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Piety Among ‘The Society of People’: The Witness of Primitive Methodist Local Preachers in the North Midlands, 1812–1862

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Wayne J. Johnson
Wayne J. Johnson*
Affiliation:
University of Keele
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Extract

The chief business of Primitive Methodism,’ wrote the editor of the denominational magazine, ‘is to cultivate personal religion, and to seek the salvation of souls.” Although statements at the national level seldom made their way unhampered down to the lay-dominated local circuit, nevertheless, this was one directive which was generally pursued by a substantial number of its local preachers. Indeed, this search for personal holiness, as well as the seeking of it in others seems to have been the two main strands tying Primitive Methodism together. A frustrated Primitive Methodist, however, wrote, ‘Have we shown to the poor and needy that the gospel… teaches us to regard their temporal as well as their spiritual wants?’ Just here lay the source of much of what has concerned historians interested in interpreting the nature and influence of Primitive Methodism. Indeed, when taken together, these two comments have, coincidentally, established the parameters of debate within which the study of Primitive Methodism has been conducted.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 26: The Ministry: Clerical and Lay , 1989 , pp. 343 - 356
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1989

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References

1 Primitive Methodist Magazine (1849), p. iii.

2 Ibid. (1848), p. 2.

3 For the origins of Primitive Methodism, see Werner, J. S. The Primitive Methodist Connexion: Ils Background and Early History (Wisconsin, 1984).Google Scholar

4 P.M.M. (1837), pp. 248, 254: a notable exception to the institutional histories is D. Valenze, Prophetic Sons and Daughters: Female Preaching and Popular Religion in Industrial England (Princeton, 1985).

5 P.M.M. (1861), p. 34.

6 Halevy, E., History of the English People in the Nineteenth Century, 1 (London, 1960), p. 458.Google Scholar

7 Wearmouth, R.F., Methodism and The Working Class Movements of England, 1800–50 (London, 1937), p. 167 Google Scholar

8 Thompson, E. P., The Making of the English Working Class (Harmondsworth, 1968), p. 427.Google Scholar

9 Gilbert, A. D., ‘Methodism, Dissent and political stability in early Industrial England’, JRH 10 (1978-9)Google Scholar: for a useful synthesis, see McLeod, H., Religion and the Working Class in Nineteenth-Century Britain (London, 1984)Google Scholar.

10 Ritson, J., The Romance of Primitive Methodism (London, 1910), p. 176.Google Scholar

11 Berger, P. L. The Social Reality of Religion (London, 1967), p. 54.Google Scholar

12 P.MM.(1861), p. 104.

13 Ibid. (1834), p. 436.

14 Ibid. (1869), p. 96.

15 Ibid. (1864), p. 675.

16 Ibid. (1850), p. 75.

17 Smiles, S., Josiah Wedgwood (London, 1894), p. 12. Google Scholar

18 P.M.M. (1561), p. 260. “Ibid. (1853), p. 330.

20 Ibid, (1860), p. 266; Ritson, p. 187.

21 P.M.M. (1861), p. 34.

22 Ibid. (1849), p. 240.

23 Herod, G., Biographical Sketches of Some of those Preachers Whose Labours Contributed to the Origination and Early Extension of the Primitive Methodist Church (London, 1855)Google Scholar, Hymn 20; for Primitive Methodism and popular religion see W. R. Ward, ‘The Religion of die People and the Problem of Control, 1790–1830’, SCH 8.

24 Thompson, , pp. 451-2 Google Scholar.

25 J. G., Rule, The Labouring Classes in Early Industrial England 1750–1850 (London, 1986), p. 220.Google Scholar

26 Bunyan, John, Pilgrim’s Progress (Harmondsworth,1965), pp. 90–94.Google Scholar

27 P.M.M. (1845), p. 219; (1846), p. 222.

28 Harrison, B., ‘Religion and Recreation in Nineteenth-Century England’, P&P 38 (1067), p. 99.Google Scholar

29 P.M.M. (1846), p. 99; Rule, p. 215.

30 P.M.M. (1830), p. 185; on persecution see Walsh, J., ‘Methodism and the Mob in the Eighteenth Century’, SCH 8.Google Scholar

31 P.M.M. (1859), p. 9.

32 Cheshire Record Onice, Quarterly Meeting Minute Book, Congleton Circuit, 1844–56, E.M.C. 5/9/1.

33 P.M.M.(1825), p. 270.

34 Ibid. (1846), p. 398.

35 GR.O., Quarterly Meeting Minute Book, Nantwich Circuit, 1838–45, E.M.C. 2/11/1.

36 C.R.O., Sandbach circuit plan, July-October 1857, Burland circuit plan, April-July 1845; Tunstall circuit plan, April-July 1846.

37 P.M.M. (1867), p. 28.

38 Ibid (1861), p. 1.

39 Ibid., p. 66.

40 Thompson, pp. 417–419; Gilbert, A. D., Religion and Society in Industrial England, 1740–1914 (London, 1976), p. 83.Google Scholar

41 On subjective world view see, P. L. Berger, The Social Reality.

42 P.M.M. (1853), p. 330.

43 Minutar/ Records: BeingRules, Regulations, andReports, Made and Published by the Primitive Method ists, vols 1–5.

44 P.M.M. (1861), p. iii.

45 P.M.M. (183s), p. 440.