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

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14 PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHURCH. time, by the kind providence of God, he may surmount it." A levy of one penny per member was imposed in order to make good this loss of Connexional property. Sixty years after, the Book-Eoom, then standing, as it now stands, within the " conflagration area" of Central London, was within measurable distance of having a second experience of the like kind, but tenfold worse in degree. But this time a favourable Providence saved the goodly pile from disaster. While anxiety was reflected on the flame-lit countenances of the Book Steward and his a staff, change in the direction of the wind averted what seemed to be the impending catastrophe. How and why the Book-Eoom got from Bemersley into the roar of Central London must be told later on.
THE PERIOD OF CIRCUIT PREDOMINANCE AND ENTERPRISE. 15 CHAPTER XIII. MANCHESTER AND THE ADJACENT TOWNS UNTIL 1843. ANCHESTKR was made an independent circuit in 1821 by the same Quarterly Meeting which made Burland a branch. Because of its derivation from Tunstall, the original circuit, it was placed fourth in order amongst the sixteen circuits which at that time constituted the entire Connexion. Looking merely at the order of circuit formation, Manchester would rightly claim to come under notice before Burland, which was not made a circuit until 1823; but, having special regard to the geographical direction and spread of Primitive Methodism, the right is reversed. We have seen that north-west Cheshire was being inundated by the revival movement twelve months before its wave had reached the city on the Mersey. The extension of Tunstall Circuit to Manchester was one result of that great revival which may be said to have begun by John Wedgwood's mission to Staffordshire in 1819. We propose, therefore, in this chapter, to present the facts, so far as they can be ascertained, relative to the introduction of Primitive Methodism into Manchester, and to show what position the denomination had attained in that city and the neighbouring towns to which its labours had extended, by the year 1842. Hitherto, it seems to have been thought almost hopeless to recover the names of those who had the honour of being the very first pioneers of the Connexion in Manchester. We would fain hope, however, that, even with the scanty data available, the nameless ones may yet be identified. There is a long-standing tradition to the effect that Primitive Methodism was first carried to Manchester by "a local preacher from Macclesfield ; that he had a wooden leg ; that he walked from Macclesfield on the Sunday morning to Manchester that he ; preached at the New Cross after dinner ; and that he walked home after preaching in the evening, thus performing a journey of thirty-six miles on foot " Now " tradition is often ! very tenacious in its hold of essential fact, especially when the fact is such as to make a strong appeal to the imagination ; and the mental picture of the unknown missionary with his artificial limb, stumping his way to Manchester and back, has stamped itself on the imaginations of men. Who else should the hero of our tradition be than " Eleazar Hathorn of the wooden leg " the convert of Lorenzo Dow, active participant in the first Mow Cop Camp Meeting, the fellow-labourer of John Benton in the East Staffordshire Mission of 1814, and the instrument in the awakening of John Ride? We had reached the conclusion that the man we were in search of was no other than Eleazar Hathorn, when we found unexpected and pleasing confirmation of such conclusion in an obscure footnote of Herod's " Sketches," in the words : " This said Eleazar was the first Primitive that * The Introduction and Spread of Primitive Methodism in Lancashire, in " Anecdotes and Facts of Primitive Methodism." Ity Eev. Samuel Smith, p. 91. For other References to Eleazar Hathorn, see vol. i. pp. 68 ; 192.
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Vol 2, pages 1-100 - My Primitive Methodist Ancestors

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