No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
From Ranters to Chapel Builders: Primitive Methodism in the South Lincolnshire Fenland c.1820–1875
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
On 26 October 1832 Jonathan Gibbons of the parish of Lutton, some twelve miles east of Spalding, wrote to John Kaye, bishop of Lincoln, describing how ‘A great proportion of the lower orders are now supporting a sect called ranters and attending their meetings as the only resource for religious instruction.’ The reasons for this, he argued, lay with ‘lax government and want of proper attention to services and duties’ in the Church, but in addition to these problems the Church of England also had the difficult task of extending its ministrations into the scattered communities of the newly drained and cultivated south Lincolnshire fenland. In Lutton the people were left ‘open to all the evils attendant upon unrestrained ignorance’ and the voluntary religious bodies, including the Primitive Methodists or Ranters, were often quicker to respond to their needs than the Established Church.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1986
References
1 Lincolnshire Archives Office, Correspondence of Bishop Kaye 1827-53 Cor B 5/4/75/5.
2 For the development of the fens see Grigg, David, The Agricultural Revolution in South Lincolnshire (Cambridge 1966) and Darby, H.C.,The Draining of the Fens (Cambridge repr 1968)passim. For settlement patterns see also Hallam, H.E., Settlement and Society: a study of the early agrarian history of south Lincolnshire (Cambridge 1965) pp. 4–5, 40, 72; Owen, Dorothy M., Church and Society in Medieval Lincolnshire (Lincoln 1971) pp. 10–12; Joan Fuller, G., ‘Development of Drainage, Agriculture and Settlement in the Fens of South-East Lincs, during the 19th Century’, East Midland Geographer 1 (1957) pp. 6–7, G. 11–12. Thirsk, Joan, English Peasant Farming: the agrarian history of Lincolnshire from Tudor to recent times (London 1957) pp. 220–50, 232-6 describes changes in fenland agriculture. For a map of the registration districts of the area see Lincolnshire Returns of the Census of Religious Worship 1851) R.W. Ambler ed (LRS 1979) p. xxxvii.Google Scholar
3 Hallam, Settlement and Society p. 3.
4 LAO, Cor B5/4/3/13.
5 LAO, Cor B5/4/77/4.
6 Parliamentary Papers 1852-53 LXXXIX (1690) Religious Worship (England and Wales) 1851, p. cclxxxix.
7 Healey, Kenneth, ‘“Methodism or Nothing…” (in Gedney Marsh, 1856)’, Epworth Witness and Journal of the Lincolnshire Methodist History Society 2 (1974) PP 120–2.Google Scholar
8 Petty, John, The History of the Primitive Methodist Connexion from its Origin to the Conference of 1860, the First Jubilee Year of the Connexion rev by James Macpherson (London 1880) pp. 72–4.Google Scholar
9 Ibid pp. 119, 149, 158; H.B. Kendall, The Origin and History of the Primitive Methodist Church 2 (London c 1905) pp. 558-9.
10 Primitive Methodist Magazine 2 Mar. 1821 pp. 58-6o. For the activities of some of the revivalists who preceded Primitive Methodist preachers in Lincolnshire see George Herod, Biographical Sketches of Some of those Preachers whose Labours Contributed to the Origination and Early Extension of the Primitive Methodist Connexion (London n.d.) p. 479; George Shaw The Life of John Oxtoby, (‘Praying Johnny’) (Hull 1894) pp. 14-15, 21-26; Kendall, Origin and History 1 pp. 365-7.
11 Christian Remembrancer 3, Mar. 1821 pp. 136-8.
12 Kendall, Origin and History 1 p. 434.
13 Petty, History of the Primitive Methodist Connexion pp. 250-1.
14 Ibid p. 251.
15 Prim Meth Mag 6 new series Nov. 1836 p. 438.
16 Ibid 5 new series June 1835 p. 233.
17 Ibid Oct. 1835 p. 392.
18 Ibid 6 new series Feb. 1836 pp. 62-3.
19 Ibid 5 new series Oct. 1835 p. 392.
20 Ibid 6 new series Sept. 1836 pp. 346-7.
21 Lincoln, Rutland and Stamford Mercury 5 June 1835.
22 Ibid 19 August 1842, 16 June 1843.
23 Prim Meth Mag 6 new series Sept. 1836 p. 347.
24 Ibid 5 new series Oct 1835 p. 393.
25 Ibid 7 new series Dec 1837 p. 473.
26 Pari Papers, Religious Worship 1851, p. 82; Lincolnshire Returns of Census of Religious Worship pp. 18-54. The official report gives 27 Primitive Methodist congregations, but two returns were made for the chapel at Moulton Seas End and these were both included in the final total.
27 Boston Centenary Methodist Church Circuit Chapel Deeds Packet Nos 3, 31 and 33: Fosdyke (1826 and 1874); Hubberts Bridge (1871). Spalding Methodist Church Circuit Chapel Deeds: Moulton Seas End (1835 and 1854); Little London (1842 and 1866); Pinchbeck West (1842 and 1873); Weston Hills (1853); Bicker (1854); Spalding (1870):
28 PRO, Non-Parochial Registers RG4/1930 Boston Primitive Methodist Baptismal Register 1823-37; LAO, Meth B/Boston Circuit/33/1 Register of Baptisms 1844-89; Spalding Gentlemens’ Society, Methodist Archives Primitive Methodist Church Baptismal Register for Spalding, Little London and other chapels 9 May 1844-26 June 1881; Baptismal Register Donington Circuit 24 Dec. 1843-10 Dec. 1893.
29 Parl Papers 1852-53 LXXXVIII part II (1691-II) Population, Ages, Civil Condition, Occupations, &c. Tables II … pp. 576, 578.
30 Davies, Horton, Worship and Theology in England IV: from Newman to Martineau 1850-1900 (London 1962) pp. 141, 143.Google Scholar
31 LAO, Cor B5/4/54/1.
32 LAO, Cor B5/4/87/2.
33 Healey, ‘“Methodism or Nothing …”’ pp. 120-1.
34 Parl Papers 1867-68 XVII (4068) Agriculture (Employment of Women and Children). First Report of the Commissioners on the Employment of Children, Young Persons and Women in Agriculture, with Appendix, part I, p. 74.
35 Prim Meth Mag 9 new series Dec 1839 p. 459.
36 Spalding Methodist Church, Circuit Chapel Deeds: Pinchbeck West, Moulton Seas End, Bicker, Little London.
37 LAO, Meth B/Boston Circuit /55/1 Correspondence File 1861-94.
38 Quoted in Kendall, Origin and History 2 p. 455 and p. 458 for the General Chapel Fund.
39 SGS, Donington Circuit Account Book 1853-78.
40 SGS, Donington Circuit Spalding and Holbeach Quarterly Meeting Minute Book 1860-62 6 Dec. 1860.
41 SGS, Spalding and Holbeach Mission Quarterly Meeting Minute Book 1862-83 3 June 1872.
42 SGS, Donington Quarterly Meeting Minute Book 1856-73 23 June 1863.
43 LAO, Meth B/Boston Circuit /41/1 Quarterly Meeting Minutes 1855-67 12 June 1865; 41/3/ Quarterly Meeting Minutes 1869-83 10 Mar. 1873.
44 Prim Meth Mag 10 third series April 1852 p. 239.