Barbara Wilson (2000)

Sarah Kirkland was born 1794 in Mercaston, Derbyshire, England and was a Primitive Methodist minister. She married John Harrison who died in 1821 and then married William Bembridge in 1825. She died 4.3.1880 in Alfreton and is buried in Mugginton, Derby, England.

 

Sarah Kirkland Harrison Bembridge (born 1794),

 

See http://goo.gl/2Die

 

 

 

http://goo.gl/rtLr 
John Harrison and Sarah Kirkland

(now Mrs. Harrison) were added as second and third

missionaries.

 

Here, Sarah Kirkland of Mercaston 
comes on the scene. She was prevailed upon to 
preach in Derby, and from that time the denomina 
tion gained a sure footing in this important county 
town. Next, at the solicitation and with the help 
of Robert Winfield of Ambaston, a Methodist local 
preacher of Revivalistic sympathies, she introduced 
Primitive Methodism into Nottingham at the 
Christmastide of 1815.

 

 

Sarah Kirkland, of Mercaston, was employed by Mr. Bourne, as a female travelling preacher in the Connexion, at the remarkable salary of two guineas per quarter, but which he paid out of his own pocket.  She- laboured with great acceptance and success in the new circuit, opening many fresh places, and producing good results wherever she went.  Mr. Bourne also. laboured extensively in the new circuit himself, and at Derby, Nottingham, and surrounding villages he was; very useful.

 

In March, 1819, John Harrison and his devoted wife, whom we knew as Sarah Kirkland, are given as fellow-labourers to Clowes. 

 

Bourne, Clowes and "Mow Cop"
Around the same time as the rise of the Methodist New Connexion, another wave of revival swept into the new towns. Its leading figures were Hugh Bourne and William Clowes. Hugh Bourne, was born at Ford Hayes Farm, Bucknall, on April 3, 1772. He was a shy man [see http://goo.gl/KVH0] who, until his conversion in 1799, lived with an intense fear of falling into hell. By the year 1800, he had moved to live in Harriseahead, a village to the north of the present city. Towering above Bourne's new home was Mow Cop, a "bald hill" rising to 1,091 feet above sea level, with commanding views over the Cheshire plain.

Bourne was shocked at the moral state of his new neighbourhood, saying, "There was not in England a neighbourhood that was more ungodly and profane. A stranger could hardly go over Harriseahead without insult and sometimes not without injury."Against this background, Bourne met for prayer and Bible study with other Methodists, and flames of revival broke out in 1801, spreading quickly through the northern towns of the Potteries and beyond.

William Clowes was born in Burslem on March 12, 1780, a relative of Josiah Wedgwood on his mother's side. William became a highly skilful master potter, as well as a notorious drinker, gambler, womaniser and fighter, but was remarkably converted at an evangelistic meeting in Congleton in 1804, following what Hugh Bourne described as yet another "extraordinary outpouring of the Spirit." Clowes was to become a powerful evangelist and a leader in the revival.

The Primitive Methodists
One of the main features of this new move of God was the "Camp-meeting," an all-day, open-air prayer and preaching meeting. The first one was held at Norton in 1807; thereafter they moved to Mow Cop, replete with its mock castle ruins, a folly built by Squire Randle Wilbraham of Rode Hall in 1754, just over fifty years prior to these events. Many were the sinners converted and miracles accomplished on these glorious occasions.
Unfortunately, these American-style meetings were viewed with great suspicion by the Methodist authorities and a ban on holding such gatherings was imposed. Having ignored this ruling, both Bourne and Clowes were eventually expelled from the Methodist Church (in 1808 and 1810 respectively). Despite this set-back, the new movement continued to grow, spreading throughout the Midlands and the North of England, following the line of the River Trent to Hull, where Clowes died and is buried.

Beech Grove house was built in 1792 for John Harrison

Beech Grove house was built in 1792 for John Harrison

 

“Hell Green”

The village of Mercaston is near to Derby in the English Midlands. In the early part of the nineteenth century the village gained a reputation for vice. Conventional Methodism had become extinct in the village, and because of its notoriety it gained the label “Hell Green”.

God however, had not given up on Mercaston, in spite of its terrible name. One family who lived on a farm there were a Mr and Mrs Kirkland, their two sons, and daughter Sarah. In 1811, Hugh Bourne visited Mercaston, and spoke with young Sarah. As a result of this conversation she came under the influence of the Holy Spirit, trembled and wept. She had a powerful conversion to Jesus Christ.

Sarah Kirkland went on to become the first female travelling preacher, or open-air evangelist, for the Primitive Methodist movement. In early 1816, aged just 21, she was instrumental in a significant revival in Nottingham, when “some of the most notorious sinners … became reformed characters”. In May of that year she spoke to a gathering of over 12,000 people at a tent meeting in Nottingham Forest.

Mercaston became the venue for a number for open-air meetings and a force for good. From “Hell Green”, Sarah and her co-workers brought the experience of heaven to tens of thousands of men and women across the Midlands.

In 1811, Hugh Bourne visited 
Mercaston, and while at Rowland Kirkland's 
house, as was his way, he spoke to the girl of 
the home as though she too had a soul that 
was worth saving. Then at the tea-table 
he prayed for each and all. The faded 
impressions were revived ; the habit of prayer 
resumed ; worldly amusements forgone ; her 
maiden finery laid aside ; and before long 
she found peace in her own bed-chamfeer. 
Prior to this date, however, the Kirkland home had been turned into a house of 
mourning, as the following item from Hugh Bourne's Journals shows : 
 
"July 14th, 1813. At Mercaston. Since I was there last, Rowland Kirkland has died, and his two sons, of the small-pox They were all three buried in about a fortnight. Sarah Kirkland thought that the youngest had obtained mercy. 
The other was brought into liberty by Mary Hawksley and died happy. The old 
man has been a steady pilg'rim a long time ; he died proclaiming ' Victory ' to the 
last. His death has made a stop in building the Chapel at Mercaston. [There had 
been a movement for a Chapel, and Rowland had agreed to provide the site.] How 
it will be now is not yet known."

 

http://goo.gl/Z1Xi

Biographical Sketches

Biographical Sketches of some of those Preachers whose labours contributed to the origination and early extension by George Herod, 494pp, cream cloth

Originally published in 1855, this series of sketches contains biographies of Lorenzo Dow, James Crawfoot, John Benton, Sarah Kirkland, John Harrison, William Clowes and Hugh Bourne.

 

 

Belper has a long history of religious dissent. Indeed, the name "Ranters" for the Primitive Methodists was first given in Belper:

"A Sketch of the Denominations of the Christian World" by John Evans 1832; Page 177

PRIMITIVE METHODISTS, OR RANTERS.
With their Camp Meetings.

These are a disowned branch of the Wesleyan Methodists, originating in Staffordshire, under Hugh Bourne, who wrote their history. This is a small pamphlet, entitled, "History of the Primitive Methodists, giving an Account of their Rise and Progress, up to the year 1823," by Hugh Bourne, Bemersley, near Tunstall, printed for the author, at the office ofthe Primitive Methodist Connexion, by J. Bourne.

This J. Bourne, printer, is a preacher, together with his brother, Hugh Bourne, under both of whose labours has arisen the Primitive Connexion. It commenced at Harreshead, and on Mow* the first Camp-meetings being disapproved of by the old Connexion, a separation took place, when H. and J. Bourne enlarged their views, and the cause spread in every direction. Societies were established at Boylstone, Todeley, and Hallington, in Derbyshire. A general meeting was held at Tunstall, Feb. 13, 1812, and a preparatory meeting at Nottingham, Aug. 18, 1819, when arrangements were made for annual meetings, quarterly meetings having been held in March, June, September, and December, under which " the work mightily enlarged." Missionary exertions, which had been declining, were revived at Belper " very powerfully," while "the praying people, in returning home, were accustomed to sing through the streets of Belper!" It is added, that "this circumstance procured them the name of Ranters, and the name of Ranter, which first arose on this occasion, afterwards spread very extensively." The work, we are told, then spread to Derby and Nottingham, whence circuits were established, one circuit having been hitherto sufficient for the Connexion. The camp-meetings also had declined, but were thus revived. "The declining state of the camp-meetings was severely felt in the circuit, and caused considerable anxiety"

*Mow, a large mountain between Staffordshire and Cheshire, five miles from the Potteries.

The records of Dissenting Registrations of places of worship lists these:

Belper John Taylor, Presbytarian - House 14th Jan 1690
Belper Joseph Statham - House, faith not given 19th April 1711
Shottle William Statham - House, faith not given July 16th 1713
Belper Thomas Slater, Methodist - Building 3rd Oct 1797
Belper Abraham Harrison, Jnr. Independent (= ex-Unitarian?) - Building 2nd Oct. 1798

 

Derby Evening Telegraph, Aug 20, 2007

Methodism has a rich history in Derby. Records show that the beginnings of Primitive Methodism in the Normanton area were in June, 1816. At that time, Sarah Kirkland, the daughter of a Mugginton farmer, became a well-known preacher. The first meetings were held in a barn at the corner of Browning Street, Derby, known as Cabbage Square. In 1891, the movement in Normanton grew and the Primitive Methodists looked for a new site. An iron structure for a school and chapel was built in Sackville Street in 1891.

 

Led by Hugh Bourne and William Clowes, the Primitive Methodists’ Great Midlands Revival was ushered in by a great camp-meeting in Nottingham Forest, held on Whit Sunday, 1816. Although led by men, such as ‘Boanerges’ Benton, John Wedgwood, and John Harrison, shouldering her own evangelical burden was the Connexion’s first female travelling preacher, Sarah Kirkland, founder of the society in Derby.

 

Herod, G. Biographical Sketches of Some of Those Preachers Whose Labours Contributed to the Origination

and Early Extension of the Primitive Methodist Connexion. King, [185-?]. 'Sarah Kirkland', [305]-336; 'John Harrison',[337]-391.