A study of growth and controversy in Victorian Methodism, through the records of the Local Preachers of the Oxford Wesleyan Circuit.

Wesleyan Methodism was the largest Free Church denomination in Victorian Oxfordshire, with a presence in many towns and villages as well as in the city of Oxford and its growing suburbs. Crucial to the nurture and expansion of Methodism were the Local Preachers, lay volunteers who conducted most of the Sunday services in Methodist chapels. The quarterly Preachers' Meetings supervised the recruitment, training, deployment and discipline of these volunteers, and their minutes track the development of the denomination and the fortunes of individual preachers and preaching places across three-quarters of a century. The minutes of the Oxford Wesleyan Circuit Local Preachers' meetings from 1830 to 1902 are presented here in full, with annotations and biographical notes on the preachers. The introduction to the volume sets the scene by discussing the history of Methodism and the place of preaching in the Wesleyan movement.
Martin Wellings is Superintendent of the Barnet and Queensbury Circuit of the Methodist Church and former Minister of Wesley Memorial Church, Oxford.