A SHORT HISTORY OF INDEPENDENT METHODISM. A SOUVENIR OF THE HUNDREDTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCHES, 1905. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Published by the Independent Methodist Book Room. -^fr'-' — PRE FACE. The brief chapters which follow, though historical in character, are not presented as containing a con- secutive history of Independent Methodism. The purpose has been to gather into a small volume a number of facts which are likely to be read with interest on the occasion of the celebration of the Hundredth Annual Meeting. From the year 1797 the early Churches of our denomination held much useful intercourse, but it was not until 1806 that they formally joined themselves into an organisation. Since the Annual Meeting of that year was described as the first, it follows that the Meeting of the present year— 1905 becomes the Hundredth. To mark the occasion the General Committee decided upon the issue of the present volume and entrusted its preparation to George Hunter, James Vickers, and Arthur Mounfield— the latter to fulfil the duties of Editor. Thanks are due to correspondents in the various districts who have gathered materials and provided the photographs, which so greatly add to the interest of the narratives. Special indebtedness must be VI PREFACE. acknowledged to James Yickers, who has given much help and suggestion, and who contributes the chapter on " Our Principles and Polity. 1 ' The collecting of the historical materials has been a most interesting task, and it is a matter of regret that only a small part of what has been gathered can be included in the volume. The demands of space have made it necessary to reduce the sketches of individual Churches to small proportions, and in the process it may seem that the most attractive and helpful por- tions have been removed. The earlier chapters, too, from the same cause, are wanting in completeness, and must be regarded as gleanings from early narratives rather than — as was at first intended—a connected history of our first Churches. All the materials will, however, be carefully kept and may form the basis of a larger if not a permanent history at a later day ARTHUR MOUNFIELD. Warrington, April, 1905. ——— CONTENTS. Pages. Beginnings i-3 The Quaker-Methodists of Warrington 4—9 Peter Phillips 10—13 Old Friars Green ... 14, 15 ERRATA. 3 6 Page 54, line 9 read John Wood. ,, 95, line 7 read mutual help. 28 ,, 99, line read 1876. 3 ,, 113, line 15 read Peterloo. 4 4 List of Annual Meetings, Names of Presidents and Secretaries ... 45— -48 Connexional Magazine 49 1874— 1902 : A Contrast ... ... ... 50, 5i Annual Meeting Group, Colne, 1902 ...face p. 50 General Committee Groups ... ... 52, 53 Connexional Committee and Officers, 1905 54 Independent Methodism : Its Principles and Polity ... ... ... ... 55- -60 Vlll CONTENTS. Pages. Warrington District 61—76 Manchester (Hanover Street) 77 • Manchester District ... 7 8—94 Oldham District ... 95—103 Glasgow District ... ... 104, 105 Bolton District ... 106— 124 Wigan District ... 125—136 New Springs ... ••• i37> 138 Liverpool District ... ... 139—149 The Yorkshire Churches... ••• 150—157 Colne and Nelson District ... 158—175 Southport District... .. 176— 180 Crewe District ... 181— 184 The Northern Churches ... ... 185—197 Bristol District ... 198—200 Nottingham ... ... 201, 202 Loughborough 203 Great Yarmouth 203 BEGINNINGS. ^^^^pHL close of the eighteenth century and the opening of the nineteenth was a period of much promiscuous religious effort. The Methodist Church had framed its organisation and established its itinerant ministry. But the wave of evangelical fervour had not spent itself, and it was discovered that in many quarters there were those who were not ready to confine their work to prescribed limits or accept a privileged itinerancy. It is strange indeed, that men whose fathers had violated every fixed usage and gained the title Methodist, in derision because of it, should have proceeded to plan the most highly organised society the religious world yet knows. That they should have failed to make it sufficiently elastic to include Alexander Kilham in 1797 is remarkable ; that they should (a dozen years later) have excluded Hugh Bourne for open-air preaching is more remarkable still. It was inevitable that there should be secession. Methodism was militant against evil, and had produced strong men ; in the nature of things such zeal as Methodists had could not be wholly forced into stated and orderly channels. Only an elastic Methodism could have remained a united Methodism. This crystallisation of Wesley's Church raised grave anxieties, which were not confined to any one grade of the Society. Only those who have studied closely the documents of the period realise how narrowly the denomination escaped a serious cleavage. For a time William Bramwell, a man eminent and scarcely second in influence to any of his brethren in the ministry, openly sided with the " revivalist ' party, and went to the point of open separation. Those who have read the funeral sermon, preached on the occasion of his death by the eloquent William Dawson, will remember the rhetorical passage in which he describes this period of his life. To William Bramwell the new Conference-made Methodism, so different from the Methodism he loved, was a 2 BEGINNINGS. grim monster, which threatened the very existence of the Church. Said Dawson, " But when his brethren softened down the distorted features of the detested object which his trembling hand, at the instigation of his jealous heart, had drawn ; when they proved that in the present state of the Methodist body the evils of a* schism and division would be much greater than the evils which he lamented and deplored ; when they drew the picture of the monster division, he retraced his steps and lived and died in union with his brethren." We mention this crisis in the history of Methodism because it gives explanation of the lesser Methodist bodies which began their existence about that period. The Camp Meeting Methodists, afterwards the Primitive Metho- dists ; the Kilhamites, afterwards the Methodist New Connexion ; the Revivalists of Leeds ; the Tent Methodists of Bristol ; the Magic Methodists of Delamere Forest; the Band- Room Methodists of Manchester and Independent Methodists of Macclesfield were all offshoots from the Old Connexion which based their separation upon the enforcing of the constitution. The immense influence of Bramwell would have changed the entire history of Methodism had it been wielded on the side of freedom, but the entreaties of many friends brought him to the point of submission. The first marked dissention took place in 1796-7 and resulted in the formation of the Kilhamites, a body much better known by its later title, The Methodist New Connexion. It is evident that the period was one of wide-spread disappoint- ment. There were Methodist meetings, which declined to identify themselves with the organised society, and before the secession of Alexander Kilham many had quietly with- drawn to establish meetings in which greater freedom might be enjoyed. It was from the joining of such Churches after a few years of separate effort that our denomination has sprung. Of their first intercourse we know little. Preach- ing visits were interchanged through several years, but it was not until 1805 that proposals for a formal union took place. It seems probable that a representative meeting was held in that year in Manchester, but we know nothing of its constitution, nor do we know the date or place of meeting of the following year, which came to be regarded as the first Annual Meeting. The Churches represented centred round the districts of Manchester, Warrington, Macclesfield, Oldbam and Stockport. The Manchester, Macclesfield and Warrington Churches dated from 1796-7, and one at least of the societies dated from 1785. We BEGINNINGS. 3 need not raise the question of priority or seek to decide which of the few Churches could have claimed to be the oldest. The first meeting was content to leave the matter undiscussed, and in deciding the order in which the names should be written, followed the Apostolic plan of casting lots. The names were taken as follows, Macclesfield, Manchester, Warrington, Stockport, Oldham, and appear thus in the early minutes. We describe the crisis of the Methodist Church in the last decade of the eighteenth century because it is essential to an understanding of the period in which our first Churches were formed. It would be a mistake, however, to regard it as explaining the genesis of the Connexion. Our first Churches did not come into existence upon a protest, nor were the men who composed them wholly Methodist. The Society at Oldham was an offshoot from the Established Church, and the Warrington Society, from which the chief formative influences came, was a blending of Quaker and Methodist, and would, as we shall see, have probably had an existence apart from any changes which were taking place elsewhere. tor- 7V.4 SIGNATURES FROM FRIARS GREEN TRUST DEED. THE QUAKER-METHODISTS OF WARRINGTON. fOHN MORLEY has said: "Simplicity is the key-word to every revolution with a moral core." If this be so the Quaker-Methodists stood in the succession of true reformers. "Apos- tolic simplicity" was a phrase often upon their lips, and a craving for it lay deep in their hearts. How well they succeeded in realising it must be gathered from their history ; how successful the type of society they formed must be judged from the type of character it produced. The origin of the first society at Warrington is a matter of deepest interest, for though not the oldest in point of years it became the formative agency of the denomination. It was the privilege of the Society to have within its fellow- ship men of fine intellectual power.