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Survival and Revival: John Bennet, Methodism, and the Old Dissent

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2016

Henry D. Rack
Henry D. Rack*
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University of Manchester
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Studies in Church History Subsidia , Volume 7: Protestant Evangelicalism , 1990 , pp. 1 - 23
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Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1990 

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References

1 See further in Rack, H. D., Reasonable Enthusiast. John Wesley and the Rise of Methodism (London, 1989), pp. 214–21Google Scholar.

2 Watts, M., The Dissenters (Oxford, 1978), p. 440Google Scholar.

3 Watts, , The Dissenters (Oxford, 1978), p. 509Google Scholar.

4 Higson, P.J. W., ‘Some leading promoters of… Lancashire chapelries’, TLCAS, 75-6 (1961), pp. 123–63Google Scholar; Booker, J., History of Ancient Chapel of Denton = Chetham Society, 37 (1856), pp. 71–83Google Scholar; History of Ancient Chapel of Birch = Chetham Society, 47 (1859), pp. 149–50.

5 Ashe, J., Life and Character of William Bagshaw (London, 1704)Google Scholar; Mansfield, R., ‘The development of Independency in Derbyshire’ (Manchester, M.A. thesis, 1951), pp. 114–28Google Scholar.

6 London, DrLibrary, Williams, MS 702.C33, Evans List, p. 58Google Scholar, says 1,500; Gastrell, F., Notitia Cestriensis = Chetham Society, 19 (1849), p. 57Google Scholar, says 233 families (c.I, 150 persons) for all Dissent.

7 Chesire Classis Minutes, ed. Gordon, A. (London, 1917)Google Scholar.

8 See Rack, , Reasonable Enthusiast, pp. 171–80Google Scholar, for suggestions.

9 Rack, H. D., ‘Religious societies and the origins of Methodism’, JEH, 38 (1987), pp. 582–95Google Scholar. But for a Cheshire example, see Everett, J., Wesleyan Methodism in Manchester (Manchester, 1827), pp. 139–74Google Scholar; Journal of John Wesley, ed. Curnock, N. (London, 1912), 3, p. 443Google Scholar.

10 Manchester, , Rylands, John University Library (hereafter JRUL), Methodist Church Archives (hereafter MCA), Bennet’s, John MS Diary, 22 Nov. 1747Google Scholar.

11 Wesley, Charles, Journal, ed. Jackson, T. (London, n.d.), 2, pp. 137–8Google Scholar.

12 JRUL, MCA, Wesley, MS Family Letters, 2, p. 13Google Scholar; John Bennet to Charles Wesley, 30 July 1745.

13 JRUL, Bagshaw MSS 25/7/5, Clegg’s Diary, James (also ed. V. S. Doe, Derbyshire Record Society, 2 (1978), 15 Oct. 1741; 4, 11, 24Jan. 1742Google Scholar.

14 Ibid., 12, 16 Jan. 1742.

15 Doe, , Clegg, I, pp. xxxviii–ixGoogle Scholar.

16 Urwick, W., Nonconformity in Cheshire (London, 1864), pp. 293–7Google Scholar.

17 Mansfield, R., ‘History of Congregationalism in Derbyshire’ (Manchester Ph.D. thesis, 1958), p. 340Google Scholar.

18 Nightingale, B., Lancashire Nonconformity, 6 vols (Manchester, 1893)Google Scholar, gives many examples.

19 Manchester, , Central Library Archives, microfilm of Cross St. Register, pp. 257–69Google Scholar; Nightingale, , Lanes. Nonconformity, 5, pp. 97–101Google Scholar.

20 Clegg, Diary, for example, 30 Apr. 1737, 18 Dec. 1741.

21 Ibid., 27 Apr. 1721.

22 Diary of Peter Walkden, ed. Dobson, W. (Preston, 1866), for example, pp. 3, 14, 16, 86Google Scholar.

23 Clegg, Diary, 3 Jan. 1742.

24 Ibid., 4, 5 Jan. 1742.

25 Nuttall, G. F., ‘Methodism and the Old Dissent’, JURCHS, 2 (1981), pp. 259–74Google Scholar.

26 JRUL, MCA, James Everett Manchester Scrap Book, pp. 412–14; Everett, J., Methodism in Sheffield (Sheffield, 1823), p. 27Google Scholar; Jackson, T., ed., Lives of the Early Methodist Preachers, 6 vols (London, 1872), 6, pp. 242–3Google Scholar.

27 Rack, , Reasonable Enthusiast, pp. 216–17Google Scholar.

28 JRUL, MS Eng. 1062, p. 10.

29 JRUL, MCA, M. Batty, MS Church History, p. 4.

30 JRUL, MCA, Bennet, Diary, 1–7 May 1742.

31 Ibid., 3 July 1743; Rack, , Reasonable Enthusiast, pp. 217–18Google Scholar.

32 Brown, R., English Baptists of the Eighteenth Century (London, 1986), pp. 67–8Google Scholar.

33 Lady Huntingdon to Wesley, John in Letters of John Wesley, ed. F. Baker (Oxford, 1982), 2, p. 75Google Scholar and n.

34 Everett, , Sheffield, pp. 257–9Google Scholar.

35 JRUL, MS Eng. 1066, Dukinfield Notes; Titterington, E. E., Historical Sketches of the Moravian Church in Dukinfield (London, 1910), p. 8Google Scholar.

36 Benham, D., Memoirs of James Hutton (London, 1856), pp. 110–11Google Scholar.

37 Wesley, John, Journal, 2, p. 464Google Scholar; 3, pp. 215, 216.

38 Jackson, Lives, I, p. 14.

39 Ibid., p. 55.

40 Manchester, Central Library Archives M185, MS Caleb Warhurst,Diary, 10 Nov. 1857.(This Diary has been disarranged and misdated, but 1 have corrected the dates). For Warhurst, see Nightingale, , Lanes. Nonconformity, 5, pp. 107–16Google Scholar and below, p. 18.

41 JRUL, Congregational College Loan, Box 15, Cannon Street Church Book, pp. 1–34.

42 Halley, R., Lancashire Puritanism and Nonconformity, 2 vols (London, 1872), 2, p. 447Google Scholar; checked by comparison with Cross St. Register and Cannon St. Church Book and Warhurst Diary.

43 This was one Henry Hope; see Little, C. D., ‘Origins of Manchester Methodism’, PWHS, 26 (1948), p. 18Google Scholar; Cannon St. Church Book, pp. 15, 101.

44 Christian History, 5 (2), p. 52; 6 (1), p. 35 (microfilm in JRUL).

45 Warhurst, Diary, 18 May 1758.

46 Wesley, Charles, Journal, 2, p. 129Google Scholar.

47 For his life see autobiography merging into diary in JRUL, MCA; supplemented for early life by summary of missing passage in Everett, Sheffield, pp. 257–9. for the birth date see Auto biography, p. 1, and epitaph in Mansfield, Congregationalism, p. 24.

48 For this academy see McLachlan, H., English Education under the Test Acts (Manchester, 1931), pp. 131–4Google Scholar.

49 Everett, , Sheffield, pp. 257–9Google Scholar.

50 Bennet, Autobiography, p. 15, says 1741, probably an error for OS, as Taylor’s visit is dated by Clegg, Diary, 4, 5 Jan. 1742.

51 Bennet, Diary, 20 Mar. 1743.

52 Wesley, John, Letters, 2, pp. 343–4Google Scholar.

53 Bennet, Diary, 18 Apr. 1747; Jan. 1748.

54 MCA, MS Bennet, Letter Book, p. 85 (Bennet to William Briggs, 3 Mar. 1749); cf. Bennet to John Wesley, 25 Apr. 1749, in MCA, MAM P6, and Wesley, John, Letters, 2, p. 337Google Scholar.

55 Bennet, Diary, 2, 3 May 1743.

56 Jackson, , Lives, 1, p. 62Google Scholar.

57 Bennet, Diary, 2 June 1742; Rose, E. A., ‘Methodism in Cheshire to 1800’, TLCAS, 78 (1975), p. 23Google Scholar (excellent account of Bennet in Cheshire).

58 Ibid., pp. 24–5.

59 Bennet to Charles Wesley, 30 July 1745, in MCA, MS Wesley Family Letters, 2, p. 13; Bennet, Diary, 6 Nov. 1747; 17 Mar. 1748; 2 Oct. 1748; for Clegg and Bennet, see Bennet, Diary, 8 May 1743.

60 Bennet to Charles Wesley, 30 July 1745 in MCA, MS Wesley Family Letters, 2, p. 13; Bennet, Diary, Good Friday 1749.

61 Bennet, Autobiography, pp. 15, 20; Diary, 3 May 1742; see also Rack, , Reasonable Enthusiast, p. 434Google Scholar and ‘Trinitarian visions in Methodism’, PWHS, 46 (1987), pp. 38–9, 42.

62 Bennet, Autobiography, p. 15; Diary, January-March 1743.

63 Ibid., 12 Sept. 1742.

64 Bennet, Autobiography, p. 5 (in shorthand).

65 Bennet, Diary, 26 Apr. 1748; 20 Sept. 1748; 29 Mar. 1749; Wesley, John, Journal, 8, p. 157Google Scholar; see my ‘Doctors, demons, and early Methodist healing’, SCH, 19 (1982), pp. 140–3.

66 Rack, , Reasonable Enthusiasts, pp. 210–12Google Scholar.

67 Minutes of Conference (1749), in PWHS, 4 (5) (1904), supplement, pp. 64–5.

68 Wesley, John, Journal, 3, pp. 175–6Google Scholar; Wesley, Charles, Journal, I, p. 440Google Scholar; Bennet to Wesley, Charles in Arminian Magazine, I (1778), p. 472Google Scholar; Everett, , Manchester, pp. 53–5Google Scholar.

69 Bennet, Diary, 2 May 1743.

70 Agenda to Minutes of conference, 1744 from JRUL, MS Eng. 962, photostat of Richard Viney, Diary, 1 June 1744, and in PWHS, 14 (1924), pp. 203–4.

71 Bennet, Diary, 18, 20 Oct. 1748; PWHS, 7 (1909), p. 78; PWHS, 35 (1965), pp. 1–4.

72 Jones, M. H., The Trevecka Letters (Caernarvon, 1932), pp. 266–8Google Scholar.

73 Rack, , Reasonable Enthusiast, pp. 199–200, 450–61, 333–4Google Scholar.

74 Léger, J. A., Wesley’s Last Love (London, 1910)Google Scholar; Reasonable, Reasonable Enthusiast, pp. 258–64.

75 Rack, , Reasonable Enthusiast, pp. 364–7Google Scholar.

76 Wesley, John, Letters, 2, p. 491Google Scholar n.; Journal, 4, p. 15; Bennet, Diary, 2 Apr. 1752.

77 Jackson, , Preachers, I, pp. 62–3Google Scholar; Bennet, Diary, 25 Aug. 1744 and Letter Book, p. 41; Wesley, John, Letters, 2, p. 107Google Scholar.

78 Bennet, to Wesley, , 7 Mar. 1747, in Arminian magazine, I (1778), p. 472Google Scholar; Everett, Manchester, P.55.

79 Wesley, John, Letters, 2, pp. 390–3Google Scholar.

80 Baker, F., Charles Wesley (London, 1948), pp. 83–7Google Scholar.

81 Bennet, Letter Book, p. 105; Diary, 1 Apr. 1752.

82 Wesley, John, Letters, 2, p. 491Google Scholar n.; Bennet, Diary, 2 Apr. 1752.

83 Bennet, Diary, 2 Apr. 1752.

84 Transcript of Manchester circuit minutes from 1752 in my possession.

85 Nightingale, , Lanes. Nonconformity, 3, p. 18Google Scholar.

86 Davison, W. H., Centenary Memorials of Duke’s Alley, Bolton (Bolton, 1854), pp. 48–86Google Scholar; Nightingale, 3, p. 18.

87 Wesley, Charles, Journal, 2, p. 128Google Scholar.

88 Caleb Warhurst, Diary, 6 Mar. 1759.

89 Bennet, Diary, 1 May 1742, 22 July 1744; Warhurst, Diary, 1 July 1758.

90 Bennet, Diary, 6 Nov. 1747, 4 Apr. 1742.

91 Wesley, John, Letters, 2, pp. 491–2Google Scholar; Jackson, , Preachers, 6, pp. 242–3Google Scholar.

92 Bennet, Diary, 13 Feb. 1752, 1–2 May 1752.

93 JRUL, MS Eng. 1062, p. 30; Bennet, Diary, 7 Nov. 1747; Warhurst, Diary, 21 Oct. 1757, 17 Aug. 1758, 18 Feb. 1759.

94 Bennet, Diary, 11 Apr. 1747 for Bredbury Green and frequent references in Warhurst, Diary.

95 Bennet to Mrs Whitefield, 4 June 1754, in Letter Book, pp. 108–9.

96 Welch, E., ed., Two Calvinistic Methodist Chapels = London Record Society, 11 (1975)Google Scholar; Rack, , Reasonable Enthusiast, pp. 282–4Google Scholar.

97 For these exchanges see Whitefield to Bennet, 29 June, 9 and 15 Aug. 1750 in MCA, MS 113.1.10-12; Charles Wesley to Bennet, 10 Aug. 1750 in MCA, MS MAM P6.

98 Calendar of Philip Doddridge’s Correspondence, ed. Nuttall, G. F., HMC (with Northamptonshire Record Society), 26 (London, 1979), pp. 333Google Scholar and n., 339–40 and n.; Correspondence and Diary of Philip Doddridge, ed. Humphries, J. D. (London, 1839-41), 5, p. 515Google Scholar.

99 Clegg, Diary, 31 Oct. 1752; Whitefield, G., Letters (London, 1772), 2, p. 448Google Scholar.

100 Clegg, Diary, 12 Jan. 1754.

101 Whitefield to Bennet, 11 Feb. 1754, in MCA, MS 113.1.17; Chester Record Office, Register of Dissenting Meeting Houses, Warburton, 10 July 1753.

102 Bennet to Mrs Whitefield, 20 June 1752 in Letter Book, pp. 108–9.

103 Seymour, A. C. H., Life of Lady Huntingdon, 2 vols (London, 1844), 1, p. 45Google Scholar. A document on ‘Warburton Conversations 1754’ formerly in MCA, but now lost, would probably throw light on Bennet’s plans.

104 For these places see under names in Miall, J. G., Congregationalism in Yorkshire (London, 1868Google Scholar).

105 Mansfield, Congregationalism, p. 24; PWHS, 7 (1910), p. 116.

106 Warburton, Diary, 28 July 1759.

107 PWHS, 7(1910), pp. 116–17.

108 Manchester Central Library Archives, MS M162, Box 54, MS History of Cannon St. Chapel, p. 41; Nightingale, Lancs. Nonconformity, 5, p. 109; G. R. Axon, ‘Hatherlow Chapel Baptismal Register 1732–81’, TLCAS, 44 (1927), pp. 56–99, includes Warburton and others in the Warburton and Bennet Diaries; Urwick, Nonconformity in Cheshire, pp. 312–14 on the chapel. Cocks, J., Memorials of Hatherlow (Stockport, 1895), p. 61Google Scholar confirms this.

109 Warburton, Diary, 10 Nov. 1756. For Scott, , Jones, R. Tudur, Congregationalism in England 1662–1962 (London, 1962), pp. 140–1, 152, 154Google Scholar; McLachlan, , English Education, pp. 192–3Google Scholar. For Pye, Miall, Congregationalism in Yorkshire, pp. 350, 353.

110 The following details are all from Warhurst’s Diary.

111 Whitefield, Letters, 2, pp. 451; 3, p. 143; Wesley, John. Joumal, 4, pp. 67Google Scholar n., 96 n.

112 Wesley, Charles. Journal, 2, pp. 128–9Google Scholar.

113 Letters and Prose Writings of William Cowper, ed. King, C. and Ryskamp, C. (Oxford, 1979), 1, pp. 400–1Google Scholar and n.

114 Nightingale, , Lanes. Nonconformity, 5, p. 230Google Scholar; Waddington, G., History of Greenacres Chapel (Manchester, 1854), pp. 56–8Google Scholar confuses the succession; Whitehead, T., History of the Dales Congregational Churches (Keighley, 1930), p. 126Google Scholar.

115 For Walkden, see DNB; Diaries, ed. W. Dobson (Preston, 1866); Bromley, J. in THSLC, 32 (1880), pp. 117–42Google Scholar, 36 (1884), pp. 15–40, 37 (1888), pp. 117–40.

116 Miall, Congregationalism in Yorkshire, p. 344.

117 Whitehead, Dales Churches, pp. 123–6.

118 Epitaph in Bromley, in THSLC, 32 (1880), p. 135.

119 Urwick, Nonconformity, p. lxi (from Evans List).

120 Heginbotham, H., Stockport Ancient and Modern (London, 1892), 2, p. 50Google Scholar.

121 Clegg, Diary, 11 Jan. 1742; Bennet, Diary, 22 Aug. 1743, 20 June 1743, 5 Aug. 1743.

122 Bromley, , in THSLC, 37 (1888), p. 140Google Scholar.

123 Ibid., p. 119.

124 Warhurst, Diary, 22 Oct. 1757, 23 Apr. 1758.

125 Jones, Tudur, Congregationalism, pp. 162–8Google Scholar.

126 Arminian Magazine, 2 (1779), p. 95.