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Barton on Humber & Brigg Methodist Circuit Lincoln Grimsby District |
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Welcome to Scawby Church
Church Contact: Mr. B. Wass 01652 653721
SCAWBY SCRAPBOOK
METHODIST PROPERTY IN SCAWBY
Early Days
Since the time of the Pilgrim Fathers local people have
disliked being told by the State when and how they should worship. So
it was no new idea when, in 1784, Jarvis Dent, with Benjamin Beeley,
Joseph Barnard and John Kettlewell, registered a house in his occupation
for a Dissenters' meeting. Morning worship, baptisms, marriages and funerals
were in Scawby Old Church: other services were in the house.
Benjamin Beeley moved on, but these Methodist meetings soon included the Ogles,
the Streets, the Marshes, the Reeders and others. They were a close group,
with Jarvis Dent in charge of the Society. He had married Sarah Ogle in 1775:
their daughter Ann married John Marsh. Hannah Marsh married Joseph Barnard:
Sarah Ann Marsh married Matthew Phillipson. John Kettlewell married Elizabeth
Dent: Ann Kettlewell married Richard Reeder from Cleatham.
Jarvis Dent had moved to Scawby from Hibaldstow when he married. Eight
of his family survived: ten died in infancy. Such was the way of
things. Jarvis died
in Scawby in 1821, aged 66: Sarah died in 1838, aged 66, just four years
after the Wesleyan Chapel opened.
They were tenants, in 1792,of cottages and a warehouse where Oglesby's shop
now stands. They were right on the street side, probably of ironstone with
pantiles. The warehouse gable faced the road.
In 1786, the Society took the Chapel which stood on the road between Scawby
and Sturton. It was registered with the Diocese by Alexander Kilham, Minister.
He was from Epworth and had teen assisting Mr. Brackenbury, the preacher
from Raithby by Spilsby for some years. In 1785 he too was accepted as a
traveling
preacher.
In 1786 he was working in the Grimsby Circuit, based in Gainsborough. His
work in evangelising the villages round about was prodigious. In the end
his health
gave way and he had to be rested for six months, in spite of Wesley's orders
to his preachers not to overwork.
Alexander Kilham was always a fiery and effective preacher, but quite as
much a Congregationalist as he was a Methodist. He had a great belief in
the right
of each Society to discipline its members, and for the Trustees to have who
they would to administer the Sacrament, in the tradition of the old Dissenters
of the County.
His democratic ideas were not in favour with the Wesleyan Conference, so
he resigned in 1797, with William Thorn, to found the Methodist New Connexion.
His Chapel was the only building that was marked on the Sturton Road on the
Enclosure Award. It stood on the triangle of land just beyond the cross roads,
where
the road veers left and downhill, and a footpath used to
go straight on to Sturton Main Street. Whether it was a former Dissenters'
Chapel is not
clear, but those who know the village will remember it as Mrs. Howson's
Cottage. It was a two storey building, facing Sturton, with a short
roof at the front
and a long roof behind. How long were the Methodists there? Difficult
to say, but it might have been until the new Chapel opened on West Street
in 1834
Four years after the first registration John Wesley visited 'Scowby,
late in June 1788. You will still hear 'Scowby' for Scawby if you
listen to some
of
the older folk.
Wesley was 85 or thereabouts, going by chaise now', no longer on horseback,
and yet he preached at Scoffer at 8a.m. At 11, he was at Scawby, where
he preached to a 'very- numerous and serious' congregation. Was it in
that long
low red
tiled building, Barnard's Barn, that stood opposite the present green
gateway leading to the Park? Tradition says so, and the Barnards were
the leading
farmers in the Society. Wesley himself gives no hint whether he was inside
or out.
After dinner, Wesley was on his way again, to a preaching at 5 p.m. at
Grimsby, where the Vicar read the prayers.
As though all this was not enough, the old man had paused on his journey,
like any good tourist, as he passed through Great Limber. He marveled
at the new
Pelham Mausoleum. He lists the details of size and cost, and commented
with a wry smile,
'0 what comfort to the departed spirits that their carcases should rot
above ground.'
All this was in one day, at the age of 85. Of such stuff was the Founder
of Methodism.
. If you have any information or pictures, which you think, we can use. Please e-mail with the details info@barton-brigg-circuit.org.uk