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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 February 2009
Victorian Methodism was a religion of experience. More specifically, it was a religion of conversion experience. A personal, attested, conversion experience, undergone in a chapel, a mission hall or even the home, was an essential prerequisite of becoming a Methodist. Subsequently relived and dissected in a class meeting, it was a vital part of living as a Methodist. Finally, recounted and honoured in circuit obituaries and station records, it was posthumous testimony of the grace and fellowship accorded to an individual who had been a Methodist. For all that, it was a curiously unsystematised aspect of nineteenth-century Methodism. Contemporary doctrine, custom and practice taught that conversion experience was something which could, at least in theory, happen to anyone, at any time, in any place. It did not discriminate between social classes, between the sexes, even between the mature and the juvenile. Moreover it required, at least in principle, no act
1 For a general account, and justification, see A. Raymond, George‘The people called Methodist–4. The means of grace’, in Davies, RupertandRupp, Gordon (eds), A History of the Methodist Church in Great Britain, 1, London 1965, 259–73;Google Scholar for nineteenth-century accounts, see James, ObelkevichReligion and Rural Society: South Lindsay, 1825–1875, Oxford 1976, 187–8, 232;Google Scholar on the relationship of conversion experience to revivalism, see David, Luker, ‘Revivalism in theory and practice: the case of Cornish Methodism’, this JOURNAL, 36 (1986), 603–19.Google Scholar
2 On the class meeting in Victorian Methodism, see Henry D., Rack, ‘Wesleyan Methodism 1849–1902’, in Davies, Rupert,George, A. Raymond and Rupp, Gordon (eds), History of the Methodist Church, 3, London 1983, 158–62;Google Scholar also Robert, Currie, Methodism Divided: a study of the sociology of ecumenicalism, London 1968, 125–6.Google Scholar
3 See below, n. 11.
4 For the justification of this doctrine in Methodist theology, see ‘The controversy over Calvinism, 1770’, and ‘Checks to Antinomianism, 1771’, in , Davies, , George and , Rupp, History of The Methodist Church, 4, London, 1988, 164–5, and 166–7.Google Scholar
5 Currie, , Methodism Divided, 85–103 provides a surfeit of statistics on this matter.Google Scholar
6 For the latest, and most provocative, survey see Callum G., Brown, ‘Did urbanisation secularize Britain?’, Urban History Yearbook, 1988, esp. pp. 12–13.Google Scholar
7 Though for a discussion of their ‘peculiarly representative’ and ‘significant status’, see my ‘Religion and the Industrial Town with Special Reference to the West Riding of Yorkshire, c. 1870–1920’, unpubl. D.Phil, diss., Oxford 1989, ch. i; also the remarks of James, Munson, in his The Nonconformists: in search of a lost culture, London 1991, ch. 2, esp. PP. 39–41Google Scholar
8 On which see, most recently, Pat, Hudson, The Genesis of Industrial Capital: a study of the West Riding wool textile industry, c. 1750–1850. Cambridge 1986, esp. chs 1, 2;Google ScholarPatrick, Joyce, Work, Society and Politics: the culture of the factory in later Victorian England, Brighton 1980, esp. chs 2, 5;Google Scholar and David, Howell, British Workers and the Independent Labour Party, 1888–1906, Manchester 1983, ch. 7. For a very important, and lamentably unpublished, study of industrialisation, social transformation and demographic growth in Halifax, see Alan Dingsdale, ‘Yorkshire Mill Town: a study of the spatial patterns and processes of urban industrial growth and the evolution of spatial structure in Halifax, 1801–1901’, unpubl. PhD diss., Leeds 1974, passim. On Keighley, see especially the (contemporary) masterpiece of business history, John Hodgson, Textile Manufacture and other Industries in Keighley, Keighley 1879, passim; or, for a modern account, Ian Dewhurst, A History of Keighley, Keighley 1974, 10–12, 92–4.Google Scholar
9 See Eve, Chapman, The Halifax Methodist Circuit, 1785–85, Halifax 1985; Edward Sunderland, ‘A Brief History of Methodism in Keighley from the Year 1742’, unpubl. MS, n.d., Keighley Public Library. For a recent discussion see Green, ‘Religion and the Industrial Town’, 23–7.Google Scholar
10 Revd Milson, F. E., Are We Christians? A Sermon Preached in the Northgate End Chapel, 11 October 1885, Halifax 1885, 6.Google Scholar
11 Calderdale District Archive (hereinafter CDA), MR/73, Anon. ‘Rhodes Street Wesleyan Circuit, Halifax, Circuit Obituaries, 1895–1990’, unpubl. MS.
12 Ibid. 4june 1907.
13 Ibid. 14 Mar. 1904.
14 Ibid. 8 Jul. 1903.
15 Keighley Public Library (herein after KPL), uncatalogued MS, ‘Questions To Be Answered by Candidates For the Preachers Plan’, Primitive Methodist Connexion, Keighley c. 1877–1900; some 37 scripts have survived and been deciphered by the author.
16 Ibid. n.d.
17 Ibid. n.d.
18 Ibid. The exact figure was 17 of 37; whether or not it was representative of wider opinion amongst lay preachers in the Primitive Methodist Connexion at the time cannot be judged.
19 Ibid. One case of Wesleyan Methodism and two of New Connexion Methodism. Whether or not this was a common experience is not clear.
20 On the sociological theory of conversion experience generally, see Beckford, James A., ‘Accounting for conversion’, British Journal of Sociology 29 (1978), 249–62;CrossRefGoogle ScholarMax, Heirich, ‘Change of heart: a test of some widely held theories about religious conversion’, American Journal of Sociology 88 (1977), 653–80;Google ScholarJohn, Lofland and Norman, Skonoud, ‘Conversion motifs’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 20 (1981), 373–85;Google ScholarRichardson, James T., ‘The active v. passive convert: paradigm conflict in conversion research’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 24 (1985), 165–74;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Wilson, Bryan R., Magic and the Millennium: a sociological study of religious movements of protest among tribal and third world peoples, London 1973, 22–3.Google Scholar
21 Obelkevich, Religion and Rural Society, 189.
22 Ibid. 191–2. But for a slightly different interpretation, see Currie, Methodism Divided, 19, 22, 26.
23 CDA, MR/73, Anon. ‘Rhodes Street Obituaries’, 7 May 1899; the obituary referred to Mrs Garsforth as a ‘Methodist of the old type’.
24 Ibid. 27 Jan. 1908.
25 For the early implication of this legislation, see the remarks of George, Kitson Clark in his The Making of Victorian England, London 1962, 187.Google Scholar
26 See, especially, Derek, Linstrum, West Yorkshire: architects and architecture, London 1978, ch. 11, which provides a full account of the many and various municipal building projects, and their purposes and effects, in this part of England during the second half of the nineteenth century.Google Scholar
27 CDA, CUR 1: 13, Harrison Road Congregational Chapel, Halifax, Church and Deacon's Book, 15 March 1875.
28 The definitive modern study is John, Kent, Holding the Fort: studies in Victorian revivalism, London 1978, esp. chs 2, 3, 8.Google Scholar
29 Green, ‘Religion and the Industrial Town’, 274–7.
30 See especially, John, Naylor, Some Factors on the Making of the Soul in Halifax Parish, Halifax 1911, 13;Google Scholar for a discussion of the phenomenon in a wider context, see Stephen, Yeo, Religion and Voluntary Organisations in Crisis, London 1976, 163–70.Google Scholar
31 CD A, CUR 1: 13, Harrison Road Congregational Chapel, Halifax, Church and Deacon's Book 1 Jan. 1876; this source admitted only to accepting for church membership cperson[s] who gave evidence of being truly converted in this way’; a contemporary local critic of ‘sensational religion’ of this kind was the Revd Milson, R. E., pastor of Northgate End; see his obituary in the Halifax Courier, 5 03. 1910, for his poor opinion of evangelical work of this nature.Google Scholar
32 For some contemporary accounts of this phenomenon locally, see James, Parker, ‘Looking back a century’, in Mulroy, J.J. (ed.), Story of the Town That Bred Us, Halifax 1948, 69–9 at p. 67;Google Scholar and Waddington, J. H., ‘Changes, 1866–1937’, in idem, Essays and Addresses, Halifax 1938, 21–34, at pp. 33-4.Google Scholar
33 Keighley Yearbook, 1901, Keighley 1901, 163-82. This publication listed, annually, figures for membership and average attendance at each registered Sunday school in the municipal borough of Keighley; the estimate quoted above is drawn from that source.
34 Anon, . ‘The school and the church’, Keighley Wesleyan Methodist Circuit Magazine (herein after KWMCM) liv, Nov. 1913, n.p. They probably always had done;Google Scholar see Thomas Walter, Laqueur, Religion and Respectability: Sunday schools and working class culture, 1780–1850, New Haven-London 1976, 126.Google Scholar
35 The Revd Townsend, A., ‘Pastor's address’, Methodist New Connexion Chapel, Hanover Street, Halifax, Yearly Handbook For 1870, Halifax 1870, 22.Google Scholar
36 CDA, Misc. 57/11, Brunswick United Methodist Church, Halifax, Church Meeting, Minute Book, 30 Jan. 1910.
37 Revd Maggs, J. T. L., ‘Editors notes’, KWMCM 11,02. 1910, n.p.Google Scholar
38 Myers, ‘Button-hole evangelism’.
39 Ibid.
40 Binns, J., ‘The relation of the Church to the School’, KWMCM 15, 02. 1913, n.p.Google Scholar
41 Myers, ‘Button-hole evangelism’.
42 Maggs, ‘Editors’ notes’.
43 Anon, . ‘The Quarterly Meeting’, KWMCM 40, 09. 1912, n.p.Google Scholar
44 Currie, , Methodism Divided, ch. 4.Google Scholar
45 On which, see esp. Basil, Hall, ‘The Welsh revival of 1904–5: a critique’, in Cumming, G. J. andBaker, Derek(eds), Popular Belief and Practice, Studies in Church History, 8, Cambridge 1972.Google Scholar
46 Henry, Firth, ‘The scholar and the Church’, KWMCM 1, 07. 1913, n.p.Google Scholar
47 Ibid.
48 Butcher, J. Williams, ‘Children's Day ’,Google Scholaribid, 7, 09. 1910, n.p.
49 On which see Green, S. J. D., ‘The religion of the child in Edwardian Methodism: institutional reform and pedagogical reappraisal in the West Riding of Yorkshire’, Journal of British Studies 30 (1991), 377–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
50 Arthur, Myers, ‘Sunday school evangelism’, KWMCM 29, 09. 1911, n.p. On the. abandonment of childhood conversion in nonconformity generally in the Edwardian period,Google Scholar see Jeffrey, Cox, English Churches in a Secular Society, Lambeth, 1870–1930, New York 1982, 248–53.Google Scholar
51 Maggs, J. T. L., ‘Sunday school column’, KWMCM 41, 09. 1912, n.p.Google Scholar
52 Butcher, ‘Children's Day’.
53 KPL, 105D77/1/3/2/C, Keighley Wesleyan Methodist Circuit, Quarterly Meeting, Minute Book, 22 Sep. 1913.
54 Maggs, ‘Sunday School Column’.
55 Butcher, ‘Children's Day’.
56 KPL, 105D77/2/21/13/6/v, Temple Street Sunday School, Keighley, Minute Book, 26 Oct. 1922.
57 Anon, . ‘The Quarterly Meeting’, KWMCM 44, 09. 1912, n.p.Google Scholar
58 E. T. G. Hunter, ‘United Mission of Grace’, ibid, 73, Oct. 1923, n.p.
59 Harvey, Revd F.J., ‘Pastoral’,Google Scholaribid, 69, June 1923, n.p.
60 Perkins, Revd Harold W., ‘Editorial notes’,Google Scholaribid,75, Dec. 1923, n.p.
61 Revd R. E., Davies, ‘Impression of the Mission’Google Scholar, ibid, 74, Jan. 1924, n.p.
62 For a contemporary version of these arguments, see the Methodist Recorder x, Feb. 1910, 13: ‘The religious temper of today is not favourable to the view that weekly attendance at a class meeting… is essential to the well-being of the spiritual life… the proving of the efficacy of saving grace in personal experience is no longer the peculiar mark of Methodism.… The diversity of human experience and the necessary variety of Christian experience cannot be forgotten’. Cited in Jeffrey Cox, English Churches in a Secular Society, New York 1982, 250.
63 Currie, Methodism Divided, ch. iv.
64 David, Martin, The Breaking of the Image: a sociology of Christian theory and practice, Oxford 1980, 88–9.Google Scholar