A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Kilham had made with the working of the Presbyterian principle when 

 stationed at Aberdeen as a Wesleyan minister in 1793-4- The charges 

 which at the time were fiercely brought against him of being a revolutionary, 

 were due to the political excitement of an age pre-occupied by the meteor 

 light of the French Revolution. 



Beyond the incidental part which Manchester played in being the scene 

 of the drafting of the plan of pacification of 1795, Lancashire, as a county, 

 has played no special or individual part in the history of the New Connexion, 

 though it has always represented a very important element in the constitution 

 of the body. The secession in fact started not in Lancashire, but in York- 

 shire during the meeting of the Wesleyan conference at Leeds in 1797, and 

 the small body of fifteen clergymen and laymen who formed its nucleus met 

 for the first time in Leeds. But two of the seven circuits which the seceders 

 represented, viz. Liverpool and Manchester, were Lancashire circuits, and 

 this relative proportion of strength has been since more than maintained. 

 With the exception of the Barkerite secession in 1842 and the withdrawal 

 of William Booth from the Connexion in 1861 (to start the work of the 

 Salvation Army), the history of this church has been uneventful, and in 

 Lancashire especially so, for neither of the last named events originated in it. 

 It is to be regretted that the want of a Connexional history makes it im- 

 possible to trace the process of the growth of its circuits. The apathy of the 

 body with regard to its own history is probably due to its stationary or 

 declining vitality. At present, as far as Lancashire is concerned, it is organized 

 as follows : — 



Liverpool District, comprising the Liverpool (two) and Southport Circuits, besides some 

 Cheshire ones. 



Manchester District, containing the following Circuits — Manchester (two), Ashton, 

 Bolton, Hurst, Mossley, Oldham, Rochdale, and two Cheshire ; together with three branches 

 at Blackpool, Bury, and Morecambe, which are styled Home Mission Stations. 



The Primitive Methodists 



Historically and spiritually the Primitives represent by far the most 

 noteworthy and interesting secession from the general Methodist body. As 

 a church they may be said to have originated in 181 1, in the union between 

 the camp-meeting Methodists led by Hugh Bourne and the followers of 

 William Clowes or the Clowesites ; although there were certain preparatory 

 movements which had preceded it as early as 1799. As far as present polity 

 is concerned the Primitives show the extremest revolt against the hierarchical 

 system of Wesleyanism, for they have given preponderating influence to the 

 lay as opposed to the clerical side of their organization. But in its origin the 

 movement does not represent a polity secession. Its underlying basis is a 

 revival of the original missionary spirit of Methodism, a return to the 

 Primitive or original Methodism which preached in the fields and in the 

 streets, and which only lost that primitive missionary zeal when it waxed fat 

 and fell under the dominion of a clerical caste. Strictly speaking the camp 

 meeting movement— open-air revivalist conventions held in camp meetings 

 extending over several days— is more an American than an English institu- 

 tion. For although Hugh Bourne held camp meetings on Mow Cop near 



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