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

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74 PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHURCH. to Leeds. Then, in 1840, Utley again acquired independence. In 1849, when that capable minister, Richard Davies, was the superintendent, Leeds was still the Home one circuit, though a powerful one with 1162 members. It comprised Branch and the South Leeds and Dewsbury Branches. In 1850 South Leeds became a separate station, and three years later was called Leeds Second. Dewsbury remained a branch until 1 85 7,. when it was granted autonomy. In 1862 the West Branch of Leeds First became Leeds Third or Relioboth. These dry, though necessary, details are of some significance as showing how modern and even quite recent has been the development of Leeds Primitive Methodism with its existing eight circuits. Statistics not just herein place would confirm the impression that the story of this development of which on its material side some idea may be MR. GEORGE ALLEN. gained from our page illustration of Leeds chapels . . later period of our history. belongs to the Information respecting the history of Primitive Methodism during the first period isregrettably scanty. We are, therefore, all the more beholden to Mr. George Allen for his published jottings on our history in Leeds.* Mr. Allen became a scholar in the Sunday school, then conducted in Shannon Street, as early as 1823, and afterwards an active and useful official of the Leeds First Circuit. To him we are indebted for a few facts relating to the genesis of the Leeds Second and Third Circuits which shall be given in his own words : "A Mr. William Armitage, who lived in Wheeler Street, Bank, Leeds, about 1833, removed to Park Lane, and carried his religious influence with him. A prayer meeting was held at Mrs. Blakey's, Hanover Square, afterwards. On Sunday nights a preaching service was held at Mr. Tyas', in Chatham Street, and in a short time a. class meeting was held on Monday afternoons at Mr. Tyas'. Thus the work Then spread until they took a room in Park Lane, which had been a joiner's shop. Rehoboth chapel and the houses connected with it were built (1839), the Lord being their helper. But before this, preaching services had been commenced in a yard in Meadow Lane. After that they built a chapel in a yard because, I suppose, they could get the land there at a cheap rate. , . . The chapel at Holbeck was parted with in about 1836 and Prince's Field Chapel built, which is now in Leeds Second Circuit ; Park Lane (Rehoboth) being in the Third." The facts here given may usefully serve as points de repere, but we want something more. Fortunately we get some side-lights illuminating the facts here barely given from the lives of Thomas Batty and Atkinson Smith, who were the ministers of Leeds Circuit from 1831 to 1833. In these two years they made full proof of their ministry, with the result that there was an increase of three hundred to the membership of the Church. We have already indicated what were the outstanding features of Atkinson Smith's character and ministry. These were never more conspicuously in evidence than during his two years' term in Leeds. His biographer, who travelled in the Leeds Circuit in 1842 and took his bride, Sarah Bickerstaffe, to the preacher's house at * "A History of Primitive Methodism in Leeds (1819-1888)," by George Allen.
THE PERIOD OF CIRCUIT PREDOMINANCE AND ENTERPRISE. 75 Quarry Hill, adduces the testimony of a Leeds class-leader to the influence of Atkinson Smith's prayers and labours. When we know that the class-leader in question was John Reynard, and that it was in his house the young preacher resided, the testimony is weighty indeed. " ' Leeds Circuit,' says Mr. Reynard, ' owes its rise in a great measure to the prayers of Atkinson Smith.' And then, pointing to his chamber floor, he observed : ' I have known him be on these boards for four hours together, agonising in prayer.' I [C. Kendall] found many who owned him as their father in Christ. . . Among many others to whom his labours were made a blessing was Mr. Thomas Ratcliffe, who became a well-known minister of our Church." In 1832 Leeds suffered severely from the visitation of the cholera. As in Manchester, so here, during the ravages of this fell disease, special attention was given to open-air services. " The preachers were set at liberty from their week-night appointments that they might concentrate their efforts on the living masses of the town." Atkinson Smith did not shrink from " visiting the cholera hospital to rescue the perishing and care for the dying." Here is an extract from A. Smith's Journal relating to Bramley, now Leeds Fifth Circuit, with which we close, for the present, our notice of Leeds. " September 13th, 1831. I went to Bramley, a place containing five or six thousand inhabitants. We have only ten members, and seldom more than twenty hearers. I resolved to re-mission the place ; Wm. Pickard joined me. We took a lantern, went to the bottom of the village, and began to sing 'We are bound for the Kingdom,' etc. Three hundred people accompanied us to the chapel. I preached to them, but nut with my usual liberty ; yet the revival began that night, and in a short time forty or fifty persons found the Lord.' 'To this day,' adds the biographer, writing in 1854, 'the people of Bramley speak of Smith's seeking a revival with a lantern and candle.' ;>
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Vol 2, pages 1-100 - My Primitive Methodist Ancestors

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