Uniting for peace not war

Introduction

Victorian Bournemouth (206) explores the lives of Wesleyan ministers known to have served in the resort during the 1880s. It uses contemporary sources to assess their social position and professional success. Many of the men appeared to have made positive contributions to the Wesleyan administration in addition to their pastoral duties. Their methods offered a peaceful way for working people to combine, an event feared by other parts of society.

Victorian Bournemouth (206): background

Survey

In Bournemouth’s early years, the Anglican St Peter’s church catered for religious worship. By 1865, however, the press could report developments. ‘The Wesleyans have made great progress in Bournemouth, and especially within the last year.’ Hitherto part of the Poole circuit, Bournemouth now acquired a resident Wesleyan minister, Poole’s Rev. J. T. Marquand. Next year, the Wesleyans laid the corner-stone for their first chapel. They chose a central but curious place. The plot leased also included the adjoining Tregonwell Arms, Wesleyans advocating temperance where possible. Springbourne became the site for the second chapel. Others arose in Pokesdown, Wallisdown, and Winton. By 1875, the press referred to the ‘Bournemouth circuit’. In 1883, they had six chapels. The last service at the first chapel occurred in 1885, the site becoming part of a new development. The Wesleyans replaced this with a substantial building on Richmond Hill. Wesleyans established a cricket club and a Mutual Improvement Society. 

Pattern of service

During his life, John Wesley travelled far and wide, preaching and evangelizing his views on Christianity and worship. The structure that arose thereafter incorporated the concept of perpetual movement. Ministerial service consisted of short stays (three years maximum) around defined regionals circuits. Directories of ministerial careers exist for 1882 and 1896. They illustrate the numerous postings that might occur during a man’s career, at times reaching twenty given a long life. Two ministers who served at Bournemouth, Rev. Balls and Rev. Dyson, travelled far and long during their professional lives: nineteen places in forty-five years; twenty-one in forty-nine. The Directories record ten ministers who served at Bournemouth during the 1880s. During this decade, the number in Bournemouth performing simultaneous service appears to have increased. In 1889, three men served. The census for 1881 and 1891 listed other names, but these belonged to visitors or retired men.

Victorian Bournemouth (206): social profiles

Middling respectability

Four sources help to explore the social profiles of Wesleyan ministers serving at Bournemouth during the 1880s. They consist of the directories already mentioned, the census, parish records, and press coverage, in particular obituaries. On this basis, most men appear to have come from middling respectability, their fathers occupied in retail, in particular grocers or clothiers, skilled craftwork, including builders. Some spent their whole life within a Wesleyan environment, for they followed their fathers into the ministry. Although his father had a boot-making business employing men, this may have applied to Wesley Butters, for his name suggested the older man’s worship preference. The Bournemouth ministers married women who came from a similar social background: their fathers occupied as retailers, farmers, even professionals, including Wesleyan ministers. Some ministers left estates worth less than £1,000, a few amounting to four figures, while Wesley Butters had accrued a worth of £35,000.

Capable men

Most of the ministers who had served at Bournemouth received fulsome obituaries. They followed a similar format. This replayed their circuit travels and praised their characters. In several cases, however, the accounts showed how the men had achieved success also in administration. Mountford, Ingram, and Cleaver had gone beyond worship to get church debts cleared during one stay in their travels. Perhaps the latter two’s watching their fathers run groceries had helped. The Rev. Ingram also became one of the Legal Hundred, a central administrative section of the Wesleyan Connection. Nehemiah Curnock spent time as editor of the “Methodist Recorder”, the main journal. In addition, during his retirement, he conducted research into the life and ministry of John Wesley. The achievements of these men suggests that Bournemouth became an important stop during a minister’s career. Some passed through, but others became attached to its circuit, even in retirement.

Victorian Bournemouth (206): Wesleyan combination

Network accelerant

Many Anglican churchmen remained in one spot for many years, becoming members of the local community. A. M. Bennett‘s career at Bournemouth illustrated that. His High Church ritualism even boosted religious tourism as interested churchmen came to observe. Wesleyan ministers, by contrast, did not have that opportunity, having to depart before a fourth year. Their itinerant ministry, therefore, consolidated their attachment to the Methodist church and their colleagues. In many cases, therefore, this will have provided the basis whereby each man had the ability during his life to create widespread networks throughout the movement. Some, such as Mountford (West Africa), Jefferies (Belize), and Wright (Barbados), added an international component to their networks. A long career might connect a man with almost twenty localities and decision makers, many important people, including men of business. This emphasis on linkage appears in the descriptor sometimes used to refer to Methodism: the Connexion.

Peaceful combination

After making the symbolic move of building their first Bournemouth chapel in the town’s centre, albeit beside a tavern, the Wesleyans placed their second in Springbourne, the working people’s suburb. Others sprouted in similar areas. This illustrated how, despite the middling origins of many ministers, Methodism appealed to working people. Employers feared any combination amongst working people. Collective bargaining over wages threatened their profitability. To an extent, the Wesleyan Connexion operated as a virtual union albeit under an umbrella of worship. Its system of rotating ministers following strict schedules demonstrated good central organisation. George Loveless, leader of the ‘Dorchester Labourers’, a Wesleyan preacher, appears to have visited rural working communities around Tolpudde both for religious and union purposes. Thus, he represented a double threat to a nervous establishment. That family’s twin association perhaps applied later when his cousin, William Loveless, albeit a grocer, retired to keep the Springbourne Wesleyan chapel.

Takeaway

Victorian Bournemouth (206) has explored the personal and professional profiles of Wesleyan ministers who served at Bournemouth during their itinerant careers. Most of the men serving there during the 1880s bore social similarities to each other. They came from middling, respectable backgrounds, those values perhaps evident in their efficient local administration beyond pastoral duties. Several removed debts found at their chapels. Others found high positions within the Wesleyan organisation. They offered a peaceful way for working people to combine, a procedure otherwise found threatening by some ‘higher-ups’.

References

For references and engagement, please get in touch. Main primary sources: here and here (subscriptions needed). See also here. Photo credit to Robert Freidus and the Victorian Web.