ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



Burslem in 1801, the movement remained in abeyance until re-started in 

 1807 by the American meteor, Lorenzo Dow. From that moment it took 

 root, the original centre being again Mow Cop. 



Unlike the other secessions which have convulsed Methodism the 

 secession of the Primitives was never a Conference matter, but was dealt with 

 by the inferior administrative court, the circuit quarterly meeting. In June, 

 1808, Hugh Bourne was expelled from the Wesleyan Connexion by the 

 Burslem Circuit quarterly meeting, and in 18 10 WiUiam Clowes was expelled 

 by the same body. In both cases the alleged offence was the same, viz. 

 attending and assisting the camp meetings. In 1 8 1 1 the followers of these 

 two men came together and started the new body, which on 1 3 February 

 1812, drew up its scheme of polity and adopted the name of Primitive 

 Methodists. 



At the outset the movement was a Staffordshire one, and consisted of 

 only one circuit, viz. Tunstall. But there was vitality in it, and during the 

 middle period of its existence, 18 11—43, i* spread in successive waves over 

 the whole of England. Working its way through the Midlands and York- 

 shire it was not until 1820 that it entered Lancashire. In March of that 

 year Thomas Jackson visited Manchester, and held the first meeting of the 

 Primitives in a loft over a stable at Chorlton upon Medlock, somewhere about 

 Brook Street, and also in a cottage in London Square, Bank Top. The 

 meeting was subsequently moved to a room called the Long Room, in an old 

 factory in Ancoats. In July a society was formed, in August Hugh Bourne 

 preached in the town, and in September the first camp meeting in Lancashire 

 was held on the Ashton Road. The result was an immense accession of 

 numbers, and the society was compelled to open other rooms, one in New 

 IsHngton and one in Chancery Lane. In 1821 the movement had spread to 

 Ashton-under-Lyne. Samuel Waller, a Manchester cotton spinner, was sent 

 to prison in that year for holding a meeting in the King's highway at Ashton 

 Cross. In the following year it reached Oldham, where the first camp 

 meeting was held in May, 1822. By the time when in 1827 the conference 

 of the body met in Manchester in Jersey Street Chapel (built in 1823-4), so 

 much growth had ensued that it was decided to make Manchester the head of 

 a circuit comprising Preston, Blackburn, and Clitheroe (which were taken 

 from the North Lancashire Mission Branch of the Hull Church), and Liver- 

 pool, Manchester, Oldham, and Bolton (which were separated from the 

 Tunstall Circuit). 



During the four or five years following on the formation of this circuit 

 a great expansion ensued in Manchester as a result of the determined street 

 preaching or ' remissioning ' led by Jonathan Ireland and Jonathan Heywood. 

 A mission room in Oxford Road grew into the Rosamond Street chapel (now 

 Moss Lane), which became the head of Manchester Second Circuit. Another, 

 in Salford, opened originally in Dale Street, grew into the King Street chapel, 

 1844, now represented by Camp Street, Broughton. A third mission in 

 Ashton Street, where now the London Road Station stands, grew into the 

 Ogden Street chapel (1850), from which have sprung Manchester Fourth 

 and Ninth stations. The growth was not confined to the Hmits of the town 

 itself, for by 1832 the outer circle of the Manchester Constituency included 

 Mosley Common, Walkden Moor, Middleton, Unsworth, and Stretford. 

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