Page:History and characteristics of Bishop Auckland.djvu/173

 WESLEYAN METHODIST CHAPEL. In the year 1738, a few persons in London agreed to meet with the Rev. John Wesley (formerly of Lincoln College, Oxford, and afterwards of the City of London) clerk, for the purpose of hold- ing religious conversation, singing, and prayer. Li the early part of the following year, the society, as it was called, had increased to about sixty persons; and in April of the same year, the Rev. John Wesley being in Bristol, a few persons in that city also agreed to meet weekly, with the same intentions as those who met in London under the advice and religious direction of the said John Wesley and of his brother, the Rev. Charles Wesley. Similar meetings were also com- menced at Kingswood and Bath; but, in the year 1740, a part of the society in London placing themselves more immediately under the pastoral charge and ministerial direction of the Rev. John Wesley, agreed to meet together in a building called the "Foimdery," in Moorfields, which he had purchased and converted into a place for religious worship. The same disposition to place themselves under the pastoral charge and ministerial direction of John Wesley and Charles Wesley appearing in the societies at Bristol and other places, which John Wesley regularly visited for the purpose of preaching the gospel and giving spiritual advice, a body of rules, entitled "The Nature, Design, and General Rules of the United Societies in London, Bristol, Eingswood, New- castle-upon-Tyne, &c.," was drawn up in the year 1743 for their government. These rules were signed by the Rev. John Wesley and the Rev. Charles Wesley, and became then (and continue to be) the rules by which all persons united in the said societies were (and are) required to conduct themselves. And in the manner above mentioned was instituted and established, first in London, and afterwards in other places, the religious body now generally known by the appellation of "The People called Methodists." Wesleyan Methodism seems to have made its first appearance in Bishop Auckland about the early part of the present century. Its doctrines were first expounded in a room situated in "Matthew Forester's Yard," to which allusion has been made in a former chapter in connection with Lord Crewe's Charity. We are, however, unable to ascertain who were its first exponents,* or who were the first to accept its doctrines; but there are people still living who can remember with what ridicule and suspicion Methodists and Methodism were received, and how those who, from curiosity or other motives, felt disposed to attend the services were in the habit of stealing along the Backway and down Great Gates to avoid being observed. But this was a circumstance which might naturally be expected in a town containing the residence of the Prince Palatine. It would appear, however, that the society soon gained suflBcient strength to venture upon the building of a chapel, as in the year 1804 a site was obtained by the purchase of an old cottage which had previously been used as a school-house by Master Snowdon, a well-known pedagogue of those days, and which stood upon a portion of the ground occupied by the present chapeL We give the following extract from the deed of conveyance : — And, whereas, by articles of agreement, bearing date the Fourteenth day of March, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Four, and made between the said William Blackett of the one part, and the said John Wilkinson of the other part, the said John Wilkinson did contract and agree with the said William Blackett for the purchase of the premises comprised in the before recited surrender of the Fourth day of October, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Four ; subject, neverthe- less, to the life estate of the said Maiy Stephenson in four rooms, at the east end of the said premises, for the sum of one hundred and twenty pounds. though he is said to have visited Barnard Castle. At that plac% according to Mr Lay ton in his "Castle &mard,*' he met with a rather "cool" reception. He says, "The enlightened townsmen of that place, staanch resistors of innovation in reli^on, Uterally threw oold water npon his efforts to convert them ; for, bringing oat the water-engine, they showered down their blessmji upon his head, till this persecuted friend of mankind deemed it advisable to commence a retreat, in which he was pursued by the implacable enemy with their flying artillery ; and not until he had fairly deared the place was he enabled to wash his hands of them. Digitized by Google
 * Thera seems no record as to whether John Wesley ever visited Bishop Aockland when on his tonr through the British Isles, al-