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1761

This account is given, not because of belief in its accuracy, Age 58 but because of its general historic interest.

Having spent a fortnight across the Tweed, Wesley, on the 14th of May, came to Berwick; and, after preaching there, and at Alnwick, Warksworth, Alemouth, Widdrington, Morpeth, and Placey, reached Newcastle four days afterwards. A month was occupied in itinerating the Newcastle circuit. He preached in the new chapel at Sunderland; and also in Monkwearmouth church. He visited Allandale, Weardale, Teesdale, and Swaledale. In Weardale he came "just in time to prevent all the society turning Dissenters, being quite disgusted at the curate, whose life was no better than his doctrine." In Teesdale, most of the lead miners had been turned out of their work for being Methodists; but had been reinstated. In Swaledale, he "found an earnest, loving, simple people, whom he likewise exhorted not to leave the Church, though they had not the best of ministers."

While in the north, Wesley wrote as follows to his sister, Mrs. Hall.

"NEAR NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, June 14, 1761. "DEAR PATTY,-Why should any of us live in the world without doing a little good in it? I am glad you have made a beginning. See that you are not weary in well doing; for it will often be a cross. But bear the cross; the best fruit grows under the cross.

"I have often thought it strange, that so few of my relations should be of any use to me in the work of God. My sister Wright was, of whom I should least have expected it; but it was only for a short season. My sister Emily and you, of whom one might have expected more, have, I know not how, kept at a distance, and sometimes cavilled a little, at other times, as it were, approved, but never heartily joined in the work. Where did it stick? Did you not thoroughly understand what my brother and I were doing? Did you not see the truth? Or, did the cause lie in your heart? You had no will to join hand in hand. You wanted resolution, spirit, patience. Well: the day is far spent. What you do, do quickly. "My work in the country cannot be finished before the latter end of August, as the circuit is now larger by some hundred miles than when I was in the north two years ago. Oh let the one thing be ever uppermost in our thoughts!

"To promote either your temporal or eternal good will always be a pleasure to,

"Dear Patty, your affectionate brother,

"JOHN WESLEY."1

1 Methodist Magazine, 1846, p. 1188.

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Let us follow Wesley in his enlarged circuit. His labours were prodigious. He writes: "Three days in a week I can preach thrice a day without hurting myself; but I had now far exceeded this, besides meeting classes and exhorting the societies."

On the 15th of June, he rode to Durham, and preached in a field, by the river side, "the congregation," says Christopher Hopper, his companion, "behaving tolerably well, except that one poor man was hit by a stone, and lost a little blood." In the evening, Wesley preached at Hartlepool, Hopper remaining behind to preach in the field at Durham, where a gentleman, so called, hired a base fellow to strip himself naked, and swim the river so as to disturb the hearers.' Shortly after this, Durham had its Methodist society, one of the first members of which was Mrs. Elizabeth Ward, whose house was the home of Wesley and his preachers,-a neat but nervous Christian lady, who, at the age of eighty-three, died in 1826, calling upon her friends to "magnify the Lord!"2

From Hartlepool, Wesley proceeded to Stockton, where Methodism had been fostered, if not introduced, by John Unthank, a farmer and local preacher, at Billingham, who, besides meeting a class at Stockton, and another at Billingham, met a third at Darlington, at a distance of fifteen miles. He died in 1822, aged ninety-three. One of Unthank's first converts was John MacGowan, the son of a prosperous baker at Edinburgh, and intended for a minister of the Church of Scotland, but who, at nineteen years of age, joined the rebel army of the Pretender, and fought at the battle of Culloden. He then fled to Durham, and apprenticed himself to a linen weaver, and was now tossing the shuttle in the vicinity of Stockton. MacGowan became a local preacher; but, being Calvinistic in his sentiments, he left the Methodists, and, in 1766, became the minister of Devonshire Square chapel, London, where he continued until his death in 1780. His "Dialogues of Devils," his "Shaver," and other works, making two octavo volumes, were once in

'Methodist Magazine, 1781, p. 142.
2 Ibid. 1827, p. 428.
"History of Methodism in Darlington,” p. 17.

1761

Age 58

1761 great repute. He was a man of good natural abilities, and of Age 58 lively imagination, a hard student, and a laborious preacher.

His death was triumphant, some of his last words being, "Methinks I have as much of heaven as I can hold."1 Before leaving Stockton, it may be added, that, in 1769, a small chapel, twelve yards by nine, with a gallery at the end, was built; and that, afterwards, Stockton society sent out Christopher Smith, who removed to Cincinnati, in the United States, about the year 1800, where his joiner's shop was then the only Methodist place of preaching, and he himself made the twenty-second member of the Methodist society, in "the queen city of the west," now so beautifully built on the banks of the Ohio.2

After preaching at Stockton, Wesley went to Darlington, and preached his first sermon there. Here Methodism had been introduced by Unthank and MacGowan, and its meetinghouse was a thatched cottage with a mudden floor. One of its first converts was John Hosmer, who afterwards became an itinerant preacher, was a son of thunder, and a man mighty in prayer and in the Scriptures, but whose failing health obliged him to relinquish the itinerancy, when he settled as a surgeon at Sunderland, and, after enduring great affliction, died in peace, at York, about the year 1780.3

Leaving Darlington, Wesley went to Yarm, where Mr. George Merryweather had fitted up his hayloft for a preaching room, in which, for three years past, the people had been favoured with a sermon or sermons, from the itinerant preachers, on at least every alternate Sunday. In 1763, the hayloft cathedral was superseded by a chapel, and Yarm was the head of a Methodist circuit, embracing Stockton, Hartlepool, Guisborough, Stokesley, Whitby, Thirsk, Ripon, Northallerton, and thirty other places. For many years, Mr. Merryweather was one of Wesley's most faithful friends; and, of course, his

1 Private manuscripts, and Wilson's "Dissenting Churches."
2 Dixon's "Methodism in America," p. 75.

3 Atmore's "Methodist Memorial."

Jacob Rowell's manuscripts. The following are some of the entries in Yarm society book, for 1761:-"Mr. Fugill's and Mr. Wesley's charges, 135. 8d. Paid the lad for dressing the horses, Is. 6d. Half a pound of lickrish for Mr. Megget's horse, 6d. A pound and a half of candles, 9d. Preacher's watch mending, 2s. 3d. Lousing a letter, 4d."

Methodism in Yarm Circuit.

409

house, at Yarm, was Wesley's home. Here he always met 1761 with the most loving welcome, and sometimes with softer Age 58 kindness than he wished. An old Methodist, at Yarm, a few years ago, related that she well remembered Wesley,-his cassock, his black silk stockings, his large silver buckles, and his old lumbering carriage, with a bookcase inside of it. In fact, she herself and another little girl, while playing, ran the pole of the carriage through Mr. Merryweather's parlour window, for which they deservedly received a scolding. She further stated that, on one occasion, when Mr. Merryweather's servant entered Wesley's room, she found Wesley's coachman rolling himself up and down the feather bed most vigorously, because, as he affirmed, Wesley would not sleep in it until it was made as hard as possible.

Wesley held the quarterly meeting of the stewards of the Yarm circuit at Hutton Rudby, a small country village, with a new chapel, and a society of about eighty members, of whom nearly seventy were believers, and sixteen sanctified. He also preached at Potto, where Mrs. Moon resided, one of his valued correspondents and friends, whose conversion had been brought about by an old woman, a Methodist from Birstal, who came to the house of Mr. Moon to card his sheep "doddings," and to spin them into linsey woolsey yarn.1 In this way, Methodism was originated at Potto, Hutton Rudby, Stokesley, and the neighbourhood round about.

Wesley visited his old friend Mr. Adams, the popish priest, at Osmotherley, heard a useful sermon in the parish church, and then preached in the churchyard himself. He proceeded to Guisborough, where Thomas Corney, who, for about half a century, entertained the preachers, and who died in the faith, in 1807, was one of the members. Here also resided John Middleton, a miller, who, in 1766, removed to Hartlepool, where, for many years, he was the best friend that Methodism had, and where he peacefully expired in 1795.3

2

From Guisborough, Wesley went to Whitby, and preached on the top of a hill which had to be ascended by a hundred and ninety steps. At Robinhood's Bay, in the midst of hist

1 "History of Methodism in Darlington."

2 Methodist Magazine, 1808, p. 88.

3 Ibid. 1810, p. 216.

1761 sermon, a large cat, frighted out of a chamber, leaped upon a Age 58 woman's head, and ran over the shoulders of many more; but so intent were they upon the truths to which they were listening, "that none of them moved or cried out, any more than if the cat had been a butterfly."

On June 25, Wesley wended his way to Scarborough, and preached from a balcony, to several hundreds of people standing in the street. The first Methodist here was a pious female of the name of Bozman, who regularly went to Robinhood's Bay to meet in class, a distance of fourteen miles, which she frequently rode upon an ass. In 1756, Thomas Brown, a local preacher, came from Sunderland, procured a preaching room in Whitehead's Lane, and formed a Methodist society. In 1760, Mr. George Cussons joined them, the society now numbering six-and-thirty members.1 Persecution followed; and, on one occasion, Brown, Cussons, and others were seized by a press gang, and were only released by the interference of General Lambton, then member of parliament for the city of Durham. In 1768, the Scarborough society sent, as its contribution to the York quarterly meeting, the magnificent sum of half a guinea; and, four years afterwards, erected a chapel, which Wesley pronounced a model, for its "beauty and neatness."3

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From Scarborough, Wesley proceeded to Hull, where he found some witnesses of the great salvation"; and to Beverley, Pocklington, and York. At York, he had far the genteelest audience he had seen since leaving Edinburgh, but he found many of the members "utterly dead," and the society not at all increasing, which he attributed in part to the neglect of out-door preaching.*

On July 6, Wesley proceeded to Tadcaster, and then to Otley. At the latter place he found ten or twelve professing to be entirely sanctified. Here resided John Whitaker, who had his first society ticket from the hands of Grimshaw, was

1 Memoir of Cussons, p. 6.

Methodist Magazine, 1826, p. 595.

2 Manuscript.

An idea of the low state of Methodism at York may be formed from a fact, stated in the old society book, namely, that the seat rents of the chapel amounted to only £8 per year; that the monthly collections averaged not more than about 55. 8d. each; and the class moneys hardly 6s. 6d. weekly.

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