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

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56 PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHURCH. only a few months. Not only had the room little to offer in the way of comfort or cheerfulness, but as the society grew its inadequacy became more and more apparent. Looking round for more eligible quarters, attention was turned to an unoccupied chapel in Grape Lane, originally built for the Rev. William Wren who had seceded from Lady Huntingdon's Connexion in 1781. After his death, three years after, it had been hired by the Congregationalists, and then in turn occupied by the New Connexion, the Wesleyan Methodists, the Particular Baptists, and Unitarian * Baptists ; so that in the thirty-nine years of its existence as a building it had changed hands and denominations no less than half-a-dozen times. Many old Nonconformist meeting-houses have had \v GRAPE LANE CHAPEL. THE FIRST PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHAPEL IN TORK. a strange, eventful history, but one thinks it would be hard to find one with a more chequered record than Grape Lane. Something of the outward appearance of the building, which for thirty-one years served as our denominational centre in the city of York, may be gathered from our picture. However defective it might be according to our modern standards of beauty and convenience, Grape Lane was a decided advance on Peaseholme Green, and so the building was secured, G. and A. Bond of Elvington, * I am indebted for these facts to " Primitive Methodism. Its Introduction and Development in the city of York," by Wm. Camidge, P.E.H.S. The monograph is a model of what such works should be.
THE PERIOD OF CIRCUIT PREDOMINANCE AND ENTERPRISE. 57 S. Smith tells us, becoming surety for the rent. It was opened on July 2nd, 1820, by John Verity, John Woolhouse both of whom had just been taken out as preachers by the Hull Circuit and by W. Clowes, who preached in the evening. The opening services coincided in time with the formation of York as one of the branches of Hull Circuit. From the manuscript journals of Sampson Turner now before us we find George Herod, Sampson Turner and Nathaniel West labouring together at the beginning of 1822 in the York branch, which became a Circuit in March of the same year. As this is the first time JST. West's name comes before us, and we shall hear much of him until 1827, a few words respecting this remarkable man will be in place. He was an Irishman, and when we first see him in 1819, he wears the King's uniform and is known as Corporal West of the King's Bays. He was a man every inch of him ; of splendid physique, more than six feet in height, and with good natural parts sharpened by discipline. Altogether he was a man to impress and look at admiringly. When his regiment was stationed at Nottingham he was drawn to the room in the Broad Marsh and got soundly converted. He soon began to preach, and became very popular. In Leeds, to which town the King's Bays shortly removed, Corporal West attracted great crowds by his preaching. While at Leeds he talked so much of the Primitives of their zeal, their methods, their success, that the desire was awakened in many to see and hear this wonderful people for themselves. A pious young woman, a Methodist, fell in love with the handsome soldier and offered to find the whole or greater part of the money to purchase his discharge from the army. The offer was accepted, and N. West showed his gratitude by marrying his benefactress. But before this the King's Bays had removed to York, and Corporal West may have been one of the troopers who encircled William Clowes when he preached on the Pavement on May 19th. Before the summer was over he was certainly connected with the York Society, for Sarah Harrison expresses her pleasure at meeting with him on her third visit to the city just after the preaching room had been taken. By May, 1820, ex-corporal West was a travelling preacher and, as we have seen, at the beginning of 1822 we find him one of the York staff. Beyond this point we need not at present follow him. Grape Lane acquired some notoriety at first from the persistent attention bestowed upon it by a band of miscreants not of the lowest rank in the social scale who resorted to all the familiar devices for annoying and intimidating the preacher and his congregation, which we need not stay to specify. Unwilling at first to invoke the law for their own protection, the Society through its officers seems to have approached Lord Dundas, who at that time was the chief city magistrate. To his credit, be it said, the Lord Mayor cast his influence on the right side and personally attended a service at which John Hutchinson was the preacher. No preacher could have wished for a better behaved congregation than John Hutchinson had that night, and it was thought that the action of Lord Dundas would have a wholesome, deterrent effect. But the persecution soon began again, and when George Herod summoned two of the ringleaders at the Christmas Sessions of 1821 for disturbing public worship, he lost his case, and was saddled with the costs, amounting to 16. "Everything appeared clear against them, yet when the trial came on, they somehow or other got brought through, which very
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Vol 2, pages 1-100 - My Primitive Methodist Ancestors

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