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

THE PERIOD OF CIRCUIT PREDOMINANCE AND ENTERPRISE. 19
offices of friends the best medical aid was procured, and the governor of the jail acted
in a most humane manner. It is clear that political animus had more to do with
this travesty of justice than ought else. The magistrates had lost their heads. They
saw signs of possible riot and disturbance everywhere. The bias of the chairman of the
Quarter Sessions was revealed by the observations he dropped during the course of
the trial ; and, if what is alleged be true, that the chairman was the vicar of Eochdale,
who had been "military leader" on the black day of Peterloo, much is explained.
"The day after Mr. Waller's discharge, Wednesday, October 17th, 1821, a meeting
was held at Chancery Lane, when it
appeared this imprisonment had been the means
of stirring up many to hear the Word, and on the whole that it had served greatly
to advance the Redeemer's kingdom."* No doubt at this significant service there
would be sung some of those special hymns " On the Releasement of S. Waller from
Prison," we find in the Magazine for 1822.. We do not catch, in these hymns, the
triumphant note that strikes us in those called forth by John Wedgwood's Grantham
experiences. In these the pervading sentiment is one of chastened thankfulness, as
is seen in the chorus of one of them :
" Releas'd from bondage, grief, and pain,
"We meet with this our friend again."
One of the best of these hymns was written by Walton Carter, already referred to.
He too encountered the " backsliding Methodist constable," who pulled him down at
Ashton Cross and tore his clothe?. But though Carter was brought before the
magistrates at Oldham, he and his companion were dismissed. Of Walton Carter's
antecedents we can glean nothing ;
but he became a noted missioner in Manchester
and its
neighbourhood, and was our Connexional pioneer in several towns which are
now the head of important stations. In fact he seems to have fulfilled the duties
of a travelling preacher in the Manchester Circuit during the years 1821-2, although
his name does not appear on the official stations ;
so that, although Manchester Circuit
in 1821 has only John Verity down for it, with the words "for six months"
appended, we need not suppose that Manchester was left without a preacher for half
the year. Walton Carter was on the ground. His well-written Journals appear side
by side with those of Verity in the Magazine, and when Verity has left, Carter is still
actively engaged in the circuit, and as late as May, 1822, sends an account to the
Magazine of the first Oldham camp meeting. In 1823 his name appears on the stations
for the first and last time, in connection with Halifax. He retired from the ministry,
and subsequently became the proprietor of a day and boarding school at Bucklow Hill,
near Knutsford. The breach with the past was not complete. He still kept in touch
with Manchester for ; amongst his boarders were several youths belonging to Primitive
Methodist families resident in the city in which he had once rendered good service.
There is reason to fear, however, that his last days were not the brightest and
the
best.
Before the close of 1821, there were, as the books show,
in Manchester alone
* There is a full account of the trial of S. Waller in the Magazine for 1822, pp. 259, 281.
See also S. Smith's " The Introduction," etc., already cited, p. 98.
B 2