This chapter considers the colonial missions of British Nonconformists, that is, Protestants outside the established churches. ‘Nonconformity’ was a term used in the nineteenth century to refer to the new Methodist churches as well as the older Baptists, Congregationalists and Quakers and a number of smaller groups including the Plymouth Brethren and the Salvation Army. Following the Disruption, the Evangelical Presbyterians, who left the established Church of Scotland to form the Free Church, shared many theological and organisational features with Nonconformists (and Evangelical Anglicans) elsewhere in Britain. However, although it is convenient to consider them together, Nonconformists took pride in their independence, and it is important to pay as much heed to their distinctive cultural, theological and regional profiles as to those things which they held in common. The character of the Nonconformist identity also tended to change over time. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Wesleyan Methodists felt closer to the Church of England and it was only later that they came to feel part of the relatively cohesive Nonconformist ‘chapel’ culture. The evangelical revival and, as we will argue in this chapter, the impact of emigration and imperial expansion, were critical in strengthening bonds between this diverse group of British Protestants.

Although they were a minority of the population, Nonconformists were some of Britain's most active Christians with a commitment to both empire and social and political reform and were open to the potential of the colonial empire.