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

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52 PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHURCH. CHAPTER XIV. THE MISSIONING OF YORK AND LEEDS. IT is time we returned to Hull to see what that Circuit was doing for the extension of the Connexion. An authentic document of the time ready to our hand may help us here. It is a letter sent to Hugh Bourne by Richard Jackson, the energetic steward of Hull Circuit. The letter, dated March 20th, 1822, reads like a dispatch from the seat of war as indeed it was. We shall have to refer to this important letter again when we come to speak of Hull's mission to Craven and to Northumberland ; that part of the letter which more immediately concerns us here is this statement : " It is two years and nine months since Hull was made a circuit town .... and we have since made seven circuits from Hull, viz. : Pocklington, Brotherton, Hutton Rudby, Malton, Leeds, Ripon and York Circuits." The formation of the first three circuits named in this list has already been described, and what this and the next chapters have to show is the direction and degree of the geographical extension made as registered by the formation in 1822 of the York, Leeds, Malton and Ripon Circuits. What we have now to watch and discern the meaning of is the establishment of strategic centres in the wide county of York, and the organised endeavour to occupy for the Connexion a tract of country which now forms a considerable part of the Leeds and York, and Bradford and Halifax districts. YORK. The continuous and commanding part the ancient city of York has played in the civil and ecclesiastical history of England has very largely been the outcome of its unique geographical position. Lying as it does at the entratice to the vale of York, the city has held the key to the Great North road along which armies and travellers and merchants and merchandise were bound to pass. It is no accident that the mediaeval city has renewed its youth as a great railway centre. York has always had to be reckoned with, and even <strong>Primitive</strong> <strong>Methodist</strong> missionaries had very early to reckon with it. They could not have given it the go-by without making both a physical and moral detour which would have meant bad strategy and personal dishonour. To evangelise Yorkshire and omit York would indeed have been to play Hamlet, and to leave Hamlet himself out. Hence, within six months of Clowes' entry into Hull, we find him con- As though he himself were fully aware of the fronted with the task of entering York. significance of the event, he not only gives its exact date, but a graphic description of his feelings at the time, and of the circumstances of his entry which were not without a certain dignity and picturesqueness. The account must be given in Clowes' own words ; nor will the reader fail to notice his feeling of the inevitability of the duty that lay before him as evidenced by the narrative. As Christ " must needs go through
THE PEEIOD OF CIRCUIT PREDOMINANCE AND ENTERPRISE. 53 Samaria," so Clowes felt there Vas a needs-be that he must deliver his testimony in York. " Being now in the immediate neighbourhood of the city of York, I formed a resolution, in the name of the Lord God of Israel, to lift up my banner in that far-famed city of churches. Accordingly, I sent a notice to the city crier to announce to the citizens of York that a ' Ranter ' preacher would preach on the Pavement. But the crier sent me word that he durst not give public notice of my purpose, unless I first obtained sanction of the Lord Mayor. Here I soon found I was in a measure locked in a difficulty. It occurred to me that if I waited upon his lordship to solicit permission, he would very probably refuse me liberty and ; OLD PAVEMENT, YORK, FKOM AN OLD PAINTING IN THE POSSESSION OF W. CAMIDGE, ESQ. were I to attempt preaching after a denial, very likely he would order me to prison and then if I should ; pass by the city without bearing my testimony in it, my conscience would remonstrate, and my duty to God and my fellow-creatures would be undischarged consequently, I determined to proceed and preach the ; gospel in the streets of the city, in conformity with the instructions which I had received from Jesus Christ, without asking permission of any one. " Accordingly, on Monday, May 24th, 1819, at seven o'clock in the evening, I in the name of the Lord who stood up on the Pavement in the Market-place, had so often supported me in similar enterprises. I commenced the service by singing the fourteenth hymn in the small hymn-book : " Come, oh come, thou vilest sinner," &c.
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THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE PRIMI
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Vol 2, pages 1-100 - My Primitive Methodist Ancestors

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