Thus we see that most nineteenth century Primitive Methodist ministers in the United States were born in Britain and that many Primitive Methodist members were British. Surviving American Primitive Methodist newspapers give other indications of the extent of British identity within the denomination. The editors included countless references to English teas and pasty bakes (a tradition which remarkably survives in the Pennsylvania churches to this day); talks that are clearly on British themes like Rambles about Yorkshire or on a racier level The English Education Act and Tory Tyranny; promotion in the 1890s of a hymn book which included God Save the Queen; many items of news from Britain and great attention to the affairs of the British Primitive Methodist denomination. (6) From 1900, the amount of references to Britain actually increased largely because many ministers and members were crossing back and forth across the Atlantic on a more regular basis than before. Thus American Primitive Methodism retained its British identity and British identity remained a large part of the appeal of the denomination.
However, this British identity was also seen as a handicap to church development. As early as 1865, a Primitive Methodist lamented the Englishness of the denomination saying:
“We are looked upon as an English organization, and from this fact we have very little influence over the American people; we do not receive credit for what we are worth.” (7)
At the Primitive Methodist General Conference of 1889, delegates were asked to consider why the denomination had not grown beyond a few thousand members and the first answer on the resulting list was what the Conference referred to as “Englishism.” (8) The very factor that made Primitive Methodism distinct from other denominations and gave it such appeal to British immigrants was also seen as its most fundamental barrier to growth. Nowhere is this tension between the desire to celebrate British identity and the desire to suppress it more evident than in the American denomination’s relationship with Primitive Methodism in Britain.
As I have already mentioned, American Primitive Methodism began as a mission of the British Primitive Methodist Conference. It is worth noting that this mission was considered a failure by the British authorities. Surviving letters reveal a disastrous lack of communication between different missionaries working in the United States and the home authorities. Crucially, the British Primitive Methodist Conference appears to have failed to apply the necessary financial support to the venture or at least distributed it unevenly. One of the people who suffered as a consequence of this was one of the first missionaries to arrive in America, Ruth Watkins who wrote to the British Conference in 1835 saying:
Not having received any answers to my several letters since late in 1831, I thought proper to address these lines to you, to give you some account of my missionary labours up to ___________ 1832 when my bodily strenth was gone, and my constitution was broken….....All the moneys I ever received since I come to this countray from England is 16 dollars and this was in 1830 or 1831. I have not knowen of any cash being received from England in this society since then. On the back of this letter an official of the British Conference later wrote, “as it could not be officially answered, no answer was sent.” (9) Other missionaries engaged in similar correspondence with the result that the British Primitive Methodist mission to America became very much an embarrassment to the British Conference and in 1840 it was given up only to be replaced by the new American denomination. Perhaps this early history is part of the reason for a sustained lack of enthusiasm within British Primitive Methodism for developing relations with the American church.
Still, it was inevitable that communication would still take place between the two denominations. Many members and ministers in American Primitive Methodism began in the British Conference and had ties there. The British Primitive Methodist Magazine was used for a short period in the 1850s to promote emigration to Wisconsin where an old fashioned ranter welcome awaited and whenever a Primitive Methodist minister from Britain arrived in the United States they were inevitably received with open arms and extensive coverage in the American denominational newspaper for they represented a connection between the old world and the new. However, by the early years of the twentieth century there was a growing sense in American Primitive Methodism of being ignored or snubbed by the British denomination. When H.B. Kendall published his 2 volume history of Primitive Methodism, the cause in America got only the briefest inaccurate mention and was portrayed as a failure. When American Primitive Methodists made a formal request to have the names of their ministers and stations published in the British Primitive Methodist Minutes of Conference, their request was refused. When visitors to the country returned to Britain with no thought of promoting the cause they had seen, American Primitive Methodist Journal correspondents were repeatedly hurt. As one wrote in 1919: “A little recognition of the mother church would have been a great deal to us, a better standing in the world. Our appeals are to no effect so “Goodbye.”” (10)
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