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

16 PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHURCH.
entered Manchester." *
We may therefore reasonably conclude that the identification
holds; and although Manchester bulks largely in the eye of the Connexion, and is
sure to bulk still more largely in the future, it has no need to look otherwise than
complacently on the figure of the old soldier determinedly plodding his way to deliver his
message at the New Cross. We can think of no more fitting precursor and prototype of
that community which had, with slender and imperfect appliances, and against heavy
odds, to win its way step by step to an assured and honourable position in Cottonopolis.
The war-worn veteran was a herald quite as worthy as though he had rushed there on
his own motor-car, or been able to speed to the big city with the swiftness of an Elijah
forerunning the chariot of Ahab.
But if Eleazar Hathorn was the herald of the Connexion to Manchester, who was
its apostle
its sent one 1 To whom, of official status, does Hugh Bourne allude in the
explicit statement " Manchester was visited and : preaching established about March,
1821"?t This statement is not at variance with the tradition already referred to;
rather do tradition and statement confirm each other. Eleazar Hathorn who, in keeping
with his habits, had gone to Manchester to do a little independent missioning, in the
time of Macclesfield's fervour, would naturally report his doings, and probably urge upon
the "heads of houses" (and we know that Hugh Bourne visited him) to follow up
officially these visits of We his. light upon a clue as to the person selected to
" "
open Manchester, in an entry in Hugh Bourne's Journal. Writing under date,
January 18th, 1821, he tells how he came to Belper and saw Thomas Jackson, and then
goes on " to say We : agreed for him to go to Manchester, to be there on Sunday,
March 9th." Unfortunately, there is an evident error here as to the date for March 9th
;
was Wednesday, and not Sunday. Probably March 6th was the date intended. In
order that T. Jackson might be at liberty to give this Sunday to Manchester, some
re-arrangement of appointments was necessary so H. B. was to
;
get R. Bentley to preach
at Rocester at that time, and H. B. was to preach at Rocester on the 20th of March.
This arrangement was carried out so far as Hugh Bourne was concerned, and, doubtless,
Thomas Jackson fulfilled the duty assigned to him, and on the 6th March, officially
opened Manchester. Here is the " apostle " we are in search of.
Let us briefly recall the "form and pressure" of the time when we made our entry
into Manchester. George the Third had but recently died, and in a few months
(July 27th, 1821) the coronation of his graceless successor would be celebrated. One
notable feature of the celebration was to be a procession, two-and-a-half miles long, from
Peter's Field to Ardwick Green, and the night was destined to close with a drunken orgie
in Shude Market, qualified by a retributive disaster. Peterloo, with the rankling memories
it had left, was only just behind. At New Cross, where our first missionaries so often
took their stand, not many months before, cannon had been planted to sweep the streets
and overawe the populace. Nor were those cannon placed there merely for dumb show.
Manchester was like a caldron in which conflicting elements were seething. They were
indeed sad times, as may be gathered from the fact that another Thomas Jackson,
* Herod's
" Biographical Sketches." Footnote, p. 461.
t Magazine for 1821, p. 77.