9 May 1757: John Wesley rides into Huddersfield in the Wild West Riding
John Wesley. 1827. The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 2/4. London: J. Kershaw. Get it:
.Excerpt
I rode over the mountains to Huddersfield. A wilder people I never saw in England: the men, women, and children, filled the street as we rode along, and appeared just ready to devour us. They were however tolerably quiet while I preached; only a few pieces of dirt were thrown; and the bell-man came in the middle of the sermon, but was stopped by a gentleman of the town. I had almost done, when they began to ring the bells; so that it did us small disservice. How intolerable a thing is the Gospel of Christ to them who are resolved to serve the Devil!
To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.
Abbreviations:
- ER: East Riding
- GM: Greater Manchester
- NR: North Riding
- NY: North Yorkshire
- SY: South Yorkshire
- WR: West Riding
- WY: West Yorkshire
Comment
Comment
Two years later, on 23 July 1759,
I preached near Huddersfield, to the wildest congregation I have seen in Yorkshire: yet they were restrained by an unseen hand, and I believe some felt the sharpness of His word. I preached at Halifax in the evening, but the preaching-house was like an oven.
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Original
I rode over the mountains to Huddersfield. A wilder people I never saw in England: the men, women, and children, filled the street as we rode along, and appeared just ready to devour us. They were however tolerably quiet while I preached; only a few pieces of dirt were thrown; and the bell-man came in the middle of the sermon, but was stopped by a gentleman of the town. I had almost done, when they began to ring the bells; so that it did us small disservice. How intolerable a thing is the Gospel of Christ to them who are resolved to serve the Devil!
107 words.
Tags
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- Church bell (6)
· - Church of England (93) ·
- 📌Halifax (43) ·
- Handbell (2) ·
- Horse (71) ·
- 📌Huddersfield (29) ·
- Methodism (38) ·
- Town crier (4) ·
- Wesley, John (1703-91) (21), cleric and leader of a evangelical revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism ·
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- 24 July 1761: Jonas Rushford (14) of Bradford tells a perhaps envious John Wesley how the Skipton magician Timothy Crowther helped him find a missing man
- 11 August 1875: The Whitby town crier’s unique act for the municipal dog show
- 8 December 1770: The Rev Henry Venn’s heart and lungs require that he move from polluted Huddersfield to a Cambridge village
- 19 July 1761: John Wesley speaks at the first love-feast at Birstall
- 22 June 1761: John Wesley is troubled by fish at Guisborough
- 28 April 1812: Methodist Luddites fatally wound the textile manufacturer William Horsfall on his way home from Huddersfield market
- 17 December 1688: Mass mobilisation in Leeds on rumours of an imminent Celtic counteroffensive against the Glorious Revolution
- 19 April 1747: The Methodist John Nelson is attacked by an affluent mob while preaching at Heworth Moor and Acomb (York) on Easter Sunday
- 30 July 1825: The Bridlington bellman Dickey Fletcher cries two keys found on the resort’s North Sands
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