Editing Primitive Methodist Church (section)

===United Kingdom ===
{{Further|Primitive Methodism in the United Kingdom}}
[[File:Bourne Methodist Church, Boylestone - geograph.org.uk - 4670018.jpg|thumb|Bourne Methodist Church in [[Boylestone]], Darbyshire. 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 [[Christian revival|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 (Primitive Methodist)|William Clowes]] (1780–1851), preachers in the [[Wesleyan Methodist Church (Great Britain)|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.{{sfn|Grieve|1911|p=338}}

The two preachers heard from Lorenzo Dow of the results of American camp meetings, and held a fourteen-hour [[camp meeting]] on May 31, 1807, at [[Mow Cop]] on the Staffordshire and Cheshire border, which resulted in many converts.{{sfn|Grieve|1911|p=338}} 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, Staffordshire|Tunstall]] in July 1811,{{sfn|Grieve|1911|p=338}} 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. [[Elizabeth Bultitude|The last of the women roving preachers]] died in 1890.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|title=Bultitude, Elizabeth (1809–1890), Primitive Methodist preacher|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-47022|access-date=2020-08-15|year = 2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/47022}}</ref>

Primitive Methodist workers played an important role in the formative phase of the [[Trade unions in the United Kingdom|trade union movement in England]]. Primitives were always the most [[working class]] of the main Methodist bodies in Great Britain.<ref>{{cite web |title=Trade unionism |url=https://dmbi.online/index.php?do=app.entry&id=2770 |website=DMBI: A Dictionary of Methodism in Britain and Ireland |access-date=16 May 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Wearmouth |first1=Robert Featherstone |title=Methodism and the working-class movements in England. 1800-1850 |date=1972 |publisher=Kelley |location=Clifton |isbn=9780678008294 |edition=Reprint |access-date=}}</ref>

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 ([[Methodist Circuit|Circuit]] meetings). In 1932 [[Methodist Union|it united]] with the [[Wesleyan Methodist Church (Great Britain)|Wesleyan Methodist Church]] and the [[United Methodist Church (Great Britain)|United Methodists]] to form the [[Methodist Church of Great Britain]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Methodist Union |url=https://dmbi.online/index.php?do=app.entry&id=1925 |website=DMBI: A Dictionary of Methodism in Britain and Ireland |access-date=16 May 2025}}</ref> The legacy of Hugh Bourne is kept alive at [[Englesea Brook Chapel and Museum|Englesea Brook]], the museum of Primitive Methodism.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Higgitt |first1=Rebekah |title=Royal Society funds small museums to tell stories of local science "heroes" |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-h-word/2016/dec/08/royal-society-funds-museums-local-science-heroes |access-date=16 May 2025 |work=The Guardian |date=8 December 2016}}</ref>