Domestic Visitation: a Chapter in Early Nineteenth Century Evangelism

H. D. Rack

doi:10.1017/S0022046900050880

Domestic Visitation: a Chapter in Early Nineteenth Century Evangelism

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011

H. D. Rack

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H. D. Rack: Affiliation:
Lecturer in Ecclesiastical History, University of Manchester

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Historians in recent years have shown considerable interest in the alienation from conventional church-going revealed by the Religious Census of 1851, as well as in the efforts of the churches to reach the masses in the second half of the nineteenth century. Less attention has been paid to special means of evangelism before 1850, the impression perhaps being given that despite awareness of the problem of the unchurched, the response to this was narrow and conventional—a matter simply of increasing and rationalising the traditional provision of churches, clergy and parish organisation or their Dissenting equivalents. It is true that Sunday Schools have been noted as devices for capturing and controlling the young; but little attention has been paid to what was probably the most characteristic device during the second quarter of the century for extending religious influences to adults outside the Church— the domestic visitation society. The purpose of the present paper is to attempt a limited inquiry into the circumstances in which these societies began; the different models they followed; and the purposes they pursued.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , October 1973 , pp. 357 - 376

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046900050880 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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^{page 358 note 1} For a recent discussion see Poynter, J. R., Society and Pauperism, London 1969Google Scholar.

^{page 358 note 2} Royle, E. (Radical Politics 1790–1900, London 1971)Google Scholar rightly stresses the association between political and religious radicalism in working-class circles.

^{page 358 note 3} For example, poverty crises in London in 1825 and 1843 when the Christian Instruction Society and Metropolitan Visiting and Relief Association respectively were founded.

^{page 358 note 4} J. P. Kay (—Shuttleworth), The Moral and Physical Condition of the Working Class, 2nd ed. London 1832, 66 fGoogle Scholar.

^{page 359 note 1} Thomas Chalmers, for example, had an important influence in Germany on visiting and relief schemes such as those of J. H. Rautenberg in Hamburg in the 1820s and, through Otto von Gerlach, in Prussia after 1842. (Information from the Revd. Wayne Detzler).

^{page 359 note 2} For Chalmers see especially his own The Christian and Civic Economy of large Towns, Edinburgh 1821–1826.Google Scholar Quotations here are from the retitled edition, The Christian and Economic Polity of a Nation more especially with reference to its Large Towns in Works, Glasgow n.d., xiv–xvi (cited hereafter as Christian and Economic Polity). See also Hanna, W., Memoirs of Thomas Chalmers, Edinburgh 1854Google Scholar.

^{page 359 note 3} Christian and Economic Polity in Works, xiv. 45 ff.

^{page 359 note 4} That of Von Voght in Hamburg has been suggested to me by Mr. Iain MacIver of the National Library of Scotland. See also Poynter, op. cit., 87 ff.

^{page 359 note 5} Hanna, op. cit., 87 ff. Areas of legal assessment rose from 3 in 1700 to 93 in 1800 and 236 out of 900 by 1839: Saunders, L. J., Scottish Democracy, Edinburgh 1950, 197Google Scholar.

^{page 359 note 6} Christian and Economic Polity in Works, xiv. chaps. 1–3; Hanna, op cit., i. 568 ff., 593 ff.

^{page 359 note 7} Hanna, op. cit., i. 532.

^{page 359 note 8} So, e.g., Young, A. F. and Ashton, T. E., British Social Work in the Nineteenth Century, London 1956, 48, 79, 113Google Scholar.

^{page 360 note 1} Chalmers recognised this: Christian and Economic Polity in Works, xiv. 47 n.

^{page 360 note 2} For Nasmith see Campbell, John, Memoirs of David Nasmith, London 1844Google Scholar; Chambers Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, repr. Hildesheim, New York 1971, iii. 204 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 360 note 3} Nasmith was increasingly prone to act independently of the churches and some thought this accounted for the short life of many of his Missions: J. Campbell, op. cit., 455 ff.

^{page 360 note 4} For Tuckerman see Carpenter, M., Memoir of Dr. Tuckerman, London 1849Google Scholar; Eliot, S. R. ‘Joseph Tuckerman, Pioneer in Social Philanthropy’ in Unitarian Historical Society Proceedings, iv (1935), 1–32Google Scholar; Tuckerman's Semi-Annual Reports and a collected version in Hale, E. E. (ed.), Joseph Tuckerman on the Elevation of the Poor, Boston 1874Google Scholar; Tuckerman, J., Principles and Results of the Ministry at Large in Boston, Boston 1838 (cited hereafter as Principles and Results)Google Scholar.

^{page 360 note 5} Principles and Results, 14 f.; Carpenter, op. cit., 10 ff., 21 f.

^{page 361 note 1} Charming, W. E., A Discourse on the Life and Character of the Revd. Joseph Tuckerman in Complete Works, Boston 1841, 488Google Scholar.

^{page 361 note 2} Criticism of City Missions in Principles and Results, 172 ff. Probably only Glasgow extensively used ministerial students: New Statistical Account of Scotland, Edinburgh 1845, vi. 193. For interdenominational support in Boston, see Principles and Results, 19Google Scholar.

^{page 361 note 3} Mr. Tuckerman's Ninth Semi-Annual Report, Boston 1832, 21Google Scholar.

^{page 361 note 4} Semi-Annual Reports, passim; Principles and Results, Part II, especially 93 ff., 286 f.

^{page 361 note 5} Principles and Results, 305 ff. Malthus was in Tuckerman's picture gallery of heroes: M. Carpenter, op. cit., 84 f.

^{page 361 note 6} Principles and Results, 85, 88, 195 ff.

^{page 361 note 7} J. P. Kay (op. cit., 66) appears to suggest that Tuckerman inspired the City Missions and Christian Instruction Societies (cf. Best, G. F. A. in A. Symondson (ed.), The Victorian Crisis of Faith, London 1970, 41). Chronology and other evidence makes this unlikelyGoogle Scholar.

^{page 362 note 1} Dell, R. S. ‘Social and Economic Theories and Political Concerns of a Victorian Archbishop’ in this Journal, xvi (1965), 204Google Scholar, quoting Carus, W., Memoirs of … Charles Simeon, London 1847, 638Google Scholar and Pollard, A. and Hennell, M. (eds.), Charles Simeon, London 1959, 140Google Scholar.

^{page 362 note 2} I owe this point to Dr. John Walsh.

^{page 362 note 3} Reports of the Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor, London 1798–1808, ii. 343 (cited hereafter as S.B.C.P. Reports)Google Scholar.

^{page 362 note 4} Moule, H. C. G., Charles Simeon, London 1892, 53Google Scholar; Smyth, Charles, Simeon and Church Order, Cambridge 1940, 289 f.; Carus, op. cit., 138 fGoogle Scholar.

^{page 362 note 5} A London example of 1817 in Proceedings of the First Twenty Years of the Religious Tract Society, London 1820, 346 (I owe this reference to my pupil Mr. Michael Sheard)Google Scholar.

^{page 362 note 6} Canton, W., History of the British and Foreign Bible Society, London 1904, i. 47 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 362 note 7} For example, the Hull Strangers' Friend Society (founded 1795): S.B.C.P. Reports, i. 295.

^{page 363 note 1} For more rural examples see McClatchey, D., Oxfordshire Clergy 1777–1869, Oxford 1960, 92; J. B. Sumner, Charge 1829, 38Google Scholar.

^{page 363 note 2} Bateman, J., Life of Daniel Wilson, London 1861, i. 184Google Scholar.

^{page 363 note 3} So also in later years: Sampson Low Jr., The Charities of London, London 1854, 68Google Scholar.

^{page 363 note 4} J. Bateman, op. cit., London 2nd ed. 1861, 125.

^{page 363 note 5} Education in England and Wales. Select Committee—Report and Minutes of Evidence (1835) (465)) vii. 763, pp. 1, 8, 9 (cited hereafter as Select Committee on Education).Google Scholar

^{page 363 note 6} Report (1832) quoted in Brown, F. K., Fathers of the Victorians, Cambridge 1961, 241.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 363 note 7} Sampson Low, op. cit., 64.

^{page 363 note 8} Owen, D., English Philanthropy 1660–1960, London 1965, 141Google Scholar; Pringle, J. C., Social Work of the London Churches: the Metropolitan Visiting and Relief Association 1843–1937, London 1937.Google Scholar

^{page 364 note 1} Bloomfield to Peel (1842) in Peel Papers, B.M. Add. MSS. 40537 fol. 178–9 quoted in Soloway, R. A., Prelates and People, London 1969, 326.Google Scholar For the London Scripture Readers Association see J. B. Sumner, Charge 1844, 68; Mayhew, H., London Labour and the London Poor, London 1861–1862, repr. 1967, iv. xxii f.Google Scholar

^{page 364 note 2} What follows comes mainly from Sumner's Chester Charges (1829–44) see also R. S. Dell, op. cit.

^{page 364 note 3} Sumner, J. B., A Treatise on the Records of Creation and on the Moral Attributes of the Creator, London 1816, especially Pt. III, chapter v.Google Scholar

^{page 364 note 4} J. B. Sumner, Charge 1829, 35 f. (catechising); Charge 1832, 107 (cottage meetings); Charge 1832, 108, 112 (Sunday and adult schools); Charge 1844, 55, 57 (benevolent societies).

^{page 364 note 5} A point made by R. A. Soloway, op. cit., 321.

^{page 364 note 6} J. B. Sumner, Charge 1844, 58 ff.

^{page 364 note 7} J. B. Sumner, Charge 1829, 39.

^{page 365 note 1} Op. cit., 37 f. (Sumner's italics).

^{page 365 note 2} Op cit., 40 f.

^{page 365 note 3} J. B. Sumner, Charge 1832, 86 ff.; cf. Charge 1844, 52 f. for a Society giving provision tickets instead of money.

^{page 365 note 4} J. B. Sumner, Charge 1832, 119, 121; Charge 1844, 35; Charge 1832, 93.

^{page 365 note 5} For Sumner's replies to criticism see Charge 1835, 24 ff., 26 f., 44 ff.

^{page 365 note 6} Speck, E. J., The Church Pastoral Aid Society, London 1881, 11 ff., 82, 125.Google Scholar

^{page 365 note 7} After initial doubts about the practicability of Anglican-Dissenter co-operation in London: J. M. Weylland, Round the Tower: the Story of the London City Mission, London n.d., 9.

^{page 365 note 8} Booth, Charles, Life and Labour of the People in London. Third Series. Religious Influences, London 1902, vii. 29 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 366 note 1} Congregational Magazine, 1st N.S. viii (1831), 343, 446 (cited hereafter as Cong. Mag.) A list in Cong. Mag., 1st N.S. ix (1832), Supplement, even includes a few ‘Episcopalians’. For a rare Wesleyan example in Coventry see a letter of 2 May 1828 in John Blackburn's papers in New College, London, MSS. L.52/5/14 (Dr. Geoffrey Nuttall drew my attention to this collection).

^{page 366 note 2} E.g., Inglis, K. S., Churches and the Working Classes in Victorian England, London 1963, 14 ff., 100 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 366 note 3} Cong. Mag., ii (1819), 572Google Scholar; Evangelical Magazine, xxvii (1819), 336 (cited hereafter as Evang. Mag.)Google Scholar

^{page 366 note 4} Cong Mag., 1st N.S. i (1825), 425, 513; 1st N.S. ii (1826), 236; 1st N.S. iii (1827), 19.

^{page 366 note 5} Campbell, John, Jethro: A System of Lay Agency, London 1839, 180 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 366 note 6} Evangelical Register (January 1828), 29.

^{page 366 note 7} For the founding of the C.I.S.; Evang. Mag., N.S. iv (1826), 384, 434. For rules and provincial scheme: Cong. Mag., 1st N.S. iv (1828), 159; Evang. Mag., N.S. ix (1831), 399. For plans in Coventry, Manchester, Stockport and even Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania): New College, London, MSS. L.52/5/14 (1828), 18 (1830), 105 (1839), 52 (1834).

^{page 366 note 8} Select Committee on Education (1835), 52.

^{page 366 note 9} New College, London, MSS. L.52/5/19 (1829).

^{page 367 note 1} Cong. Mag., 1st. N.S. vi (1830), 278; Evang. Mag., N.S. xvi (1838), 182.

^{page 367 note 2} Evang. Mag., N.S. iv (1826), 109; N.S. x (1832), 248. Carlile disturbed a C.I.S. Sabbatarian meeting in 1829: Cong. Mag., 1st N.S. v (1829), 684.

^{page 367 note 3} Select Committee on Education (1835), 52.

^{page 367 note 4} Mosley Street, Manchester, C.I.S. appears to be purely for religious work: J. P. Kay, op. cit., 114 f. In others direct relief was given: Evang. Mag., N.S. xix (1841), 295; Sampson Low, op. cit., 198.

^{page 367 note 5} For London figures see Evang. Mag., N.S. viii (1830), 241; N.S. xix (1841), 295; Sampson Low, op. cit., 198.

^{page 367 note 6} A local fund-raising society at Mosley Street (later Cavendish Street) Independent Church, Manchester, soon began contributing more to the Town Mission than their own C.I.S. (MSS. and printed minutes of Juvenile Auxiliary Society, in Manchester Congregational College Library).

^{page 367 note 7} Charles Booth, op. cit., 169 quoting a ‘Christian Instruction and Benevolent Society’.

^{page 368 note 1} See the Manchester and Salford Town Mission Annual Reports; Lee, R., Ten Fruitful Decades, Manchester 1937.Google Scholar

^{page 368 note 2} Manchester Guardian, 3 May 1837.

^{page 368 note 3} Pleasingly termed ‘the missing link of the Mission’, and following the example of Mrs. Ranyard's London ‘Bible Women’: Manchester City Mission Magazine, January and April 1860.

^{page 368 note 4} Manchester Guardian, 30 April 1845, 21 April 1847; R. Lee, op. cit., 25.

^{page 368 note 5} Manchester Guardian, 28 November 1838.

^{page 368 note 6} Authentic Revelations concerning … the Manchester City Mission, Manchester 1865, claimed anti-Establishment bias on the Mission Committee. On tensions between evangelical and establishment ideals see Best, G. F. A., ‘Evangelicals and the Established Church in the Early Nineteenth Century’ in Journal of Theological Studies, N.S. x (1959).CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 368 note 7} Despite Nasmith's protests the London City Mission soon had to have a committee equally of Anglicans and Dissenters: J. M. Weylland, op. cit., 20 f. The small Town Mission of Saffron Walden did the same ‘as far as practicable’: MS. Minutes (communicated by the Revd. David Monkton).

^{page 369 note 1} On the Beaconites see Isichei, E., Victorian Quakers, Oxford 1969. The author of Authentic Revelations vaguely denounced ‘Quakerism’ in the Mission ethos.Google Scholar

^{page 369 note 2} The ‘Instructions to Agents’ recommended free choice of church ‘provided that in that place the great doctrines of the Reformation are faithfully taught’: Report of the Manchester and Salford Town Mission, 1845, 5.

^{page 369 note 3} Manchester Guardian, 15 and 19 July 1854.

^{page 369 note 4} Mission Halls (first established in the 1880s) were suspect by some as competing with ordinary churches: R. Lee, Mission Miniatures, Manchester n.d., 23 f.

^{page 369 note 5} Visit of the Manchester and Salford Town Mission to Knott Mill Fair, Easter Week, 1841.

^{page 369 note 6} Manchester Guardian, 19 January 1842.

^{page 369 note 7} R. Lee, Ten Fruitful Decades, 29; Report, 1847, 16.

^{page 370 note 1} Report, 1840, 8; The Manchester and Salford City Mission—Social and Physical Influence (circular, 1856, bound with Reports in Manchester Central Library).

^{page 370 note 2} This judgment is in some contrast with the thesis of Rosenberg, C. S. (Religion and the Rise of the American City, New York 1971) that as evangelism failed the New York City Mission turned to social work. (I owe this reference to Professor W. R. Ward).Google Scholar

^{page 370 note 3} Report, 1841. 8 f.

^{page 370 note 4} In 1861 the London City Mission raised over £35,000 with 381 agents; the Church of England Scripture Readers’ Society under £10,000 in 87 parishes: H. Mayhew, op. cit., iv. xxi, xxiii.

^{page 370 note 5} See Annual Reports and Perry, H. E., A Century of Liberal Religion and Philanthropy: a History of the Manchester Domestic Missionary Society 1833–1933, Manchester 1933.Google Scholar

^{page 371 note 1} Monthly Repository, N.S. vi (1829), 187, 276 ff.

^{page 371 note 2} The British and Foreign Unitarian Association of 1815 (formerly the Unitarian Fund) consciously copied more ‘evangelistic’ churches' home mission activity.

^{page 371 note 3} Beard translated Baron De Gérando's Le Visiteur du Pauvre in 1833, with an introduction by Tuckerman (whom De Gérando also admired).

^{page 371 note 4} See McLachlan, H., The Methodist Unitarian Movement, Manchester 1919Google Scholar, and his Essays and Addresses, Manchester 1950, chapter 13.Google Scholar

^{page 371 note 5} H. E. Perry, op. cit., 3 ff. Tuckerman was delayed until 1834 by illness: Tuckerman to Beard 9 January 1834, MS. letter in Manchester Unitarian College Library.

^{page 371 note 6} Report of the Ministry to the Poor … in Manchester, 1834, 16.

^{page 372 note 1} Report, 1834, 6.

^{page 372 note 2} Report, 1842, 18.

^{page 372 note 3} Report, 1834,12. Though recognising fraud, Ashworth thought many were deserving.

^{page 372 note 4} For example, for police, education and recreation: Report, 1834, 17.

^{page 372 note 5} Report, 1834, 9; 1837, 11 f. (tracts); 1839, 28 (library lendings). But for the primacy of religious concern as well as respect for the poor, see Christian Teacher and Chronicle, iii (1837). 364; Report, 1837, 11.

^{page 372 note 6} Report, 1837, 7 f.; Perry, op. cit., 13.

^{page 373 note 1} Report, 1858, 18; Perry op. cit., 24.

^{page 373 note 2} Report, 1834, 3 f.

^{page 373 note 3} Report, 1837, 10 f.

^{page 373 note 4} Select Committee on Education (1835), 54.

^{page 373 note 5} The Passionists used visiting as a missionary technique: Charles, C.‘The Origins of the Parish Mission in England …’ in this Journal, XV (1964), 70.Google Scholar

^{page 373 note 6} Ward, W. R. ‘The Religion of the People and the Problem of Control 1790–1830’ in Cuming, G. J. and Baker, D. (eds.), Popular Belief and Practice (Studies in Church History, viii), Cambridge 1972, 240, 252 f.Google Scholar

^{page 373 note 7} So the Liverpool Minutes of 1820. A Macclesfield district visiting scheme of 1803 was to recover ‘backsliders’ only: Bunting, T. P. and Rowe, G. S., Life of Jabez Bunting, London 1887, 166.Google Scholar

^{page 374 note 1} Grindrod, E., A Compendium of the Laws and Regulations of Wesleyan Methodism, London 1842, 269 ff., 335 f.Google Scholar

^{page 374 note 2} Prest, Charles, Fourteen Letters on the Home Missionary Work of Wesleyan Methodism, London 1856, shows the preoccupation with rural Methodism.Google Scholar

^{page 374 note 3} T. P. Bunting and G. S. Rowe, op. cit., 212 f. claims that Bunting was reluctant to co-operate with undenominational activities except for City Missions (I owe the interpretation in the text to Professor Ward).

^{page 374 note 4} Primitive Methodist Magazine, 1st Series v (1823), 16 (‘Religious Tract Visiting Society’ in Congleton); 3rd Series i (1843), 180 ff. (suggesting lay visiting societies). (Mr. Sheard suggests that Tract Visiting Societies were an early and important means for evangelism by Primitive Methodists).

^{page 375 note 1} A. F. Young and T. E. Ashton, op. cit., 90, quoting Dr. A. Ward to the Edinburgh City Council in 1868.

^{page 375 note 2} Op. cit., passim.

^{page 375 note 3} See, for example, Harrison, J. F. C., The Early Victorians, 1832–51, London 1971, 134 f.Google Scholar

^{page 375 note 4} K. S. Inglis, op. cit., 333 ff.

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