The Primitive Methodist Church arose as an independent revival movement in the first decade of the 19th century out of the British Methodist Church formed by J. Wesley (Methodists: II, 2). The intensification of priestly authority and the placating of the government, to the effect that there was no danger to public order, made it hard for the old Wesleyan Connexion to maintain its original line.
The beginnings of the Primitive Methodist Church go back to Hugh Bourne (1772–1852), a Methodist lay preacher and timber merchant who held revival meeti…