Bible Christians

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The Bible Christians were a religious sect formed in Cornwall in the early 19th century as an offshoot of the Methodists. They were later incorporated into the United Methodist Church and subsequently, in 1932, the Methodist Church. They featured a number of women preachers and gained footholds in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Wight expanding from their origin in Cornwall, where they were founded by William Bryan- a Methodist preacher who fel out with the Methodist Movement over whether or not a travelling preaher, such as he should marry. Eventually they began to split over Bryan's autocratic style, clashing with the movement's geographically widening influence. After his death they became reoconciled with the Methodist Movement. In the Isle of Wight, where they were popular with farm labourers, following beach missions by Mary Toms, they were informally persecuted after local vicar Samuel Wilberforce called upon their members to be sacked and evicted by local farmers and landlords. They were forced at times to meet in chalk pits, but several villages, such as Apse Heath still have chapels bearing their name.