Primitive Methodism Essay

Burt, Doughty, Fenwick, and Wilson continued to serve as MPs throughout this period. Similarly, Arch remained an MP until 1900. Another thirteen MPs, either active Primitive Methodists or closely associated with the Church, were elected during this period. Of these new MPs, at least twelve were or had been local preachers; ten were trade union leaders, primarily in the coal industry. Initially, three were Labour Party members, the others Liberals. However, five of the Liberals transferred to the Labour Party after 1909 when the MFGB affiliated to that Party and, technically, they were obliged to do so. In total, fourteen of the eighteen MPs were trade union leaders or activists (78%), twelve in the coal industry (66%). Significantly, six of them (33%) were residents of Durham or Northumberland, where Primitive Methodism considered itself ‘the established church’.

David Shackleton, elected in 1902, was the first Labour Party member with connections to the Church. Although William Parrott, a
In 1906, Guttery expressed his pride that Primitive Methodism’s ‘wealthy members are loyal to democracy, and its poorer ones are sane in their aspirations. We have no social divisions amongst us, such as embitter other churches.’ However, he warned that ‘Free Churchmen must allow no middle-class timidity or prejudice alienate them from a Labour Movement that is full of national hope and promise’.
The Church’s commitment to class collaboration and gradual parliamentary reform is evident in Connexional publications’ references to its MPs. To the Leader, the ideal Primitive Methodist MP was, perhaps, Charles Fenwick, whom it described in 1906 as ‘an advanced yet sane reformer’. It is noticeable that the subjects of the most detailed articles relating to the MPs elected in that year were Wilson and Fenwick: local preachers, Liberals, trade unionists, and