Methodism and Politics in British Society 1750-1850

David Hempton

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135026417
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politik & Internationale Beziehungen
• Subtopic: Politik

Originally published in 1984, this book charts the political and social consequences of Methodist expansion in the first century of its existence. While the relationship between Methodism and politics is the central subject of the book a number of other important themes are also developed. The Methodist revival is placed in the context of European pietism, enlightenment thought forms, 18 th century popular culture, and Wesley's theological and political opinions. Throughout the book Methodism is treated on a national scale, although the regional, chronological and religious diversity of Methodist belief and practice is also emphasized.

1
Introduction

‘The study of late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century Methodism as a national movement has ceased to pay dividends, and references to Halevy should be sternly avoided.’^1* Professor Kent’s frustration with the seemingly endless debates inspired by Halevy was based on the premise that comprehensive social theories of Methodism had been superimposed on quite inadequate local research. This frustration was well founded, as anyone who has read undergraduate essays on Methodism and society can easily confirm. Students, and even professional historians engaged in works of synthesis, were forced by existing scholarship to confirm or reject the counter-revolution thesis, when many had little idea what Methodism, as a religious and social phenomenon, was really like.² What were considered to be secondary matters were hurriedly brushed aside to get at the big question of whether Methodism made men more radical or less. As with early modem Puritanism, however, regional studies soon made it clear that the dominant social theory was insufficiently subtle and flexible to embrace the diversity of local religious behaviour.

The Halevy thesis is, of course, far from buried - nor should it be-but other questions have at last received their share of historical attention. As a result much more is known about the numerical strength, social structure, geographical distribution and political significance of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Methodism. An increase in knowledge has inevitably led to an increase in complexity. There was after all not one Methodism, but ‘many Methodisms in many places at many times’.³ The much described ‘chapel culture’ was scarcely the same thing in rural Lincolnshire as it was in suburban Manchester. Similarly, the sermons of Conference dignitaries had little in common with those of Comish folk preachers, and the political aspirations of Lancastrian manufacturers were poles apart from those of Durham trade unionists. But such variations should be used as a warning against inflexible analysis, not as an excuse for refusing to engage in it. For while it is true that all history is ultimately local history, Methodism, with all its diversity, made a profound impact on national life, especially in the nineteenth century. Interpreting that impact, albeit only in political terms, is the subject of this book, but first it is necessary to say something about the strength and distribution of Methodism in British society between 1750 and 1850.

Who were the Methodists?

A formidable array of statistical tables and graphs are now available to students of Methodism thanks to the efficiency of Methodist records and to the diligence of R. Currie et al.⁴ It is now possible to find out, with a reasonable degree of accuracy, the numbers of members and preachers of all major Methodist denominations in the British Isles from the mid eighteenth century to the present. From these figures can be deduced the density of Methodism in relation to the total population, and patterns of church growth. The tables show that Methodism underwent a period of sustained rapid expansion from 1740 to about 1840 when its relative strength in English society was at its peak. Even then, a Methodist membership of 435,591 accounted for only 4.5 per cent of the adult English population. In assessing the social and political impact of Methodism on English society however, such figures are misleading. In the first place, Methodist membership figures are conventionally multiplied by three to find the number of adherents, but even this figure may turn out to be a low estimate. Second, Methodism was but the largest and most influential element in a much wider evangelical constituency. Third, Methodism was particularly strong among artisan occupational groups from whom most was feared in times of political excitement and public disorder. Thus Alan Gilbert concludes that ‘the historian ought perhaps to think of something approaching 20 per cent of the most politicized section of the adult “lower orders” being associated with chapel communities’ of one sort or another.⁵

Statistics, however well constructed, have their limitations. For example, Methodist local histories and biographies show that beyond the solid core of chapel communities there was a band of denominational gypsies of no fixed abode. Some were subject to the most dramatic denominational fluctuations. The historian of Cornish Methodism records the spiritual journeys of a Truro dressmaker who moved from Methodism to Quakerism via the parish church and the Bible Christians.⁶ Examples like this are legion.⁷ Even when denominational allegiances were secure, there were wide variations in the level of religious commitment Within Methodism important distinctions can be made between the respective commitments of full members, adherents, local preachers, class leaders, part-time officials and itinerant preachers. Moreover, while much has been written about the theology of Wesleyan Methodism, relatively little attention has been paid to how well it was understood and obeyed by those within the connexion. The disciplining of converts within Methodism was more rigorous than in any other denomination, but inevitably its results were limited by human nature. For example, Henry Abelove has shown how Wesley’s preference for celibacy among Methodists was not only ignored by his followers, but could also be reinterpreted as a devaluation of marital and familial obligations.⁸ Similarly, where a cultural pattern of dubious ethics had become established, as with smuggling in Cornwall, it proved remarkably resilient to moral transformation.⁹ Thus the connection between evangelical teaching and practice, especially in sexual matters, could be a good deal more complicated than the dominant model of repression and release would allow.¹⁰

Research on other important aspects of Methodist belief and practice is still at an early stage. The role of women, apart from preachers’ wives and colourful personalities, is virtually unrecorded, yet there were probably more women than men in eighteenth-century Methodism A survey of 500 members in the Macclesfield area at the end of the century has shown that 56 per cent were women, half of whom were unmarried. If the high ratio of unmarried women to unmarried men in this sample were to be confirmed by other surveys, it would raise important questions about the social significance of chapel communities in a woman’s life. Aside from their numerical strength, women played an important part in the expansion of early Methodism, especially in remote areas where they had more opportunities. In the nineteenth century the well known institutionalization of Methodism brought the movement more firmly into the male world of professional ministry, chapel finance, business meetings and local courts.¹¹

The influence of Methodism on family life is also under-researched. On one level families could be useful in recruitment, as converted parents or children shared their faith within the household. Moreover, local studies show that the Methodist community expanded through natural succession, at least to the second and third generations.¹² On another level, however, the austerity of Methodist religion could be a source of tension within families. Serious Methodists could be recognized by their dress, hairstyles and physical detachment from the world of revelry, sports and dancing.¹³ Such religious expression was too serious a matter to allow much breathing space for deviance within the household. At its best, however, it was also a religion of family commitment, thrift and charity.

If the re-creation of Methodism as a religious and social experience is still at the pioneer stage, much more is known about its social structure. The picture of a great discontinuity between a predominantly working-class Methodism of Wesley’s day and its bourgeois successor has been considerably modified, even if the upward social mobility of mainstream Wesleyanism is still accepted. Although the size, geographical range and occupational classification of his sample is too narrow to be conclusive, Clive Field’s admirable survey of eighteenth-century Methodism shows that

The nascent movement commanded relatively little support amongst the professional farming, and trading communities, and it could only effectively reach the labouring element in mining districts like West Cornwall. There was a marginal overrepresentation of gentry, but the most outstanding feature was the preponderance of manufacturers [craftsmen], they being more than twice as numerous (47 per cent) as in the country as a whole.¹⁴

Occupational surveys of nineteenth-century Methodism show that the ascendancy of the craftsman was even more marked, but there is an enormous range of jobs and wages covered by the umbrella term artisan.¹⁵ All are agreed however that Wesleyanism made little impact on the unskilled masses. Even Primitive Methodists and Bible Christians were more likely to be semi-skilled than unskilled. Nevertheless, both the leadership and the rank-and-file of Primitive Methodism was on average from a lower social constituency than their equivalents in the parent connexion.

The geographical location of Methodists

Wesley’s meticulously kept Journal gives an accurate impression of the geographical distribution of early Methodism. By the end of the eighteenth century it had been particularly successful in the manufacturing districts of the north-east, the north Midlands, the West Riding, and the Potteries. It was strong too in mining areas, especially Cornwall, in seaports and fishing villages, and in rural areas where squire and parson control was weak. Little impression was made on London, the Home Counties and Scotland.¹⁶As England’s industrial pace quickened, Methodism grew strongly in factory villages, railhead and canal settlements, and areas in which economic expansion attracted a migratory labour force.¹⁷By the time of the Census of Religious Worship (1851) it was recorded that Methodists were ‘found in greatest force in Cornwall, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Durham and Nottinghamshire’.¹⁸ The census also showed that while Methodism was far from being a purely urban religion, it had a better record than any other Nonconformist denomination in large manufacturing towns.¹⁹ One other area of Methodist strength that has been virtually ignored by historians is Ireland; yet at the beginning of the nineteenth century Irish Wesleyans accounted for 23 per cent of the British Isles’ total. Irish Methodism grew particularly quickly in the ‘linen triangle’ of Ulster between 1790-1810, when the development of outwork and a wage system produced the same kind of environment as occasioned Methodist success in parts of England.²⁰

Anyone explaining the geographical pattern of Methodist growth in the countryside must, of course, be indebted to Professor Everitt’s study of rural Dissent in Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Kent, which has served as a model for local historians.²¹ Without minimizing personal factors, he shows how the pattern of religious adherence is related to the social and economic structure of local communities. Thus rural Nonconformity was strong in market towns,²² boundary settlements, industrial villages and in parishes where land had been subdivided. All were characterized by an unusual degree of freedom from paternalistic control. In Lincolnshire in particular the contrast between the Anglican ‘estate’ parishes and the Dissenting ‘freeholders’’ parishes was exceptionally sharp, which no doubt accounts, in part at least, for the anti-Anglican radicalism of Methodist chapel culture in that county.

Everitt concluded also that whereas Old Dissent was strongest in the scattered settlements of forest and wood-pasture regions, Methodism predominated in smaller and more arable parishes. Although this pattern has been detected elsewhere, Methodism in general thrived in areas of Anglican parochial weakness, whether in the rural tracts of Durham or in the large towns and cities of Yorkshire and South Lancashire.²³ Depending on local circumstances therefore, Methodism could be either a more lively religio...