Part 8 (2/2)
Haigh in Horncastle, several chapels were built in the neighbourhood.
Horncastle was at first included in the Lincoln Circuit, but in 1837, at the building of the second chapel it was const.i.tuted a separate circuit, and when the third chapel was erected, in 1853, Coningsby was made a branch of Horncastle.
The first preacher who visited Horncastle was a female, Jane Brown by name, who is said to have walked from Lincoln to Horncastle on a Sunday morning, giving an address in the Market Place in the afternoon, and in the evening holding a service in a house, now forming part of the back premises of the Red Lion Hotel. The first local preachers were also females, Mary Allen and Mary Clarke. The first two female members were Mary Elwin and Martha Belton.
Mr. Butcher having been the first resident minister, was succeeded by the Rev. C. Smith, who worked here and in various other places during 50 years, and then retired to York as supernumerary. The Rev. William Rose, who had been Second Minister in 1850, was appointed Superintendent in 1875, and remained two years. A few years later the Rev. J. Pickwell (188890) was Superintendent, with Rev. W. Whitaker as Second Minister; the former first joined the society as a scholar in 1849, being numbered among the local members, he afterwards removed to Lincoln, and acted as Itinerant Minister for 33 years before returning to Horncastle in 1888.
Mr. Pickwell was succeeded by Rev. William Kitson as Superintendent, with Rev. R. H. Auty as Second Minister. Mr. Kitson retained his post during four years, when he left for Market Rasen. Mr. Auty was followed, as Second Minister, by Rev. John Bowness, and he, in turn, by Rev. Thomas Stones.
In 1894 the Rev. John Featherstone succeeded to the ministry, with Rev.
W. J. Leadbetter as Second Minister, both these stayed to their second year, Mr. Featherstone dying in 1896. In that year the Rev. John Worsnop was appointed, with Rev. A. W. Bagnall as Second Minister; the former retained his post during five years; Mr. Bagnall two years, being succeeded in 1898 by Rev. Walter Tunley, and he, in 1899, by the Rev.
George H. Howgate, who stayed two years. In 1900 Rev. J. Worsnop retired to Newcastle-on-Tyne, and died there in Dec., 1904.
In 1901 the Rev. Matthew H. Chapman became Superintendent Minister, with Rev. J. A. Kershaw as Second, both remaining during two years. In 1903 the Rev. Robert B. Hauley succeeded, with Rev. J. Cousin as a.s.sistant, both remaining two years. In 1905 (July) the former left for Kirkby Stephen, Westmoreland, the latter for a circuit in Shrops.h.i.+re. They were followed by the Rev. E. Allport, from Skegness, as Superintendent, Sept.
1905; and Rev. E. J. Hanc.o.x from Doncaster. In June of that year the annual Conference was held at Scarborough.
We will now put together a few details of the origin of this society.
Hugh Bourne was born at Stoke-upon-Trent, April 3, 1772. {73} Although his family was said to be ancient, his ancestors having come to England at the Norman Conquest, he belonged to a humble rank in life, living at Ford Hays Farm. He was in early life educated by his mother, a G.o.dly woman, and while very young he learnt by heart the Te Deum, the Litany, and much of the prayers of the Church of England. He worked for his father, and an uncle who was a millwright, but found time to study hydrostatics, pneumatics, natural philosophy, as well as Hebrew, Greek and Latin. His mother's influence had given him a serious bent of mind, and he early acquired strong religious convictions. His biographer says of him ”He tells, in child-like simplicity, how, when only four or five years old, he pondered over thoughts of heaven and h.e.l.l, the last judgment, and other solemn subjects. During the next 20 years his inner life was one of hopes and fears, doubt and faith, conflict and victory.”
His mother, going to Burslem on business, borrowed of a Wesleyan friend, some religious books, among them being Baxter's _Call to the Unconverted_, Allen's _Alarm_, and a sermon by Wesley on _The Trinity_.
Her son Hugh naturally read these, and Wesley's sermon made a great impression upon him. One Sunday morning he was sitting in his room, reading Fletcher's Letters on _The Spiritual Manifestation of the Son of G.o.d_, when he declares that he was led ”to believe with his heart unto righteousness, and with his mouth to make confession unto salvation.”
This was in his 27th year, A.D. 1799. He joined the Wesleyan society in June of that year, the special occasion being a love feast at Burslem, to which he was taken by an aged neighbour, a farmer near Bemersley, named Birchenough, at whose house services were conducted, who offered him a ticket which const.i.tuted him a member, and thus in his own words I was ”made a member without knowing it.”
As we shall presently see Hugh Bourne became one of the two originators of the Primitive community, the other was his friend and neighbour William Clowes, a sketch of his career was published some years ago, {74} from which we cull the leading particulars. He was born at Burslem 12th March, 1780, his mother, a daughter of Aaron Wedgewood, being a near relation of Josiah of that name, the inventor of the famous Wedgwood pottery. At ten years of age (1790) he began work in his uncle's pottery, which he continued for several years. At that time dancing, gambling and pugilism were the chief amus.e.m.e.nt of the factory men and colliers of Staffords.h.i.+re, and for some years he led a wild life of dissipation, yet this was accompanied, at times, with a sense of self-condemnation and spiritual consciousness. ”When I was ten years old,” he says, ”I remember being at a prayer meeting conducted by Nancy Wood, of Burslem, in her father's house, when, convinced of the sin of disobedience to my parents, I wept bitterly.” Conflicts between good and evil continued to disturb him for several years. When a young man, at a dance in Burslem, he was so suddenly convicted of sin, that he abruptly withdrew. Shortly afterwards he married, but he and his wife quarralled so violently that he left her, and went off, taking with him only his mother's prayer book. After some wandering, without a penny in his pocket, he returned and begged his wife to attend the Wesleyan Chapel regularly with him, but she refused. He then, prayer book in hand, took an oath that he would serve G.o.d and avoid dissipation. This oath, however, was broken; but once more in the early hour of a cold January morning he went forth, and seeing a faint light burning in a window, he entered the house, to find a few humble methodists gathered for an early prayer meeting. There, he says, he knelt unnoticed, but there he ”died to sin, and was born of G.o.d. This, I said, is what they call being converted. I was fully persuaded that I was justified by faith, and had peace with G.o.d, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” From that day, Jan.
20th, 1805, he began a new life.
The time now approaches when the two, Hugh Bourne and William Clowes began the great work of their life. At the beginning of the 19th century Bourne, being much employed at Harriseahead, near Bemersley, was shocked at the general lack of the means of grace, and he endeavoured in 1800 and 1801 to promote a revivalist movement. Daniel Shubotham, a boxer, poacher, and ringleader in wickedness, was brought, through Bourne's influence, to the Saviour, on Christmas day 1800, and with his natural energy of character took up the cause. Matthias Bailey, another of Bourne's old a.s.sociates was also won over, and cottage prayer meetings were begun among the colliers. A meeting upon Mow Cop was proposed for a day given to prayer. At this time Lorenzo Dow, an American Wesleyan visited the Black Country, as the coal district of Staffords.h.i.+re was called. He spoke of the American camp meetings, himself preaching at Congleton, when Hugh Bourne, with his brother James, was present; William Clowes being also a hearer. They bought books of Lorenzo Dow, which had a marked effect on the future. On May 31st, 1807, a camp meeting was held on Mow Cop, a hill in the neighbourhood, Bourne and Clowes being present. Stands were erected and addresses given from four points.
Bourne organized two companies, who continued by turns praying all the day; others giving accounts of their spiritual experiences, among whom Clowes was prominent, and his words are ”The glory that filled my soul on that day exceeds my powers of description.” Persons were present on this occasion from Kilham in Yorks.h.i.+re and other distant places, one, Dr. Paul Johnson, a friend of Lorenzo Dow, coming from Ireland.
The movement had now taken definite form and substance. Another camp meeting followed at the same place on July 19, lasting three days; a third on August 16th, at Brown Edge; a fourth on August 23rd, at Norton-in-the-Moors. At this time was held the Annual Wesleyan Conference, at which handbills were issued denouncing this separate movement. For a brief moment Bourne, Clowes and Shubotham hesitated; but the question was seriously considered at a meeting at the house of a friend, Joseph Pointon, when it was ”revealed” to Bourne that the camp meetings ”should not die, but live;” and from that moment he ”believed himself to be called of G.o.d” for the new work; and shortly his brother James, James Nixon, Thomas Cotton, and others, gave themselves to the cause.
For some years the labours of these men and their a.s.sociates were chiefly devoted to the pottery and colliery districts of Staffords.h.i.+re, where a remarkable change was brought about in the moral condition of the hitherto almost brutalized people. The area of work was then gradually enlarged, extending throughout the whole country, and even, as we shall presently see, beyond it. The following are a few personal details of Hugh Bourne's subsequent career.
In 1808, on his way to Bemersley from Delamere Forest, an impression forced itself upon him that he would shortly be expelled from the Wesleyan connexion; on reaching home he found that a rumour to this effect was being circulated, and in June of that year the formal sentence of expulsion was carried out. He continued to devote himself to the work of evangelization, urging however all others to join whatever denomination they were themselves most inclined for.
He preached his first sermon at Tunstall, on Nov. 12, 1810, in a kitchen which had been licensed for preaching three years before. It was not plastered or ceiled, so that if not required at any future time, it might be converted into a cottage, which took place in 1821, when a chapel was erected. At the Conference held at Newcastle-on-Tyne, in 1842, he was most regretfully placed on the retired list, on account of his impaired health, a yearly pension of 25 being a.s.signed to him. He was still, however, to be at liberty to visit different parts of the connection; and during the next ten years of his superannuation he kept up a very wide correspondence on religious matters, and made a missionary visit to America. The last conference which he attended was at Yarmouth, in 1851.
For several years he had felt a premonition that the year 1852 would be his last. The last sermon which he preached was at Norton Green, on Feb.
22, 1852; and on Oct. 11, in that year, he surrendered his happy spirit into the hands of G.o.d, who gave it, when ”the weary wheels of life stood still.” His chief residence would appear to have been at Bemersley, where it was long felt that they had lost in him ”a man of great faith and mighty prayer.”
We now pa.s.s over a period of several years. Clowes received a call to Hull. He had crowded the work of a life-time into some 17 years, and his health was now far from good. At a meeting in December, 1827, he exhibited such weakness as showed that he had done his best work.
However, he continued to reside in Hull and visited other places from there, as his strength allowed. It is certain that he visited Horncastle, for an old lady, Mrs. Baildham, who died in May, 1900, having been a member of the connection more than 70 years, frequently a.s.serted that she had heard both Clowes and his wife preach in, presumably, the second chapel in Mill Lane.
At the Conference in 1842, 35 years after the first camp meeting on Mow Cop, both Clowes and Bourne were present; but the a.s.sembly was saddened to see the original founders, of what was now a thoroughly established and wide-spread community, both shattered in health and broken by toil.
Nine years later Clowes said to a friend ”I feel myself failing fast, I am fully prepared.” He spoke of the glories of heaven, and said ”I shall possess it all through the merits of Christ.” His speech began to fail, but he got downstairs, and once more led his cla.s.s. On the Sat.u.r.day he attended a committee meeting; on Sunday he was too weak to go to chapel; on Monday there was further weakness; early on Tuesday slight paralysis; and on March 2, 1851, he quietly pa.s.sed to his rest, aged 71. The people of Hull were greatly moved, and many thousands lined the streets as the funeral procession pa.s.sed to the grave, at which the Rev. William Harland briefly recited the story of the good man's work.
Of the general progress of the connexion, we may say, that down, to 1870 it was simply a Home and Colonial body, but, in that year, the Norwich branch sent out the missioners, Burnett and Roe, to the island of Fernando Po, on the west coast of Africa. This was in response to an appeal from the Fernandians, who had been converted by a member of the connexion, s.h.i.+p Carpenter Hands, of the s.h.i.+p Elgiva, who, with his G.o.dly Captain, Robinson, had in the course of trade visited that country. The same year also saw a mission established at Aliwal North, in the eastern province of Cape Colony.
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