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From: <>
Subject: Methodists Part1
Date: Sun, 4 Apr 1999 13:12:01 EDT

In reply to Mary Jane Maulsby's question:

METHODISTS Part1

The Methodist movement began in 1738, when John and Charles Wesley set out to
revive a sense of spirituality and inner holiness in worship. At first, they
preached to church congregations and religious societies; then their
followers formed themselves into 'societies' and met at members' houses. In
1739, George Whitefield, an associate of the Wesley brothers when they were
at Oxford, began to preach in the open air, and the Wesleys followed his
example. They accepted the nickname 'Methodist', which had been mockingly
bestowed upon them at Oxford. Although they remained members of the
established church, they built supplementary preaching-houses (Wesley) and
tabernacles (Whitefield), and these became grouped into Circuits under a
Circuit Chapel.

In 1741 the followers of Whitefield, who were Calvinists and believed in
predestination to heaven or hell, separated from those of the Wesleys, who
were Armenian and held that salvation was open to all true believers. During
the eighteenth century both sects continued to be called Methodists. Wesley
travelled the whole country and his following grew greatly. In 1778, Wesley's
Chapel in City Road, London, was founded, with its own graveyard and burial
register. By 1784, Methodist clergy were being barred from Anglican churches,
so they invoked the Toleration Act and became, officially, Dissenters. From
then on they took less care to arrange their meetings at times that did not
conflict with Church of England services, but the baptisms of their children
were still performed and registered in church.

Charles Wesley died in 1788 and John Wesley in 1791. The movement continued
to grow but, in the following decades, it was subject to an almost constant
state of change, as a succession of sub-denominations developed and split off
from the main body. In 1797 a sect called the Methodist New Connexion was
founded. It gave its laity more control over its affairs, and by 1837 it had
thirty circuits, each with its own register.

In 1807, a small group called the Independent, or Quaker, Methodists left the
main body, and in the following year the followers of Hugh Bourne were
expelled from the Burslem Circuit and built their first chapel at Tunstall.
In 1812 they adopted the name of Primitive Methodists and expanded,
especially in the industrial towns of the north. Three years later, the Bible
Christians (O'Bryanites) broke away in the southwestern area of England. In
1818 a Metropolitan Wesleyan Registry of Births and Baptisms was begun in
London, from duplicate certificates sent in by the circuits.

Richard James
CarmsList Sponsor

Extracts from 'The Dictionary of Genealogists'
By Terrick VH Fitzhugh
V Edition

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