The Life of Hugh Bourne - Colin McKechnie

Hugh Bourne led a powerful spiritual awakening in Britain at the beginning of the 19^th century.  Converted at 17 years he immediately began to share with others, soon joining the Methodists with outstanding evangelistic success.

Strongly influenced by the American, Lorenzo Dow’s use of ‘camp meetings’ He held Britain’s first camp meeting on May 31, 1807, at Mow Cop, where four to five thousand gathered. Awesome scenes attended the meetings as successive preachers were unusually anointed with many listeners gripped with trembling and tears. 

He began the Primitive Methodist movement and by May 1820, there were 7,842 members, 207 local preachers, and 48 itinerant preachers. The membership had grown to 110,000 members, 9,350 local preachers, and 560 itinerants by 1852.

Bourne saw a succession of revivals from 1801 onwards which resulted in the largest ingathering of working-class people to the kingdom of God that England had ever known.