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The Failures of Success: Working Class Evangelists in Early Victorian Birmingham

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Geoffrey Robson
Geoffrey Robson*
Affiliation:
Westhill CollegeBirmingham
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Extract

Autobiography and statistics appear at first sight to be incompatible sources in any study of religious motivation. The former rarely hint at the sociological factors governing religious commitment. The latter are difficult to interpret in terms of individual conviction. Yet the evangelical revival produced an abundance of both. John Wesley in the Arminian Magazine set a fashion which was followed by evangelicals of every brand who published spiritual autobiographies to edify the faithful. Wesleyan methodism also kept careful membership statistics on which scholars like A. D. Gilbert can base a sociological explanation of the rise and fall of denominational religion. Placed side by side the inward and outward evidence gave the impression that statistical success, in terms of ever increasing membership, depended on intense individual conviction in preacher and convert. The Liverpool minutes of 1820 are but the Wesleyan example of a general pattern. Nevertheless this recipe did not guarantee success. It would seem that the challenge to the individual conscience needed to be combined with a strong appeal to a sense of group or class solidarity for any lasting impression to be made. Unfortunately the places where evangelical religion was successful do not always coincide with available autobiographical sources.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 15: Religious Motivation Biographical and Sociological Problems for the Church Historian , 1978 , pp. 381 - 391
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1978

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References

1 Gilbert, A. D., ‘The growth and decline of nonconformity in England and Wales’,Oxford DPhil thesis 1973.Google Scholar

2 Inglis, K. S., ‘Patterns of religious worship in 1851’, JEH 11, I (April 1960) pp 74–86 Google Scholar. Mcleod, D. H., ‘Class, community and religion’, A Sociological yearbook of religion in Britain 6 (London 1973) pp 29–72.Google Scholar

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4 Rack, H. D., ‘Domestic visitation; a chapter in early nineteenth century evangelism’, JEH 24, 4 (October 1973) pp 357-76.Google Scholar

5 B[irmingham] C[entral] H[all] MS Cherry Street Wesleyan tract society minutes 1828-84, 1 (25 October 1836) claimed that the society had been ‘established upwards of twenty years.’

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9 BRL MS 312749, journal of T.A. Finegan 24 July 1837.

10 BRL MS Carrs Lane deposit 69, journal of W. Jackson 28 January 1846.

11 Ibid 62, journal of E. Derrington 9 November 1838.

12 Ibid 63, journal of E. Derrington 4 August 1839.

13 Birmingham] J[ournal] 17 February 1838 (report of the statistical committee).

14 VCH Warwickshire (London 1964) 7 p 321.

15 Langford, J. A. A Century of Birmingham Life (1868) I pp 119-20Google Scholar; 2 pp 41, 51, 57, 323.

16 BRL MS 312749, journal of T. A. Finegan, Jane Osborn 24 August 1837, Mary Robinson 9 October 1837, Jane Gibson 12 October 1837, Ann Bevens 14 October 1837, Elizabeth Martin 4 November 1837 and passim.

17 Ibid 27 July 1837, 18 August 1837, 31 August 1837, б September 1837, 27 October 1837, 2 November 1837, 17 November 1837 and passim.

18 BRL MS Carrs Lane deposit 71, journal of P. Sibree 10 October 1838.

19 BRL MS 312749, journal of T. A. Finegan 3 May 1838.

20 BRL MS Cherry Street West Circuit quarterly meeting minutes 24 September 1838, 23 December 1839, 18 March 1844, 23 September 1844, 27 December 1847.

21 Ibid 18 March 1844.

22 BRL MS CarrsLane deposit 64, journal of E. Derrington 9 October 1839, 65 journal of E. Derrington 15 December 1841.

23 Ibid 63, journal of E. Derrington 4 August 1839.

24 Ibid 61, journal of E. Derrington 29 July 1838.

25 BRL MS 312749, journal of T. A. Finegan 19 November 1837.

26 Dale, R.W., Life and Letters of J. Angeli James (London 1861) pp 353–4 Google Scholar, letters to Mr Hart 17 December 1838.

27 BRL MS Carrs Lane deposit 63, journal of E. Derrington 17 November 1840.

28 Ibid 65, journal of E. Derrington 15 December 1841.

29 Ibid 63, 21 September 1840.

30 Ibid 62, 27 September 1838.

31 Ibid 61, 27 July 1838.

32 Ibid 67, journal of W. Jackson 26 July 1843.

33 Ibid 63, journal of E. Derrington 18 July 1838; 64, 13 June 1841.

34 Ibid 61, II February 1838.

35 P[rimitive] M[ethodist] M[agazine] (London 1835) p 72 (journal of Hugh Bourne 24 November 1834).

36 Robson, G., ‘Methodists and the 1851 census of religious worship in Birmingham and the Black Country’ Bulletin of the Wesley Historical Society, West Midlands Branch (Birmingham) 2, nos 10, 11 (1975).Google Scholar

37 Compare PMM (1840) pp 226-8 (Salvation meetings in Dudley circuit 1839).

38 BRL MS Carrs Lane deposit 72, journal of H. Clay 11 December 1838.

39 Ibid 6i, journal of E. Derrington 10 October 1838.

40 Ibid 71, journal of P. Sibree 8 April 1839.

41 PRO Home Office papers H040/JO.

42 BRL MS Cam Lane deposit 72, journal of H. Clay 27 November 1839.

43 BJ 29 June 1839.