This group, and probably also the Primitive Methodist Revivalists, resulted from a schism in the Bradford PM Circuit in 1832. Societies were established and a preaching plan of 1834 lists 30 preachers serving 18 Sunday preaching places. They joined the Independent Methodists that year. Their main leader was John Parkinson, a bookseller and former PM preacher in Bradford. He later moved to Hull and formed a Gospel Pilgrim society there. Another leading preacher was Benjamin Rushton, a prominent Yorkshire Chartist. Both of the Bradford Gospel Pilgrim chapels were used for Chartist meetings. From Yorkshire The Gospel Pilgrims established a small group of village churches in east Norfolk, but these were short-lived. By the 1850s most of the Gospel Pilgrim churches in Yorkshire had closed. The last remaining one, at Thornhill Edge, Dewsbury, survived until 1987.

Entry written by: JAD
Category: Denomination
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