Vol 2, pages 1-100 - My Primitive Methodist Ancestors

PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHURCH.
" Scripture Catechism," 1807 not half as well known as it deserves to be ;
and his tract
on "The Ministry of Women," 1808. Note, above all, in this introductory period, his
adaptation of Lorenzo Dow's Hymn Book, 1809, of which, until 1823,
edition after
edition was published, being bought so eagerly, especially on new ground, that the
revenue derived from its sale helped largely
to sustain some of the new missions.
Some of the provincial printers wide-awake men soon discovered the value of this
little Hymn Book as a marketable commodity, and issued pirated editions, sometimes
making trivial alterations, and then having the effrontery to put " Copyright secured "
on the title-page. We ourselves have met with no less than eight such pirated editions
issued before 1823, bearing the imprints of local presses at York (two), Leeds, Gainsborough,
Selby, Burslem, Bingham, and Nottingham.
After the establishment of the Connexion in 1811, Hugh Bourne pursued the same
policy. Printed tickets superseded written ones. In 1814, the rules of the new
denomination were carefully edited and published ; Sunday Schools were with much
labour furnished with Bibles and reading-books, and other requisites ;
Tract Societies
were organised and equipped a
; large Hymn Book was compiled and published in 1812,
but it met with little favour among the societies. It was too heavy to float, and it must
be regarded as having been one of Hugh Bourne's publishing ventures that failed. The
same fate befell the quarterly Magazine, projected and launched for a very short
voyage in 1818.
To all intents and purposes, there was an Editor and Book Steward before the offices
were officially created and the officers appointed. If, at first, Hugh Bourne practically
combined both offices in himself, it must not
HUGH BOUUNE, CONNEXIONAL K1JITOU.
be overlooked that his brother James was
always at his back ready to share his monetary
responsibility ;
and, to the honour of both, let
it also be remembered that, though at their
initiative the societies might authorise these
early publishing ventures, the brothers did
not appropriate any profits that might accrue,
but surrendered them to the Connexion, while
they took all the risks of loss. Thus, one
thinks, it was a foregone conclusion that
when the first Conference found it necessary
to appoint an editor Hugh Bourne should be
designated to the office, and receive instructions
to complete the suspended issue of
the Magazine of 1819 which he did in the
manner already described. But when at the
next' Conference the question of appointing
a Book Steward was mooted, the case was
different ;
there were evidently two opinions
both as to the person to be appointed and as
to the locale of the Book-Room already looming on the Connexional horizon.