CHAPTER VI. 



" Ye Doctors of Divinity 



Of decent reasons full, 

 This man is rich where ye are bare, 



And bright where ye are dull. 

 With his strange creed, 



And logic loose arrayed. 

 He is a worker hath sown seed 



Where ye ne'er raised a spade." 



AS the names of Mitchel and Crossley are intimately inter- 

 woven with the rise and progress of the Baptist denomi- 

 nation in Rossendale, so much so, that it is impossible to speak of 

 the latter without referring to the former ; so in Hke manner the 

 names of William Darney and John Maden, are inseparably 

 connected with the introduction of Methodism into the district. I 

 propose to furnish a short sketch of the life of the first Rossendale 

 Methodist, and incidentally to mark the rise in this neighbourhood 

 of the important sect to which he belonged. 



Mr. Maden was born near Bacup on the 4th day of December, 

 1724. In his younger years Methodism was just beginning to 

 make headway throughout the country, but it was quite unknown 

 in the Forest of Rossendale, and it was chiefly owing to his 

 instrumentality that it was introduced into this district. One of 

 the " New Sort of Preachers," as they were then termed, (for the 

 name " Methodist " had not yet been applied to them,) was 

 announced to preach in a barn at Gauksholme, near Todmorden, 

 and Mr. Maden was induced by an acquaintance to go and hear 

 him. The preaching of Mr. William Darney, for that was the 

 minister's name, produced a deep and lasting impression on the 



