A
group of tutors and students meeting at Oxford
University in the late 1720s became known as the
Oxford
Methodists. The group included John Wesley,
Charles Wesley and George
Whitefield. In 1735 these three men became evangelical missionaries
in America.
After three years with the English settlers in Georgia, John
Wesley and George Whitefield returned
to England and in 1739 built their first Methodist Chapel in Bristol.
Wesley and Whitefield also gave sermons in the open-air. They travelled
the country where they mainly visited poor neighbourhoods. Wesley,
who had emerged as the leader of the Methodists, told the people who
attended his meetings that if they loved God in return, they would
"be saved from sin and made holy". Wesley also had a lot
to say about personal morality. In his sermons he encouraged people
to work hard and to save for the future. Wesley also warned against
the dangers of gambling and drinking.
Although there were Methodist ministers,
John Wesley encouraged people who had full-time
jobs to become lay preachers. This gave working people valuable experience
of speaking in public. Later, some of these went on to become leaders
of trade unions and reform groups.
By the time John Wesley died in 1791, the
Methodist movement had over 76,000 members. After Wesley's death the
Methodists formally separated from the Anglican
Church. Membership continued to grow and by 1801 reached 87,000.
The movement was weakened in 1808 when followers of Hugh
Bourne were expelled. Bourne's followers became known as Primitive
Methodists whereas those who remained were called Wesleyan Methodists.
Methodists were active in the campaign for religious
emancipation. Victories included the repeal of the Test
and Corporation Acts in 1828, the voluntarization of the church
rate in 1853 and the 1871 the Universities
Tests Act opened Oxford and Cambridge
to non-Anglicans. In these struggles the Methodists
became closely associated with the Liberal
Party. Throughout the 19th century, none of the many Wesleyan
Methodists elected to Parliament were members of the Conservative
Party.
In the 1840s the Wesleyan Methodists started an ambitious and expensive
programme of chapel and school building. Two new seminaries were opened
and the wages of ministers increased. As a result of this new campaign
membership increased to 285,000. Methodism remained weak in London
and the rural areas but was strong in the textile and mining districts
of England and Wales.
The majority of Wesleyan were women. However, female preaching, which
had been encouraged by John Wesley when
he was alive, had now died out. Women were still active as Sunday
School teachers and some were recruited as deaconesses for inner-city
mission work.
In the 1880s, Hugh Price Hughes emerged as the new leader of the Wesleyan
Methodists. A dynamic
preacher, Hughes attacked the Anglican
control of education and gave strong support to the Temperance Movement.
By 1901 the membership of the church had reached 412,000.
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