Oswestry Primitive Methodism, Shropshire

Oswestry Primitive Methodist chapel

Christian Messenger 1899/213

Transcription of Article in the Christian Messenger by P. Kay

In the year, A.D. 1662, the Rev. Rowland Nevett, M.A., was ejected from the vicarage of Oswestry, along with 2,000 clergymen who refused their assent and consent to all the Prayer Book contained.

Mr. Nevett was the first Free Church minister in the town. In 1823 the Primitive Methodists missioned Oswestry from the Burland circuit. Mr. W. Doughty came here in the month of May and was arrested and sent to jail for preaching in the streets. In 1899 we opened our new chapel, when the Mayor and Corporation attended the opening ceremony and service. These three events are certainly epoch-marking in the history of this old town. It is a long cry to the year of grace, 1662, and yet, from that date to the opening of our chapel, the Free Churches have never been officially visited by those who hold the signs and seals of authority in our civic life. Certainly, my masters, there is here evidence of a new spirit, a token to all that the work of the Free Churches has been good and sound, and something for which the present Primitive Methodist may feel thankful.

In 1823 William Doughty was preaching on the Bailey Head, when the chief constable of the town came and told him to desist. ‘Will you give me your authority?’ said Doughty; the constable had none, and so the preacher went on with the service. Constable Bynner, however, did not like it, and so he marched him off to his house. When they entered the constable’s home, Doughty fell on his knees and began praying and kept on praying, and the more the policeman tried to stop him the more he prayed, saying, ‘Wherever I am I must pray.’ This was a method of procedure, which evidently had God’s sanction if not man’s, for Bynner’s wife, though previously a profane, ungodly woman, was so touched by Doughty’s persecution and prayers, that she said to her husband, ‘What do you bring the man here for? I don’t see, any harm in him – don’t bring him any more. And from this time we have strong reason to believe she began to attend a Dissenting chapel. Nor was this all; while Doughty was praying in the house, an ungodly man, named Robert Thomas, was watching the proceedings through the window, and he says, ‘I felt a something quivering in my breast ’ – it was the beginning of a new life and experience – he became a most devout worker amongst us.

Doughty was brought before the magistrate and sentenced to a month’s imprisonment in Shrewsbury gaol. Whilst awaiting his trial he was shut up in the county cell in the town. From this he addressed a letter to a friend, who kindly ministered to his bodily needs.

DEAR FRIEND,

For the prisoner of our Lord Jesus Christ the multiplied favour shall have its reward, if your eye be single. Rest assured the grace of God is upon me in this place of confinement; and I feel the power of that world which is to come. I am blessed with submission to the will of God; in suffering, in being rejected and despised of men. I know my sufficiency is of God; by reason of which I count not the sufferings of the present life worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed by Christ. I am looking for the Lord to deliver me out of this prison; and if He doeth it, I shall come out by His wisdom, power and goodness. God’s ways are sometimes unknown to men, ‘So it is written, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit, neither understandeth the things that be of God.’ The place is too dark to write clear. I feel at this time a love to every soul of man, even my enemies, if I have any. But he that has put me in this place I do not count as an enemy, but a friend to me; for my happiness is increasing and the Almighty Presence of God doth me attend. All shall be for His glory and the furtherance of the Gospel of Christ.‘

Your Well-wisher in the shortness of time and the length of eternity,

A PRISONER FOR THE LORD.

Prison, Sunday evening. June 8th, 1823,

The time now came for Mr. Doughty’s transfer to Shrewsbury. Bynner intended to make him walk the sixteen miles; someone asked Mr. Minshall, the solicitor – whose family and descendants have always manifested the liveliest interest in our cause – whether Doughty could be compelled to walk. ‘Certainly not, said Mr. Minshall, ‘tell him not to walk, if they want to take him they must carry him.’ The prisoner was informed of this, and so told the constable, ‘I won’t walk; in one sense I go willingly, but not in another sense. If you must take me, you must either carry or drag me.’ It was not a time for delay, and Doughty was not a man to argue with. He always put his foot down firmly. He had well considered matters, and his mind was made up. There was no mistaking what he meant. Therefore Bynner procured a gig, or tax-cart and started with him. A large number of people were drawn together to see him start, some curious, many sympathising. Doughty stood up in the cart and addressed the multitude, ‘My friends,’ he said, ‘I am going to Shrewsbury gaol for a month; please God I live, you will see me coming up this road (Salop-road) this day month, and I shall sing this hymn, giving out a line of it.’ And so the prisoner of the Lord was taken off, content to suffer for the Gospel’s sake, even bearing no enmity to those who were so using him, desiring only that they should be as he was, except in bonds.

The ‘Oswestry Advertiser,’ in an article on the presence of Corporation officials at the opening of the new church, points out how great has been the advance in public sentiment since those days. The Editor says:- ‘It is delightful to think how completely Mr. Doughty has been avenged. It is less than eighty years ago since the redoubtable champion of religious liberty was sent to Shrewsbury gaol for preaching, and only escaped the pain and indignity of walking there through the intervention of the minister of the Old Chapel and his legal adviser; for though the law allowed Mr. Doughty to be imprisoned, it was punctilious enough to compel the authorities to drive him to Shrewsbury. The event happened in the life-time of some of our readers, yet how impossible it is to conceive of the Rev. Peter Kay hauled before Dr. Aylmer Lewis and consigned to a cell in the county gaol! We seem to be removed by centuries rather than a single life from the days of persecution which have helped to make the history of Primitive Methodism at Oswestry, and have conferred upon that excellent body of Christians a distinction they would, not lightly give up. We are confronted too often even now with the bigotry and intolerance of the Christian world, and it is impossible to say that even from the laws of the realm every trace of persecution has disappeared. There is no imprisonment, it is true, but as long as one communion is singled out by the State to the detriment of all the rest, and as long as the profession of certain principles shuts up any of the avenues of activity and imposes loss and disabilities, it cannot be said that perfect religious liberty has been won. It is when we take long views, and compare the present with the past, that we see the immense advance which has been made.’

On the promised day, at the end of the month, a crowd of people as large, if not larger, gathered in Salop-road, and sure enough, Doughty, true to his promise, marched up the road, singing away loudly and happily. He went about preaching as busily and heartily as ever, unmolested now by the police. He had now fairly beaten the magistrates, who found him irrepressible. Threats and persecutions failed to daunt him. What could they do but let him alone. Doughty at this time had no preaching licence; an application was made to Mr. Aubrey, a magistrate, who not only granted him one free of cost, but wrote it on parchment so that it would last the longer.

A society was soon formed, and the congregation so rapidly increased that the house in which the services were held would not contain the people. A building was purchased which had been erected for a bath, converted into a chapel, and opened December 12, 1824. This place was on the whole uncomfortable and inconvenient, the floor was damp, and being also too small, attempts were made to obtain more suitable premises. The excellent plot of land in Castle Fields was purchased in 1840, measuring 1,196 yards, at a cost of 3s. per yard. Foundation sermons were preached on Sunday, June 2nd, 1840, by Rev. John Petty. The building was ready for opening by the end of the year. Hugh Bourne preached four short sermons during the morning procession. In the afternoon 470 sat down to tea, during which Hugh Bourne preached three discourses. Everybody did their best. There is a pathetic incident in this matter. The son of Mr. Doughty, a boy of 12 years of age, confined to the house, being as the surgeon says, in the third, or last stage of consumption; but hearing that so many had come forward to collect, he undertook to gather £1, by soliciting the favour of those who came to see him, and had great hope of being able to accomplish it.

God has wonderfully blest many or our people, not only in spirit and character, but in business success and material prosperity, and while there are some who have been faithless to their first love when civic and social honours have come to them, there are others who have only made their increased powers the opportunity for increased service to the Church that has blest them. Among these we name George Perks, Esq., J.P., who has for many years rendered yeoman service to our cause; whose vital creed has been to make our Zion honoured and prosperous. He was our Treasurer during the erection of the splendid school premises, and by his gifts and untiring energy the restless and persistent efforts of the society were crowned; the buildings erected, the trust property absolutely free of debt, and a small nest-egg placed in the bank for what all felt to be a clamant need – the erection of a new church.

The Treasurer of the new church, Coun. S. Lloyd, an honoured and useful local preacher, has thrown all his force and business ability into the task, and nobly set the example to a willing people. By his gifts and services he has very practically aided to bring the enterprise to a fitting finish.

The Secretary of the School Building and Church Funds is H. Garner Pugh, Chartered Accountant. For many years he has served us in a masterly way, and is one of those rare products who combine prodigious work with unobtrusiveness. It was very proper that he should, in the name of the trustees, present the solid silver key to the opener of the door of the new church.

The Mayor of Oswestry, Dr. W.A. Aylmer Lewis, entered the council in 1891, with the object of agitating the question of disposal of sewage and improved water supply, both of which questions are in a satisfactory way towards adjustment.

This is the second year in succession of his mayoralty; he is a member of the Established Church, but broad and Catholic in his sympathies, with strength of purpose to manifest them as is clear from the fact that he is the first Mayor of Oswestry who has attended a Free-church in his official capacity for at least more than 200 years.

The architectural style of the new church is perpendicular Gothic, the walls are of Ruabon red brick, with white sandstone dressings, and a substantial tower with spire marks the angle formed by the adjoining streets. The internal fittings are of pitch pine, and there is sitting accommodation for 425, which is arranged in amphitheatral form. Leaded lights of variegated tints are placed in the windows and tracery. The artificial lighting is by electricity. The architect is Mr. J.D. Mould, and the builder Mr. Jabez Higgins.

The Mayor and Corporation assembled at 2.30 in the Guildhall, from whence the procession, headed by the Corporation banner, carried by firemen in uniform, the mace-bearers, magistrates and councillors, wended its way to the new church, where the Mayor was received by the minister, and in the presence of a large number of people the old and tried friend of our cause, J. Parry Jones, Esq., Town Clerk, then stepped forward and expressed the pleasure it gave him to be present to take a part in the services of that day. He could not help but contrast the position of their friends now to what it was in the old times, when Mr. Doughty came to the town. He rejoiced in the excellent work the Primitive Methodists had done and were doing, and he trusted that their new building would only be in their hands a better instrument than the old one, for the saving and purifying of humanity. He was sure of their earnestness and fidelity to conviction and trusted God would abundantly bless them in their new sanctuary, which in a few graceful words he then declared to be open.

The building was soon crowded to its utmost capacity. The Rev. Jas. Travis preached a most impressive and eloquent sermon, in every way worthy of the occasion, and as the Mayor said in thanking the preacher in the Guildhall after the service, he was quite sure that the sermon must be remembered a long time by all those who had been at the service; it had given him a pleasure which he felt he had no words to express. The day was an epoch in our history and that of the town: We trust that those dark days have for ever receded, when men shall be put in prison for preaching the gospel and worshipping God according to the dictates of their own conscience.