The speaker for the lecture on Primitive Methodism given prior to the official open  was J William Lamb. Bill Lamb grew up in Ottawa and was educated at Carlton and Emanuel Colleges. He served at several charges in Quebec and Eastern Ontario. While serving at Cateraqui he became interested in the United Empire Loyalist, the old Hay Bay church and the Primitive Methodists.

 Rev. Bill Lamb is a former president of the Canadian Methodist Historical Society, and now serves on the executive of the World Methodist Historical Society.  He is the historian of Old Hay Bay Church, a National Historic Site.  Built in 1792, it is Canada's oldest remaining Methodist building.  Bill has preached a number of times in Ebenezer.

 

 

2007 was celebrated in England, not only as the 300th anniversary of the birth of the great hymn-writer Charles Wesley (brother of John), but also the 200th anniversary (May 31st, 1807) of the beginning of Primitive Methodism. Saturday 26 May 2007.
A Celebration of Methodist Praise to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the beginning of Primitive Methodism at the first Camp Meeting on Mow Cop and the 300th anniversary of Charles Wesley's birth.   Princess Anne participated in the latter celebration.

 

 

The Beginnings of Primitive Methodism

in England and Canada

J William Lamb

 

Ebenezer Chapel, June 1, 2008

 

Let me begin with a Royal event.

 

One year ago yesterday, on May 31st, 2007, her Royal Highness, the Princess Anne, graced with her presence the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the founding of Primitive Methodism in England. The service of thanksgiving and remembrance was held near the very site of its birth— a hill top called MOW COP in Staffordshire, north of Stoke-on-Trent, the home of England's potteries.

 

It was on that date two centuries ago that the first camp meeting was held that began a great revival and fostered this break-away Methodist denomination. This was only 16 years following the death of Methodism's founder, the Rev. John Wesley. There were many who regarded Wesley's 1786 warning as coming to fulfillment:

"I do not fear that people called Methodists will ever cease to exist either in

Europe or the Americas. I only fear that they shall exist as a dead sect having

the form of religion, but not the power thereof, and that undoubtedly will be the

case unless they hold fast to the doctrine, spirit and discipline with which they

first set out."

 

They saw the increasing worldliness, the desire for finer churches including organs, the struggle for equal recognition with the Church of England, and professionalization of Methodist clergy. Gone were the days of heart-warming meetings, of soul conversions, of lay leadership, and simplicity of lifestyle, as they saw it.

 

One British author describes the origins of Primitive Methodism thus:

They owed their origin "to the fact that Methodism as founded by the Wesleys tended, after the first generation, to depart from the enthusiasm that had marked its inception and to settle down to the task of self-organization. There were, however, some ardent spirits who continued to work along the old lines and whose watchword was revivalism, and out of their efforts came the Bible Christian, the Independent Methodist and the Primitive Methodist denominations. These enthusiastic evangelists esteemed zeal a higher virtue than discipline and decorum, and put small emphasis on church systems as compared with conversions."

 

Under the leadership of two lay preachers: the steadfast Hugh Bourne, a millwright, and the charismatic William Clowes, a potter, this movement of evangelical dissenters grew until they were officially disowned by action of the Wesleyan Conference. For lack of a formal name, they were called the Camp-Meeting Methodists, and later, The Ranters, and finally Primitive Methodists.

 

Bourne had joined the Wesleyan Methodists, and when he moved to the colliery district at Harriseahead, he was so appalled by the prevailing ignorance and debasement, that he began preaching in the open air. A revival commenced and within two years a chapel was built. William Clowes, a man of fine appearance and open disposition, was converted in a subsequent revival and later proved to be a more effective preacher than Bourne. Clowes threw his house open for love-feasts and prayer meetings, and did a great deal of itinerant evangelization among the cottages of the countryside.

 

Camp Meetings became a feature of the newly emergent movement, due to the influence of an eccentric American Methodist revivalist by the name of Lorenzo Dow. He had visited North Staffordshire and spoke in glowing terms of the burgeoning camp-meeting movement in the States. Such was his impact, that his name was enshrined in the epithet, "NO DOW, NO MOW;" —without Lorenzo Dow, there would have been no Mow Cop revival.

 

The movement was characterized not only by evangelistic fervour and missionary zeal, but by great prayer meetings and hearty singing. They produced their own hymn book as early as 1809, which included some original songs by Hugh Bourne, and some of Lorenzo Dow's camp meeting songs. In time they formed a strong denominational structure with centralized control.

They faced much opposition not only from local leading citizens, but even from the Wesleyan Methodist circuit authorities, especially who opposed the camp meetings. Bourne was expelled in June of 1807. Others, including Clowes, faced the same treatment from the Methodist church. Nevertheless, the work of revival spread through the midlands. The first Conference of the Primitive Methodist group (not yet called a church) was in 1819. Much of the growth centered around Hull in Yorkshire, which claimed over 11,000 members in their 17 circuits by 1824.

Ultimately, the Primitive Methodist church in Great Britain, merged with the Wesleyan Methodists in 1932.

 

Upper Canada

 

Primitive Methodism was introduced to Upper Canada in 1829 with the arrival of William Lawson in Toronto, or York, as it was then called. Lawson had been a prominent merchant and local preacher in Brampton, England. By June of that year, he had opened a clothing business in York, and begun preaching in the market. By the time he had rented a schoolhouse for meetings, he was seconded by another immigrant, Robert Walker, who joined him in both business and preaching. Walker eventually became one of Toronto's wealthiest merchants.

 

But by the time Primitive Methodism reached Upper Canada, a change had taken place.

 

"Although the connexion was notoriously radical in England, the Primitive Methodist leadership in Upper Canada was a conservative, aspiring middle class, intensely loyal to the British crown." One factor that slowed down their progress was "the slow and hesitant support from the Primitive Methodist Missionary society in England."

 

Nevertheless, in 1830, a circuit was formed in Brampton. By 1835, this circuit claimed 114 members, and five years later it was self-supporting. Markham became the head of another circuit as the work progressed.

 

The Etobicoke Circuit became a very important part of Primitive Methodism in Ontario. In the 1850s it included 27 preaching places. Mrs. Hopper wrote of it, "They had a powerful hold on Toronto Gore and all along the Humber river, extending into Vaughan and Albion."

 

In 1858, the year in which Ebenezer church was built, a denominational newspaper was launched. Called the Christian Journal, reported on the expansion of the work, of revivals and camp meetings, of the decisions of their Conference, etc. Undoubtedly it would include some reports of Ebenezer church.

 

Although Primitive Methodism found its strength in suburban and rural areas, its centre was in Toronto. In 1832 the Bay Street chapel, seating nearly 600, was opened. They were thinking BIG—perhaps too big. With only 132 members in the area, this left a large debt. Twenty years later, a church was opened on Alice Street.

 

 

 

The most important Primitive Methodist church in Toronto was the Carlton Street Church, on Carlton Street just east of Yonge. Opened in 1874, it became the centre of much of the denominations activities. It became Carlton Street United Church, and was long called "The House of Friendship" under the lengthy ministry of Rev. James Finlay. This church also played a role in the great Methodist Union of 1883-4, for it was the meeting place where representatives of the four denominations hammered out the Basis of Union in November, 1882.

 

A series of unions throughout the 19th century had created The Methodist Church of Canada in 1874. This greater Union also brought together the Methodist Episcopal Church of Canada, the Primitive Methodists, and the Bible Christians. By 1884, the combined Methodists were numerically larger than any other Protestant or Catholic churches in the Dominion. Primitive Methodism brought over 8,000 members and 89 ministers to the union. They had been a small, closely knit communion with a proud evangelical heritage.

 

I should mention a remarkable book titled, "Old-Time Primitive Methodism in  Canada" which appeared in 1904. It was written by "Mrs. R.P. Hopper" and gives much of the flavour of the denomination. Mrs. Hopper's maiden name was Jennie Agar. Her sister Margaret had married Rev. Eli Middleton. And in that name we have our final cameo. Eli and Margaret had an only son, Jesse Middleton, who became a well known journalist and publisher, as well as poet and trained musician. In the 1920s, while serving in Quebec city as a reporter for the English newspaper, Quebec Chronicle and dashing off reports to many other newspapers, he came across an old French adaptation of an ancient Indian hymn. It caught his fancy, and he composed an English interpretation. Later, when he became the choir director of Centennial Methodist/United Church on Dovercourt Road below Bloor, he tried it out with his singers. His son Arthur Middleton was the organist.

 

Several years ago I served that church, and heard glowing accounts of those halcion years from many of its senior citizens who had been in that choir that first sang the Christmas hymn, "Twas in the moon of wintertime" also known as The Huron Carol, originally attributed to the Jesuit martyr, Jean Brebeuf. That same year, 1927, the choir sang its public premiere at the King Edward Hotel to a musical setting by Heally Willan. I still have copies of the original published music. I interviewed Arthur Middleton in 1987 and learned many details behind the publication of that very Canadian hymn.

 

So perhaps in that hymn by Jesse Middleton, we see some of the musical heritage of Canadian Primitive Methodism that is still in our hymn books.

Bibliography:

Dictionary of Canadian Biography, "William Lawson," vol. X, p. 434.

Robert Cade, "Primitive Methodism in Canada,"

in J. E. Sanderson, The First Century of Methodism in Canada, 1910, vol. II, p. 406ff.

Jane Hopper, Old-time Primitive Methodism in Canada, [1829-1884], Toronto, 1904. Neil Semple, The Lord's Dominion, The History of Canadian Methodism, McGill- Queen's, 1996.