Surname Index

to

Memoirs of the Rev John Pyer

by

K.P. Russell

London: John Snow (1865) illus. pp. xvi, 336, advts, pp. 32

Prepared by Michael Steer

Rev John Pyer was Methodist Minister of South Molton, then Devonport in the first half of the 19th century. He was a revivalist who came of age as a preacher in the tent Methodist movement. His daughter as an act of devotion published this celebration of his life. Much of the book records his intensive (almost daily) correspondence with her. The Methodists began as a revivalist movement within the Established Church, influenced by the evangelical preaching of John Wesley from the 1730s onwards. They were labelled 'violent enthusiasts' and increasingly refused access to their own parish churches. Methodism broke with the Church of England and split into several doctrinal groups, divisions that in many cases persisted until a general union in 1932. The most significant branch of Methodism in North Devon was the Bible Christian movement, founded at Shebbear in 1815. The North Devon Record Office holds records of a number of North Devon nonconformist congregations. This rare and much sought-after book was produced digitally from a copy in the Bodleian Library collection and can be downloaded from Google Books. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.