United Kingdom , Derbyshire. The former Primitive chapel was opened in January 1847 by
Hugh Bourne. The leaders who originated Primitive Methodism were attempting to restore a spirit of
revivalism as they felt was found in the ministry of
John Wesley, with no intent of forming a new church. The leaders were
Hugh Bourne (1772–1852) and
William Clowes (1780–1851), preachers in the
Wesleyan Methodist Church. Bourne had joined a Methodist society at
Burslem, but business taking him at the close of 1800 to the colliery district of
Harriseahead and
Kidsgrove, he was so impressed by the prevailing ignorance that he began a religious revival of the district, and Clowes joined him in 1805. The two preachers heard from Lorenzo Dow of the results of American camp meetings, and held a fourteen-hour
camp meeting on 31 May 1807, at
Mow Cop on the Staffordshire and Cheshire border, which resulted in many converts. But the Wesleyan Church refused to admit these converts to the church, and reprimanded Bourne and Clowes. Refusing to cease holding open-air meetings, they were dismissed from the church. For a while they took separate paths, but after waiting two years for readmittance to the church, they founded the Primitive Methodists in the year of 1810. Clowes's personality drew a number of strong men after him, and a society meeting held in a kitchen and then in a warehouse became the nucleus of a circuit, a chapel being built at
Tunstall in July 1811, and there in February 1812 they took the name
The Society of the Primitive Methodists. The name is meant to indicate they were conducting themselves in the way of Wesley and the "original" Methodists, particularly in reference to open-air meetings and allowing female ministry.
The last of the women roving preachers died in 1890. Primitive Methodist workers played an important role in the formative phase of the
trade union movement in England. Primitives were always the most
working class of the main Methodist bodies in Great Britain. The Primitive Methodist Conference initiated talks in 1894 with the
Bible Christian Church, a small South West-based Methodist denomination, to explore the possibility of union; however, the proposals were ultimately rejected at the Quarterly Meetings (
Circuit meetings). In 1932
it united with the
Wesleyan Methodist Church and the
United Methodists to form the
Methodist Church of Great Britain. The legacy of Hugh Bourne is kept alive at
Englesea Brook, the museum of Primitive Methodism.
United States The first missionaries to America arrived in
Brooklyn, New York, in 1829. The societies founded in the United States were under the control of the
British Primitive Methodist Conference until 1840, when the "American Primitive Methodist Church" was established on 16 September. A combining of various organizational structures occurred in May 1975, and the current (2004) official name -
The Primitive Methodist Church in the United States of America - was chosen. The denomination holds an annual conference. A president, elected every four years, is the chief leader of the denomination and their headquarters are located in his home. In 2000 the American body had 79 congregations with 4502 members.
Australia Primitive Methodist congregations were also established in Australia. In 1902 the Primitive Methodist Church, Wesleyan Methodist Church, Bible Christians and the United Methodist Free Churches formed the
Methodist Church of Australasia. In 1977 the Methodist Church of Australasia joined with the
Congregational Union of Australia and
Presbyterian Church of Australia to form the
Uniting Church in Australia. ==Beliefs==