Methodism and the mob in the eighteenth century

John Walsh

doi:10.1017/S0424208400005568

Methodism and the mob in the eighteenth century

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016

John Walsh

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John Walsh*: Affiliation:
Jesus College, Oxford

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Early Methodism is often studied as an example of a popular religious movement, but the purpose of this paper is to explore some of the reasons behind its unpopularity, for suffering and persecution characterised its early phases as well as growth and success. The persecution of Methodists took many forms. Perhaps the hardest to bear were those least often recorded, such as the eviction of society members from their homes and jobs, or the unnerving social ostracism which made life intolerable in many villages and families. The persecution usually described in the journals of the methodist pioneers, however, was that inflicted by ‘the mob’. ‘The mob’ was an elastic term in their vocabulary and could range from a knot of village youths throwing stones to the ferocious urban crowds which cruelly assaulted worshippers in Exeter in 1745 and Norwich in 1752. ‘Mobbing’ too covered a gamut of activity. Much of it was rude horseplay, like the release of sparrows at the candles in a cottage meeting; some was petty malicious damage, like the breaking of windows. But not infrequently it erupted more violently. Preaching-houses at St Ives, Sheffield, Arborfield, Wolverhampton, Nantwich and Chester were pulled down, and others severely damaged. A number of houses, generally of poor people, were wrecked or sacked. Many persons, women and children among them, were cruelly beaten and some scarred or injured for life. A few, like William Seward, first blinded and then killed by a mob at Hay in 1741, paid for their beliefs with their lives. The knowledge of these ordeals, transmitted by biographies and oral tradition, gave the movement its equivalent of a martyrology and built up that image of heroic, primitive Methodism which, like the image of primitive Christianity itself, stimulated and reproved the piety of later, more comfortable generations.

Type: Research Article
Information: Studies in Church History , Volume 8: Popular Belief and Practice , 1972 , pp. 213 - 227

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0424208400005568 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1972

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References

^{page no 214 note 1} Woolcock, J., A History of the Bible Christian Churches on the Isle of Wight (2 ed Newport 1897) P 12 Google Scholar.

^{page no 215 note 1} The Christian Observer, VII (London 1808) p 316.

^{page no 215 note 2} [The] Journal of [the Rev]J[ohn] Wesley, ed Curnock, N. (London 1938) IV, p 231 Google Scholar.

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^{page no 216 note 8} Ibid, p 32.

^{page no 217 note 1} Cennick, [J.], [An] Account of a late Riot [at Exeter] (London 1745) p 13 Google Scholar; The Weekly History, xxv, 19 Sept 1741, p 4.

^{page no 217 note 2} Journal of J. Wesley, IV, p 241.

^{page no 217 note 3} For example Early Methodist Preachers, 1, p 191; [The] Journal of [the Rev] C[harles] Wesley, intr Jackson, T. (London 1849) 1, p 346 Google Scholar.

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^{page no 218 note 1} Ibid, v, p 250.

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^{page no 218 note 3} For example, Jephson, A., A Friendly and compassionate Address to all serious and well-disposed Methodists (London 1760)Google Scholar.

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^{page no 220 note 4} Cennick, Account of a late Riot, p 28; Gentleman’s Magazine, XXII, 11 Feb 1752, p 90.

^{page no 220 note 5} [George] Whitefield’s Journals (Banner of Truth Trust, London 1960) p 229.

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^{page no 221 note 4} See Thompson, E. P., The Making of the English Working Class (London 1965) pp 68-9Google Scholar.

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^{page no 222 note 1} Butler, S., Hudibras, ed Wilden, J. (Oxford 1967) p 7 CrossRef Google Scholar, (1st Part, Canto 1, lines 197-8).

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^{page no 222 note 6} Early Methodist Preachers, 1, p 192.

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^{page no 223 note 1} Journal of J. Wesley, 111, p 20.

^{page no 223 note 2} Early Methodist Preachers, 1, p 103.

^{page no 223 note 3} Journal of J. Wesley, IV, p 231.

^{page no 223 note 4} Cocking, p 132.

^{page no 223 note 5} Works, VIII, pp 122ff.

^{page no 223 note 6} Some Papers Giving an Account of the Rise and Progress of Methodism in Wednesbury (London 1744) pp 21-2

^{page no 224 note 1} Methodist Archives MSS, John Valton’s Journal, 12 March 1767; cf Early Methodist Preachers, VI (1866) p 63.

^{page no 224 note 2} Crookshank, C. H., A Methodist Pioneer. The Life and Labours of John Smith (London 1881) p 75 Google Scholar. John Smith is the same person as the John Smythe mentioned above.

^{page no 224 note 3} Gentleman’s Magazine, XXII, March 1752, p 125.

^{page no 224 note 4} Early Methodist Preachers, 11 (1866) p 123.

^{page no 224 note 5} cf.Davies, D.B., ‘Some Themes of Counter Subversion’, Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XLVII (Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1960)Google Scholar.

^{page no 225 note 1} Manners, N., Some Particulars of the Life and Experiences of N. Manners (York 1785) p 6 Google Scholar.

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^{page no 225 note 3} Smythe, p 26.

^{page no 225 note 4} Ibid, p 43. He was, in fact, murdered by a knock on the head.

^{page no 225 note 5} Early Methodist Preachers, IV (1866) p 11.

^{page no 225 note 6} Ibid, p 280.

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^{page no 226 note 1} Weekly History, XXVI, 26 Sept 1741, p 4; Journal of C. Wesley, 1, p 361.

^{page no 226 note 2} Works, XIII, p 170, some were also anti-Jacobites.

^{page no 226 note 3} A True and Particular Narrative of the Disturbances and Outrages in the City of Norwich (London 1752) p 27.

^{page no 227 note 1} cf.Higham, J., Strangers in the Land. Patterns of American Nativism 1860-1925 (New Brunswick, N.J. 1955)Google Scholar for some interesting parallels.

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