(April) 2011 - Irish Genealogical Website International

____________________________________________________________ Christian Brethren Records
The Irish Plymouth Brethren
Dwight A. Radford
What is popularly termed the
“Plymouth Brethren” is a movement
that began in Ireland in the 1820s. It moved
to Plymouth, England, among other United
Kingdom cities, and then worldwide. The
Brethren are a conservative evangelical
Christian body that provided the beginning
of a recognizable fundamentalist wing
of evangelical Christianity. In its various
expressions, the Brethren Movement has
influenced evangelical Protestantism. This
article will focus on the Brethren Movement
as expressed by the Plymouth Brethren,
with some reference to the Gospel Hall
movement, which started about 1859. This
article will not include the interrelated
Churches of God (Needed Truth Brethren)
since they date from 1892.
In some areas, the movement appealed to
and grew among the lower middle-class
segment of British and Irish society. In
other areas, it appealed to the more skilled
working class. However, the leaders of
the initial movement were drawn almost
exclusively from the upper ranks of that
same society: Anglican clergy, Oxford
dons, lawyers, doctors, the sons of country
families or wealthy merchants.They were all
young men in their twenties or early thirties,
nearly all of them well-educated, and several
of them classical or biblical scholars. The
early Brethren were strongly anti-Catholic.
While they sought to heal the divisions
within Protestantism under the banner of
a restored apostolic Christianity, it was not
through an ecumenical approach.
Technically, “Plymouth Brethren” is a
colloquial term and not the name of any
religious body. Yet, for historical purposes,
the term is used extensively. Today, the
movement is often referred to as Christian
Brethren. The several branches of the
movement are usually classified as “Open
Brethren” and “Exclusive Brethren.” These
terms and the history behind the division
are important to Brethren history and the
Irish Genealogical Society International
records generated. In recent years, the
term Exclusive Brethren has been replaced
by some with “non-open Brethren.” This
is to separate themselves from branches of
the Exclusive Brethren, which have taken a
militant and separatist relationship to the
larger world of Brethren.
Today there are more than one million
Plymouth Brethren worldwide in the
various branches. It is not uncommon to
find an ancestor of Protestant background
associating with the Brethren in Ireland.
However, very little has been written from a
genealogical perspective to help identify and
document a Brethren family.
Brethren History
In the early 1800s, many Protestants
felt uncomfortable with all the different
denominations to the point they became
hostile towards the very concept of
denominationalism. Many were anticlerical
and anti-creedal, feeling as though
their churches were compromising biblical
truth for human-created doctrines. These
Christians read their Bibles apart from
the established clergy, beginning at the
New Testament; they sought to restore the
ancient Christianity described in the texts,
which they reasoned was true, pure and
undenominational.
The Brethren movement began in Dublin
about 1827 and spread to Plymouth,
England, in 1831. The earliest Brethren
came from many denominations to meet
together to move beyond sectarianism.
Because the Dublin group referred to
each other as “brother” to avoid titles, they
were nicknamed Brethren. The movement
became so well-known in Plymouth that
the Christians were nicknamed Plymouth
Brethren.
In 1827, John Nelson Darby (1800-82), a
Church of Ireland minister from County
Wicklow, joined the movement. In historical
works, he is often referred to as J.N. Darby
or simply JND and is considered by many
to be the very founder of fundamentalist
evangelical thought. He made a name
for himself as curate of Delgany Parish
in County Wicklow by preaching and
converting hundreds of Roman Catholic
peasants until the Archbishop of Dublin
ruled converts were obliged to swear
allegiance to George IV as the rightful king
of Ireland. JND resigned in protest. He left
the Church of Ireland around 1831.
Between 1827 and 1833,JND’s theology was
formed, although he refined it throughout
his life. He saw the Church of Ireland,
as the state religion, taking advantage of
governmental sanction; that clergymen
limited the concept of a priesthood of all
believers. He believed the church was the
body of Christ, comprised of a heavenly
people. As such, it was not to court earthly
favors. During this time his theological
views on dispensationalism became widely
accepted among the emerging Brethren
movement. By 1831, he joined others
in Plymouth, England, who opposed
denominationalism, one-man ministry and
church formalism. By 1845, the Plymouth
Assembly alone had more than 1,000 people
in their fellowship.
In 1845, a schism occurred within the
Brethren movement over B. W. Newton’s
differing views over the “Secret Rapture,”
Christology, and clericalism. The unity
of the Brethren was compromised again
in 1848, from which time the movement
divided into Open and Exclusive Brethren.
JND remained the dominant voice among
the Exclusive Brethren for another 30 years.
JNDmadefivemissionaryjourneystoNorth
America between 1862 and 1877, working
mostly in New England, Ontario and the
Great Lakes Region. He died in 1882 in
Bournemouth, Dorset, England. From the
1848 division, both Open and non-open
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