‘rails’ for the engine to run on. It was John Thorne who built the first Chapel and it was his family and grandchildren who over the years actively helped to sustain and grow the cause. From the outset Mary Thorne (Snr), Catherine O’Bryan and a number of other women had been an essential part of a closely bonded Movement. In fact it was a network of inter- family and extended relationships committed to a new cause that fostered a collegial fellowship and a corporate sense of family.

Mission Beyond

Ted Curnow 2011 In February 1820 with few resources but in full flush of the Holy Spirit’s equipping, William Lyle and James Thorne set out to evangelise the County of Kent. In June early itinerants Catherine Reed and Ann Cory joined them. On one occasion F.W. Bourne recorded that Ann Cory preached like John the Baptist to a crowd of approximately 1000 people, many being rough and uneducated. “The preaching room now became so crowded that the candles would only “burn faintly” and often went out…Many who came to scoff, arrested by the Spirit’s power, remained to pray. One John Allen said at a Love-feast he had been “crowned king of liars, swearers, and drunkards by his wicked companions at the Black Lion, “--- but even his “blasphemies were turned to praise, and he was fully resolved to serve God faithfully to the end.” After his miraculous change, his landlord had said, “The Bryanites having got John Allen will get the devil next: Their influence over the people is such that I shall have to let my house to them.”

The success of the mission in Kent would lead to the birth of the Bible Christian Missionary Society formed in 1821 “--- for the purpose of sending missionaries into dark and destitute parts of the United Kingdom and other countries, as Divine Providence might open the way.”

Years later, Bourne wrote, “It is no exaggeration to assert that the Missionary Society is the brightest jewel of the Denomination, its noblest ornament, its firmest pillar, and has been its most effective instrument ---tens of thousands of converts are its crown of glory.” Early discontent had led to vision, vision led to action and now the harvest on an international scale would prove unstoppable. This constant passion for mission and the conversion of souls, a legacy of William O’Bryan never faded or failed. On the broader canvas, as it has been noted this initiative was not an isolated development, indeed the Bible Christian Missionary Society was part of a greater nineteenth century 10 Movement which sent Christian missionaries to every quarter of the globe, including South Australia.

The Sad Departure

By the late 1820’s the Movement had grown to 8000 members and there was a simmering concern about the concentration of power vested in one person. Since the first Conference in 1819 William O’Bryan had not only been President but the original Deed by which the Chapels were settled gave ultimate authority over the Connexion to the founder. This enabled O’Bryan to veto decisions. In 1826 an amended form of the Deed was presented. Serious objections were then raised and William O’Bryan insisted that his single vote would decide the dispute.

At the Conference in 1827 the matter of O’Bryan’s autocracy was raised again and O’Bryan requested that a paper be drawn up suggesting how the Connexion should be managed in future. This was done and among other things it proposed, “That Mr O’Bryan take a Circuit if requested.” It became increasingly clear that the early independent trait of O’Bryan’s personality that God had used to touch the lives of so many had now run its course. The Preachers of the Conference offered mild but firm resistance and in 1829 nearly all those attending supported the Conference and William O’Bryan had no alternative but to leave. The Wesleyan authoritarian style of leadership that had rejected O’Bryan’s early ministry had now turned a full circle and had become characteristic of his own stance.

As a result William O’Bryan left and took steps to set up his own ministry in America. In light of this sad exit it is reassuring to know that, “during his last visit to England in 1861 he preached in many Connexional Chapels” and he enjoyed hearing his daughter Mary (Mrs Samuel Thorne) and his grand daughter Miss Serena Thorne preach.

An Equalitarian Gospel and Growth

From the outset the Bible Christian cause was essentially a dissident Movement that rejected hierarchical, priestly authority. It was a Movement of the laity that largely rejected patriarchy and that established equalitarian communities around the message of the gospel. O’Bryan was convinced that the gospel should be accessible to the rural poor. The power of God did not lay in the structures of the church or with popes, bishops, liturgies or traditions but in the gospel itself, the Living Word and every ploughboy and milkmaid had the right to have access to it.

Bourne described the average Bible Christian convert as a person not having “enjoyed the advantage of a university education, nor as being invested with any ecclesiastical authority, nor being able to boast in intellectual powers”. In describing missionary zeal, Bourne himself wrote, “Possessed with a deep conviction that Christian work can only be done by Christian men,-- a converted ploughboy is more useful in missionary work than a skeptical bishop or a proud ecclesiastic”.11 This breaching of the clergy-laity divide and prevention of priestly domination was evident in a number of practices 11 adopted by the church. At ordination there was no laying-on-of-hands and in early days the title of Reverend was not accepted because it was seen as a badge of Popery. Where Wesleyans made no provision for lay-people at their Conferences, the Bible Christians provided Lay representation.

For the next forty years James Thorne, the farmer’s son and lad who had started as an uncertain preacher became the leader. The disruption of William O’Bryan’s departure injured the infant Movement and was sad, but far from destroying it, “the home ground was ploughed more thoroughly” and the real impact of the Movement’s missionary endeavors were just beginning.

Revivals continued to both grow and renew the organisation. It is said Chapels in Cornwall were “as common as currants in a cake,” but with limited finance volunteers often created meeting places by patching up old barns or by erecting small, poorly built Chapels. This is illustrated by a well-known story of a revival in 1824 when one Chapel was so crowded and air so desperately needed that in order to avoid a disaster, a wall was removed, partly broken down on the spot!! Over the years that followed growth, expansion and consolidation inevitably led to the Church adopting a more structured, Institutional form. As numbers grew Chapels were enlarged or superseded, in some cases up to three or four times. Records show that over a 14-year period alone (1850- 1864) a remarkable 300 Chapels were built.

As time progressed so did the quality of the Chapels. The “Address to the Churches” at the Jubilee Conference of 1865 held to the vision. The Bible Christians were always one of the minor branches of Methodism but their contribution remains significant. The Souvenir booklet on the eve of Church Union in England in 1907 records the Bible Christian Church as having 181 Ministers, 1,515 Local Preachers, 628 Churches, 32,202 Members, 45,847 Sunday School Scholars and approximately 150,000 Adherents.

Bible Christian Conference. England 1865.

12 South Australia

Two Bible Christian Missionaries, James Way and James Rowe arrived at Port Adelaide with their families in late 1850 to establish the work in South Australia. Chapels opened in the north at Burra then in Bowden and Adelaide. George Fife Angas often supported the Movement and points from his speech at the Foundation Stone Laying of the Adelaide Chapel in October 1857 offer high commendation of the Bible Christian cause that would play a significant role in pioneering our Christian heritage.

THE GEORGE FIFE. ANGAS SPEECH

(S.A.Register/Bible Christian Magazine March 1858)

Several speeches were presented at the public meeting but the remarks of George Fife Angas were perhaps the most significant. The points he made were reported as follows:-

“His knowledge of the Bible Christian Connexion had been very short; knowing nothing of its operations before the last three years. He remembered being in Devonshire about forty years ago, and hearing of a great sensation at that time produced in that County, by the preaching of the fangled doctrine of a sect then just sprung up, calling themselves “Bible Christians.” He had however forgotten them altogether, till about three years ago, when he was appealed to for a donation towards one of their Chapels. He then remembered what he had heard forty years before, which led him to make some enquiries respecting their doctrines and operations; the result of which was, he could assure the meeting quite satisfactory. He had found that their doctrines were not new-fangled or in any way inconsistent with the teaching of that Book after which they call themselves. He had found on inquiry that their Ministers were a humble, zealous hardworking class of men, whose great object was the salvation of souls. They were not much known as yet in this city, because they sought not opportunities like some to blaze their works before the world, and because they had been working in the shade, i.e. in the bush, and other places destitute of the gospel. He felt sorry, and even ashamed, that he had not made himself acquainted with them sooner than he did. Of late he had had interviews with a few of their Ministers, and felt gratified thereby; and he could assure the meeting that those Ministers and their people had found their way not only into his heart, but also into his pocket; and he felt it an honour to contribute towards their advancement of the Redeemer’s cause among the Bible Christians. He would earnestly call upon the meeting to give liberally towards so good a cause. The Honourable gentleman then sat down amidst great applause.”

13

1 “The Rock From Whence We Were Hewn,” BCM 1897. J Thorne, P.9 2 “Our Bible Christian Heritage,” Booklet. W T Shapley. 1952 3 ‘The Making of Victoria England,” G K Clark. Page 21 4 “The Rock From Whence We Were Hewn,” BCM 1897. J Thorne, P.9 5 Rev Colin Short points out that by offering for the ministry O’Bryan would have been committed to the work of the whole Connexion but in offering he may have had the Bodmin Circuit alone in mind. While no evidence supports this, it could have been a reason for his rejection. Email 1 Jan.2012 6 “The Glory Man,” Cyril Davey, P.45 7 Not only did 1 October 1815 mark the birth of the Bible Christian Movement but as Rev D G Haydon pointed out it was the year that John Thorne (Snr) was converted in Shebbear. (In 1829 his son James became the second leader in place of William O’Bryan. It was also the year that Napoleon Boneparte escaped from Elba, lost the Battle of Waterloo and was sent to St Helena). 8 “The Rock From Whence We Were Hewn,” BCM 1897, J Thorne, P.14 9 “The Bible Christians,” F W Bourne. Reprint P.19,20 10 “The Bible Christians in Australia”, Dig or Die, P127 Dr A D Hunt, 1980 11 “The Bible Christians,” F W. Bourne. 1905, P100

** Page 11, Billy Bray http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~biblechristianmag/title.html Photos: Bokiddick Farm & Thorne House Plaque. EA Curnow 2011

14