Nonconformity in the Nineteenth Century by David M. Thompson

Author:David M. Thompson [Thompson, David M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138644038
Google: IPaTtgEACAAJ
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2017-11-28T01:40:01+00:00

52 The expulsion of the Rev. James Everett from the Wesleyan Conference, 1849

An extract from R. Chew, James Everett: A Biography (1875), pp. 381–4.

James Everett was suspected of being the author of the Fly Sheets, partly because he was known to have written the anonymous Wesleyan Takings (1840), and partly because he refused to sign the declaration against the Fly Sheets circulated by the Rev. G. Osborn. He was expelled in 1849 for refusing to answer the question whether he was the author. This extract comes from his Journal, and may be compared with that in Benjamin Gregory’s Side Lights, pp. 445–60.

July 30th, Monday. Proceeded to Conference at Manchester, in company with my friend, the Rev. John Burdsall, both being summoned by the President, the Rev. Thomas Jackson, on the motion of the Rev. W. M. Bunting, to appear before the Conference, without assigning any reason or preferring any charge against either of us. We entered the Conference in Oldham Street chapel on Tuesday morning, and took our seats in the large square pew in the corner next the wall, on the right of the pulpit. There we sat during the various sittings till Friday evening, when it turned out that we were to be subjected to ‘question under penalty’, as in the Star-chamber and High Commission court.

The question related to certain missiles called ‘Fly-Sheets’, which were circulated privately among the preachers, and which exposed the proceedings of the executive of the Connexion, the malappropriation of moneys, etc., giving facts, figures, and published documents as evidence of the truth of the charges alleged. On Friday evening I was selected by the holy inquisitors to lead the way, and Dr Hannah, secretary of the Conference, was appointed to propose the question. I was ordered to appear at the bar of the Conference, and there I stood! Why?

1st. The President’s summons gave no notice of a charge, which according to rule ought to have been specified in writing, two or three days before, with the names of the accusers. This not being done, I was left to guess out the cause or reason of this strange procedure. 2nd. The York district minutes, which had been handed to the Conference, were free from any charge against me, having in their entries, ‘Are there any objections against James Everett?’ Answer, ‘None’. 3rd During a period of forty-three years the same question had been annually asked, and the same answer given! No charge! 4th. The Conference avowed that it had no charge to prefer! But to evade all rule and order, and to accomplish a despotic purpose, which could not with any show of decency be effected in any other way, the question was put in the shape of a ‘friendly inquiry’.

Dr Hannah, with a paper in his hand, containing a string of questions, commenced with, ‘Are you the author of the “Fly-Sheets”?’ Being pretty firm and recollected, and indignant at the mode of proceeding adopted, regarding it as an un-scriptural, un-English, and cruel attempt

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