The Growth of Wesleyan Methodism in Victorian England and Wales

R. B. Walker

doi:10.1017/S0022046900047254

The Growth of Wesleyan Methodism in Victorian England and Wales

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011

R. B. Walker

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R. B. Walker: Affiliation:
Associate Professor of History, Macquarie University, N.S.W.

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Between the accession of queen Victoria and her death sixty-three years later the Wesleyan Methodist Church increased its membership from 292,000 to 454,000 persons. Recently, however, Dr. Currie has put this seemingly impressive growth in better perspective by indicating that in no censal decade after 1841 did the Connexion keep pace with the increase of population. In this paper that increase will be examined under two categories. First, those sudden spurts of growth which the Church then and later, related to that intensification of devotional practice and religious fervour which it called ‘revivals’; secondly, the regular work and growth of the Church in the years when there were no remarkable increases of members. The third and concluding section will consider the interplay of these factors and the character of Wesleyanism at the end of the century.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 24 , Issue 3 , July 1973 , pp. 267 - 284

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046900047254 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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^{page 267 note 1} The figures cited are for Great Britain, that is England, Scotland and Wales. The inclusion of the Scottish Methodists, who numbered only 3,803 in 1851 and 8,377 in 1901, makes little difference to the totals. The figures are available in the Minutes of the Wesleyan Methodist Connexion (hereafter cited as Minutes) which I was able to consult, along with other printed and MS. sources, in the Methodist Archives and Research Centre, London. I wish to thank Dr. J. C. Bowmer and Miss D. Baslington for their expert assistance to me at the Archives.

^{page 267 note 2} Currie, Robert, Methodism Divided: a Study in the Sociology of Ecumenicalism, London 1968, 90.Google Scholar

^{page 267 note 3} Waugh, Thomas, Twenty-Three Years a Missioner, London 1905, 76.Google Scholar

^{page 267 note 4} See also Minutes (1833), 303–4; (1846), 408; (1877), 62.

^{page 267 note 5} From 1864 the number of deaths was published; from 1875 new members fully received; from 1883 those who had ceased to be members; from 1887 emigrants. At no time were age or sex recorded.

^{page 268 note 1} Methodist Recorder, 22 May 1862, 163.

^{page 268 note 2} Examples in Methodist Recorder, 9 May 1861, 43; 21 August 1874, 503; 1 January 1875, 7.

^{page 268 note 3} Thompson, E. P., The Making of the English Working Class, London 1968, 428Google Scholar; Hobsbawm, E. J. and Rude, G., Captain Swing, London 1969, 289–91.Google Scholar

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^{page 269 note 1} Minutes (1832), 182–3.Google Scholar

^{page 269 note 2} Bolton, Bradford, Birmingham, Huddersfield, Leeds and Sheffield; see Wearmouth, R. F., Methodism and the Working-Class Movements of England 1800–1850, London 1947, 114.Google Scholar

^{page 269 note 3} Rule, John, ‘Methodism and Chartism among the Cornish Miners’, Bulletin of the Society for the Study of Labour History, No. 22, 1971, 8–11.Google Scholar

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^{page 269 note 5} Hammond, J. L. and Hammond, Barbara, The Town Labourer, 1760–1832, London 1917, 272–84.Google Scholar

^{page 270 note 1} Walker, R. B., ‘The Growth and Typology of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in New South Wales, 1812–1901’, Journal of Religious History, VI (1971), 337.Google Scholar

^{page 270 note 2} Checkland, S. G., The Rise of Industrial Society in England, 1815–1885, London 1964, 14–16Google Scholar; Hughes, J. R. T., Fluctuations in Trade, Industry, and Finance: a Study in British Economic Development, 1850–1860, London 1960, 30.Google Scholar

^{page 270 note 3} Wilson, Charles, Economic History and the Historian: collected Essays, London 1969, 179.Google Scholar

^{page 270 note 4} In 1863 it was estimated that of 34,892 in the 41 affected Circuits 14,262 were cotton operatives, of whom 13,026 were wholly or partly unemployed; see Wesleyan Spectator, 16 January 1863, 52Google Scholar; Minutes (1862), 337.Google Scholar

^{page 270 note 5} Clemesha, H. W.. A History of Preston in Amoundemess, Manchester 1912, 227.Google Scholar

^{page 270 note 6} Preston, Chorley, Stockport, Ashton, Oldham, Bolton, Rochdale, Blackburn, Burnley and Padiham.

^{page 270 note 7} In the above ten towns with 12,271 members £8,577 was distributed in 1862–3.

^{page 270 note 8} Pollard, Sidney, History of Labour in Sheffield, Liverpool 1959.Google Scholar

^{page 271 note 1} Wickham, E. R., Church and People in an Industrial City, London 1957, 127–39Google Scholar; Sheffield and Rotherham Independent, 26 November 1881, 6.Google Scholar

^{page 271 note 2} Longmate, Norman, King Cholera, London 1966, passim.Google Scholar

^{page 271 note 3} Minutes (1832), 184.Google Scholar

^{page 271 note 4} Creighton, Charles, A History of Epidemics in Britain, II. 1965, 822–4.Google Scholar

^{page 271 note 5} Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine, 1832, 748, 819.Google Scholar

^{page 271 note 6} Primitive Methodist Magazine, 1832, 52–4.Google Scholar

^{page 271 note 7} Other examples in Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine, 1832, 133–4Google Scholar, 747–8; Primitive Methodist Magazine, 1832, 313–15.Google Scholar

^{page 272 note 1} Twelve Circuits were involved; the places were Plymouth, Bristol, Liverpool, Hull, Merthyr Tydvil, Wolverhampton and Bilston: see Charles Creighton, op. cit., 844.

^{page 272 note 2} Orr, J. E., The Second Evangelical Awakening in Britain, London 1949, 275.Google Scholar

^{page 272 note 3} Ibid., 195.

^{page 272 note 4} McLoughlin, W. G., Modern Revivalism: Charles Grandison Finney to Billy Graham, New York 1959, 166.Google Scholar

^{page 272 note 5} Minutes (1862), 326.Google Scholar

^{page 272 note 6} W. G. McLoughlin, op. cit., 221; Revival, 12 October 1861, 117.Google Scholar

^{page 272 note 7} Methodist Recorder, 7 January 1876, 6.Google Scholar

^{page 273 note 1} Methodist Recorder, 19 March 1875, 149; 16 July 1905, 400.Google Scholar

^{page 273 note 2} British Weekly, 27 April 1905, 60.Google Scholar

^{page 273 note 3} Smart, H. T., Life of Thomas Cook, London 1913Google Scholar; Methodist Recorder, 26 September 1912, 13.Google Scholar

^{page 273 note 4} Methodist Recorder, 2 June 1882, 394; 5 August 1884, 580; 8 August 1884, 603.Google Scholar

^{page 273 note 5} Waugh, Thomas, Twenty-Three Years a Missioner, London 1905, 67.Google Scholar

^{page 274 note 1} Methodist Recorder, 18 May 1905, 17.Google Scholar

^{page 274 note 2} Autobiographical Recollections of Benjamin Gregory, D.D., London 1903, 110.Google Scholar

^{page 274 note 3} Smart, Henry T., Life of Thomas Cook, London 1913, 257–9Google Scholar; Methodist Times, 14 March 1889, 246.Google Scholar

^{page 274 note 4} Autobiographical Recollections, 233.

^{page 274 note 5} [Dorothea Price Hughes], The Life of Hugh Price Hughes, London 1904, 224–5.Google Scholar

^{page 274 note 6} Methodist Times, 4 July 1889, 634Google Scholar; Minutes (1909), 131–2Google Scholar; (1933), 250. Further analogies in R. B. Walker, op. cit., 342–3.

^{page 274 note 7} Currie, op. cit., 139–40.

^{page 275 note 1} Methodist Recorder, Christmas 1900, 68–9.Google Scholar

^{page 275 note 2} Morgan, J. V., The Welsh Religious Revival, 1904–5, Retrospect and Criticism, London, 1909, passim.Google Scholar

^{page 275 note 3} Williams, C. R., ‘The Welsh Religious Revival, 1904–5’, British Journal of Sociology, III. (1952), 242–59.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 275 note 4} Bois, Henri, Le Réveil au Pays de Galles, Toulouse 1906, 193–5, 565.Google Scholar

^{page 275 note 5} Methodist Times, 9 March 1905, 156 (Rowley), and 16March 1905, 183 (Camborne).Google Scholar

^{page 275 note 6} Ibid., 26 January 1905, 58 (Newcastle).

^{page 275 note 7} Ibid., 9 March 1905, 156 (Bristol) and 16 March 1905, 200 (Lowestoft).

^{page 275 note 8} Minutes of District Synods, 1905–6: Methodist Archives.

^{page 275 note 9} Thompson, David M., “The 1851 Religious Census: Problems and Possibilities’, Victorian Studies, XI (1967), 90–1.Google Scholar

^{page 275 note 10} Calculated from tables in Mudie-Smith, R., The Religious Life of London, London 1904.Google Scholar

^{page 275 note 11} Ibid., 189–90.

^{page 276 note 1} This appears to be the meaning of Currie, op. cit., 101.

^{page 276 note 2} Minutes (1863), 538.Google Scholar

^{page 276 note 3} Minutes (1866), 598Google Scholar

^{page 276 note 4} See examples in Methodist Times, 8 August 1891, 771 (Liverpool)Google Scholar and Conference Agenda, 1893, 50, 64–5 (East and West London Missions).Google Scholar

^{page 276 note 5} Revival, 14 September 1861, 82.Google Scholar

^{page 277 note 1} Revival, 23 February 1861, 62; 30 March 1861, 102; 13 April 1861, 117–18.Google Scholar

^{page 277 note 2} Methodist Recorder, 11 April 1861, 14.Google Scholar

^{page 277 note 3} Probert, J. C. C., The Sociology of Cornish Methodism, Redruth 1964, 30–7.Google Scholar

^{page 277 note 4} Rigg, J. H., Wesleyan Methodist Reminiscences: Sixty Years Ago, London 1904, 67–8Google Scholar; Nightingale, Thomas, The Life of the Rev. Samuel Romilley Hall, London [1879], 144–51.Google Scholar

^{page 277 note 5} See reports of Norwich and Lynn, and Oxford Districts, in District Committee Minutes, May 1886: Methodist Archives, London.

^{page 277 note 6} Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, 1908, 371–4.Google Scholar

^{page 277 note 7} Methodist Times, 27 July 1893, 494.Google Scholar

^{page 278 note 1} Methodist Recorder, 1 August 1876, 438Google Scholar; Minutes (1879), 238.Google Scholar

^{page 278 note 2} Methodist Recorder, 20 July 1875, 440.Google Scholar

^{page 278 note 3} Josiah Mee, Thomas Champness as I Knew Him, London n.d., 74.

^{page 278 note 4} Methodist Times, 12 December 1889, 1221.Google Scholar

^{page 278 note 5} Minutes (1903), 527.Google Scholar

^{page 278 note 6} Minutes (1891), 35; (1898), 26.Google Scholar

^{page 278 note 7} Methodist Recorder, 26 July 1906, 5.Google Scholar

^{page 279 note 1} Conference Agenda, 1886, 233–6.Google Scholar

^{page 279 note 2} Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, 1887, 67.Google Scholar

^{page 279 note 3} Ibid., 1904, 530.

^{page 279 note 4} Conference Agenda, 1888, 36.Google Scholar

^{page 279 note 5} Agency and Progress of Wesleyan Methodism (anonymous), London 1845, 5.Google Scholar

^{page 280 note 1} Conference Agenda, 1887.Google Scholar

^{page 280 note 2} Kelly, C. H., How to Retain our Young People, London 1894, 15.Google Scholar

^{page 280 note 3} Minutes (1896), 454.Google Scholar

^{page 280 note 4} Currie, op. cit., 138.

^{page 280 note 5} Conference Agenda, 1903, 49.Google Scholar

^{page 280 note 6} Currie, op. cit., 211.

^{page 280 note 7} Minutes (1886), 245.Google Scholar

^{page 280 note 8} Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, 1907, 92.Google Scholar

^{page 280 note 9} Ibid., 1889, 907.

^{page 280 note 10} Conference Agenda, 1890, 41; 1891, 71; 1894, 52.Google Scholar

^{page 280 note 11} Ibid., 1890, 36; 1894, 39; Methodist Times, 3 October 1889,963Google Scholar; Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, 1908, 353–60.Google Scholar

^{page 281 note 1} Conference Agenda, 1886, 47, 238.Google Scholar

^{page 281 note 2} Ibid., 47.

^{page 281 note 3} Gay, J. D., The Geography of Religion in England, London 1971, 156–7, 309.Google Scholar

^{page 281 note 4} In 1886 Wesleyans made up 7.2 per cent. of all attendances in ‘Smaller London’ (calculated from British Weekly, 24 October 1886). In 1902–3 they provided 7.8 per cent. of those in ‘Inner London’ and 8.7 per cent. of those in ‘Greater London’: Mudie-Smith, op. cit., 447.Google Scholar

^{page 281 note 5} For the attendances in 1881–2 see Mearns, Andrew, Census of Attendance at Public Worship, 1881–82, London 1882.Google Scholar

^{page 282 note 1} If Bradford's suspiciously large afternoon attendance figures of 1851 are excluded, attendance there rose by 105 per cent.

^{page 282 note 2} Calculated from Sheffield and Rotherham Independent, 26 November 1881.Google Scholar

^{page 282 note 3} Chambers, J. D., ‘A Century of Nottingham History’, in Nottingham University, A Century of Nottingham History, 1851–1951, Nottingham 1952, 9, 11.Google Scholar

^{page 282 note 4} Minutes (1894), 320. Conference resolved against accepting female nominations in future.Google Scholar

^{page 282 note 5} Estimated from the Minutes of District Synods in 1906 and 1907. Only a small number of Synods gave this kind of information.

^{page 282 note 6} Prest, Charles, Fourteen Letters on the Home-Work of Wesleyan Methodism, London 1856, 8–23.Google Scholar

^{page 283 note 1} Methodist Recorder, 11 May 1875, 262.Google Scholar

^{page 283 note 2} Methodist Times, 8 August 1889, 771.Google Scholar

^{page 283 note 3} Smith, Edward, Three Years in Central London, London 1889, 39.Google Scholar

^{page 283 note 4} Methodist Times, 1 August 1889, 721.Google Scholar

^{page 283 note 5} Methodist, 12 August 1881, 549.Google Scholar

^{page 283 note 6} Minutes (1894), 314Google Scholar, 456; (1895) 312; Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, 1907, 29.Google Scholar

^{page 283 note 7} Chamberlayne, John H., ‘From Sect to Church in British Methodism’, in British Journal of Sociology, XV (1964), 139–49.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 283 note 8} Jones, B. E., ‘Society and Church in Wesleyan Methodism, 1878–93’, in Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, XXXVI (1968), 134–8.Google Scholar

^{page 284 note 1} R. Currie, op. cit., 177–8.

^{page 284 note 2} Martin, David, A Sociology of English Religion, London 1967, 79–80.Google Scholar

^{page 284 note 3} Op. cit., 80.

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