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

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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.
THE PERIOD OF CIRCUIT PREDOMINANCE AND ENTERPRISE. 17 though a duly ordained Methodist minister whom the highest Connexional honours awaited, was at this time "forced by the magistrates even after the public services of the Sabbath-day (in Oldham Street) to walk the streets through the night, in company with others, for the purpose of reporting .any suspicious movements that might With Peterloo in the near background, and the struggle against the appear." '' Corn-laws and for the Charter in prospect, who will say that the former times were better than these, or question the statement that there was room in Manchester for any corrective and ameliorative influences Primitive Methodism could bring 1 We are told that the first meetings of the newly formed cause in Manchester were held " in a loft over a stable in Chorlton-upon-Medlock, somewhere about Brook Street, also in a cottage in London Square, Bank Top." Very soon "a top room over an old factory up an entry in Ancoats," locally known as " the Long Room," was acquired ; and on July 30th, 1820, Ann Brownsword preached several times in this room and also at the New Cross. She speaks of crowded services in the room and of having had ten converts on two successive week evenings. At this time she reports that there are five classes and eighty members. On the 27th and 28th of August Hugh Bourne preached at New Cross and in the Long Room. He renewed the tickets to the society and arrangements were made for the first camp meeting, which from another source we learn was held on the Ashton Road, on September 17th. This camp meeting was conducted by James Bonsor, fresh from his experience at the Stafford Sessions, who had been brought from Darlaston Circuit in exchange for Ann Brownsword. James Bousor's labours were not confined to one locality, but pretty well distributed as the following entry shows : " Sunday, October 1st, 18W. At eight preached in Cropper Street. At ten Bro. Smith preached at Salford Cross, and I gave an exhortation. A many seemed affected. At half-past eleven I preached at another place in Salford. At half-past one, Bro. Smith and 1 preached in Castle Field. Many people and a good time ; sinners cried much for mercy. At half-past three I preached in another part of Manchester to a large congregation. Near five, I preached at Salford Cross, and at half -past six, at Manchester New Cross." Magazine, 1821, p. 20. Thus on one Sabbath he took part in seven services in different parts of Manchester. No wonder that from the committee meeting, held on October 6th, he reports that things are in a very flourishing state that there are ; nearly one hundred members, and that they had agreed to take another room in a different part of the town. The room here alluded to would probably be the same as that more explicitly referred to by Hugh Bourne (Magazine 1821) in the report of the Michaelmas Quarterly Meeting of the " Tunstall Circuit, wherein he says of Manchester : They have a very large room in New Islington, and they have had the courage to take another large room in Chancery Lane. This example may be followed with advantage in most towns." As early as James Bonsor's short mission in Manchester two names that should not be forgotten came before us for the first time. Samuel Waller, a cotton-spinner in * " Recollections of My own Life and Times." By Thomas Jackson, p. 173. Mrs. Linnaeus Banks deals with this precise time in " The Manchester Man." The work contains much local colour and word-sketches of contemporary persons and. localities. B
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Vol 2, pages 1-100 - My Primitive Methodist Ancestors

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