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

THE PERIOD OF CIRCUIT PREDOMINANCE AND ENTERPRISE. 41
Tear, also of the same circuit, "whose addresses, principally given in his native tongue,
were full of originality, pointed, homely and pious, aptly illustrated by references to
agricultural
customs."
Returning to Bolton Circuit. In December, 1823, Henry Sharman writes: "We
were enabled to send the money we owed to Bolton Circuit, and were very little short
in paying all besides." So that not only was Bolton nothing out of pocket by its
venture, but it had also the satisfaction of knowing that by its enterprise it had
added a miniature kingdom to the Connexion, and set a worthy example before other
circuits. Besides the Isle of Man, other circuits have, during the course of years,
been formed from Bolton, viz., Bury, Bolton Second, Darwen, Leigh, Heywood, and
Horwich. Of these successive changes in internal administration, the first only falls
within the first period. In the first Minute Book of the Manchester Circuit, Bury
has only six members, from which fact it
may be inferred that at the close of 1821
Bury had but just been missioned. In 1835, Bury stands on the Bolton plan as
a branch with some fifteen places, including Edenfield, Ramsbottom, Heywood,
Chadderton, Summerseat, and Ratcliffe. At the Conference of 1836 it became an
independent station, with one minister and two hundred and sixty-two members.
OLDHAM.
Oldham was missioned about the same time as Bolton, and here also "thousands
crowded to hear the Word of life in the open-air." There is no need to discount
these words of Verity's as though they were merely a rhetorical exaggeration. Unless
everybody has conspired to deceive us, Oldham camp-meetings down to, and even
beyond, the middle of last century were noted for the immense throngs attending
them. The Rev. W. Antliff, who spent five of the most influential years of his
ministry in Oldham (1857-61), tells us that the Oldham Whitsunday camp-meeting,
held on Oldham Edge, was one of the largest in that part of the kingdom. He gives
the probable numbers present in 1861 as ten thousand ;
for that of 1858, his predecessor,
Miles Dickenson, gives the estimate of fifteen thousand. But it is only fair to say
that the traditional estimates of the numbers brought together at some of these annual
gatherings go far beyond these figures. It almost seems as though the first Oldham
camp-meeting of May 19th, 1822, had set the pattern for all subsequent ones. The
site of the Oldham gathering on this famous camp-meeting Sunday of which we
wish we could have had a census of attendance and the number of professing
converts was at Bardsley, in a field lent by Mr. Brierley, of the Fir Trees Farm.
The services were carried on entirely by Manchester men, of whom Walton Carter
was the leader. Fourteen thousand people were said to have been present ;
there
were two preaching-stands, five praying companies, and two permanent ones. Carter
says of this notable gathering : " People of all denominations received it with approbation
;
while the attention of the multitude was arrested, and the hearts of many
were inspired with zeal for the Lord of
hosts."
This Pentecostal day, however, did not found the church at Oldham though
it
did strengthen
it and add to its numbers. A class had previously been formed at
Brook, near Bardsley, with James Wild and R. Ashworth as its leaders ;
and a second