Benjamin
Ingham (1712 - 1772)
This web site has been produced to promote the
life and work of the Oxford Methodist Benjamin Ingham (1712 - 1772).
Life
Benjamin Ingham was born in Ossett, Yorkshire on 11th June,
1712.
He was
educated at Batley Grammar School and in 1730, entered Queen's College,
Oxford. There he
met John and Charles Wesley, who along with others formed their "Holy
Club" and were known as "Methodists" for their strict methodical
approach to religion. After ordination in the Church of England in
1735, Ingham was appointed Reader of Public Prayers at Christ Church
and St. Sepulchres, Newgate Street, London. Later that year he
accompanied the Wesleys as a missionary to Georgia in
America. On board ship, he came into contact with Moravians, who
impressed him with their beliefs and piety.
In 1737, Ingham returned to Ossett intent on bringing his ideas to the
ordinary people of Yorkshire. He began to form societies within the
Church of England. This upset the established church and in June 1739,
he was banned from preaching in churches in the Diocese of York.
Instead, he took to preaching in private houses and barns, and drew a
large number of followers.
In November 1741, Ingham married Lady Margaret Hastings, daughter of
the 7th Earl of Huntingdon. His wife's sister-in-law was Selina,
Countess of Huntingdon, who was well known for her own Connexion of
societies.
Because of his links with the Moravians, in 1742, Ingham placed the
societies he had formed under Moravian control. However, already from
as early as 1739 onwards, the Moravians began to advance their "stillness
doctrine," which Ingham steadfastly opposed.
In 1745, Ingham visited the Pendle Forest area, and in 1748, in
response to the opposition from Anglican ministers in the area, Ingham
and his supporters decided to begin to register their places of worship
as
"Meeting Places for Protestant Dissenters."
Towards the end of 1748, Ingham, together with William Batty, Robert
Robertshaw, William Whittaker, and William Hargreaves formed a society
of 99 members, and subsequently met at Watermeetings, just outside
Blacko, in order to begin to subscribe to the building of a chapel,
which was built at Wheatley Lane in 1750. Ingham preached the
first sermon
there on Christmas Day.
By 1753, Wesley distanced his Methodists from the Moravians, and by
1754 Ingham withdrew his societies from Moravian supervision. It
was proposed by Charles Wesley at the Methodist conference in
1755
that the 80 Inghamite congregations be joined with the Methodists, but
this was rejected by John Wesley.
In 1754, the Wheatley society voted to declare themselves Dissenters.
Like Wesley, however, Ingham wished to remain within the Church of
England. In 1756 however, the final
step was taken to form a separate church when Ingham ordained William
Batty and James Allen as elders.
In 1761, Ingham sent Batty and Allen to Scotland to meet the Glasites,
a set of independent churches formed by John Glas, with a view to
joining forces
with them. Allen was very positive about this, but Ingham was
not. Allen eventually broke away from the Inghamites, taking most of
Ingham's societies with him. He died in 1804 and is buried at Gayle,
near
Hawes.Only 13 societies remained under Ingham's control after this.
Ingham continued until his death on 1st December 1772, his wife having
pre-deceased him by four years.
Fuller biographies can be found in the following books:
Benjamin Ingham: Preacher amongst the Dales, Forests and Fells
by H. Malcolm Pickles, 152 pages, published by H. M. Pickles and
printed by Pioneer Press Ltd., Skipton, 1995, ISBN 0 9526950 0
6.
The Oxford Methodists by Rev. L. Tyreman, 1873,
published by
Hodder and Stoughton, 27 Paternoster Row, London. The relevant chapter
is available for download here:
Theology
Benjamin Ingham thought through his faith. He
did
not blindly follow anyone. This is his legacy, and the sign of
someone who has truly had a new heart put within him. He joined with
people for a time, until he realised that their teachings did not
coincide with the Word of God. As we grow in the faith, the Word of God
is the most important thing we have in this world. We change as we grow
in knowledge of the Scriptures, and moving on is sometimes a necessity.
Ingham saw this and was not afraid to do so. During the course of his
life, he:
(1) Distanced himself from the Wesleys, mainly on two issues. Firstly,
he was always more friendly with George Whitfield, another original
member of Oxford's "Holy Club." Wesley espoused Arminianism, whereas
Whitfield was a Calvinist. Also, Ingham would have objected to Wesley's
doctrine of
"Perfectionism," or "entire sanctification." This is something which
is not possible whilst we are still in this world.
(2) Distanced himself from the Moravians, because
of their doctrine that assurance was of the essence of faith, i.e. that
anything less than full assurance is no faith at all. To this end they
taught their "stillness doctrine," which believed that those
who lack assurance are to abstain from all means of grace (Bible
reading, prayer, the Lord's Supper, etc.) until they had full assurance
again. Surely these things are meant to help
us, not hinder us in our faith!
(3) Distanced himself from the Glasites. Their essential error was that
they believed that saving
faith is an intellectual assent to the truth only, and they dismissed
the concept of an experimental knowledge of Christ in the heart. Ingham
saw something in their teaching for a time at least, because it
persuaded him to write his only theological treatise in 1763, "A
Discourse on the Faith and Hope of the Gospel".
There would have been no need for Ingham to write anything unless, in
his mind, mainstream evangelical religion had something seriously wrong
with it. But Ingham never embraced Glas's views fully. The Inghamite societies
were split apart by this teaching, James Allen joining the Glasites,
and Ingham refusing to do so.
Ingham eventually did not join the Glasites on
things to do with church order rather than theology, such as:
- the non-use of the lot (Ingham
believed that decisions should be either unanimous, or made by the use
of the lot. No majority decisions were accepted)
- second marriages disqualifying one from the eldership
- the practice of footwashing.
But other factors were involved as well. James Allen did not like
Ingham's dominating the denomination as General Overseer. The Glasites
believed in each congregation being completely autonomous.
Also, theologically, Ingham eventually saw the errors of the Glasite
position, in that it led directly to antinomianism, which is the belief that the
law of God no longer matters to the believer any more, so he can now live
how he likes.
But the question remains: Did Ingham embrace the wrong theology of the
Glasites, as is popularly taught, or not? In
order to answer this question, we have to examine his only theological
work, and
compare it with that of John Glas, or rather his son-in-law, Robert
Sandeman, who popularised their teaching.
Probably the most controversial of Ingham's statements is this one:
"Some modern divines have defined faith to be a confidence that
Christ loved me and gave himself for me. But this is not a true
definition of faith” [A Discourse on the Faith and Hope of the Gospel (1763), p.42.]
But really, Ingham is only trying to show the difference
between faith and hope, which he goes on to do in the rest of
the treatise. He certainly does not go as far as Robert Sandeman (John
Glas's son-in-law), who said that:
"No man can be assured, that his sins are forgiven him, but in as
far as he is freed from the service of sin, and led to work
righteousness; for the favour of God can only be enjoyed in studying to
do those things which are well pleasing in his sight.” [Robert Sandeman, Letters on Theron and Aspasio, addressed to the author of that work, Vol. 2, p.194.]
All Ingham was trying to do was to discern the difference between assurance of faith and assurance of hope:
"No-one hath the assurance of his eternal salvation upon his first
believing the gospel, or can have it, till his faith hath wrought some
time, more or less, by love. No man can be assured that he shall be
eternally saved without any possibility of falling away, but by the
sealing, witness, or testimony of the Holy Ghost. But that noone is
sealed by the Spirit upon his first believing the gospel is proved by
Ephesians 1:13.” [A Discourse on the Faith and Hope of the Gospel (1763), p. 43.]
Ingham distanced himself from the contemporary evangelical circles
of his day, but at the same time he never embraced the doctrines of
Glas and Sandeman fully.
The best thing to do, is to allow the reader judge for himself. As far
as I know Ingham's work is not freely downloadable on the internet
(although available for purchase through Amazon.com – at a very
expensive price for a pretty poor photocopy). So I have typed it
up myself for all to see and judge for themselves. It is now
downloadable below:
Inghamites
The Inghamite denomination continues to this day. At the
height of
Ingham's influence, he had 80 societies under his wing, but after the
split by James Allen, only 13 remained.
In 1813, the Inghamites agreed to unite with the Old Scots
Independents. This latter denomination closed its last church building
in 1833. It is recorded that 13 Inghamite congregations existed at this
time, noteably the following:
|
Founded |
Closed |
| Kendal |
1751 |
1971 |
| Nottingham |
1787 |
1844 |
| Bulwell |
1803 |
1817 |
| Tadcaster |
? |
? |
| Howden |
1786 |
1850 |
| Leeds |
? |
1853 |
| Wibsey |
? |
1820s |
| Todmorden |
1792 |
? |
| Salterforth |
1754 |
2008 |
| Rodhill |
? |
1837 |
| Winewall |
1752 |
1998 |
| Wheatley |
1750 |
open |
| Haslingden |
1805 |
1851 |
Subsequent to this union, the following congregations are
noted:
1825 - Colne Lane established (closed 1976)
1833 - Firbanks, Westmoreland established (closed ?)
1833 - Farringdon Hill, Brantford, Ontario, Canada established (still
open)
1851 - The census in 1851 records 9 Inghamite chapels.
1863 - Tyreman (in The Oxford Methodists, quoting
from the
Wesleyan Times, December 14th, 1863) records six chapels, namely:
Winewall, Wheatley, Todmorden, Kendal, Tadcaster and Leeds, but this is
inaccurate as at least Salterforth and Colne Lane are missing from this
list.
1886 - Nelson established (closed 1957)
1900 - Cottontree Lane established after split from Winewall (closed
1993)
Only two Inghamite congregations exist today, Wheatley Lane, Lancashire, UK and Brantford, Ontario, Canada. Both are a far cry
from Ingham's original societies, and now have little to do with Inghamite distinctives in doctrine, worship and practice.
Brantford,
Ontario
For further details see:
www.farringdonchurch.com
Wheatley
Lane
Inside the chapel at Wheatley Lane, can be found a small display
about the history of the church, together with Benjamin Ingham's Bible.
This church does have a web site. see:
inghamitechurch.org
A leaflet has been produced, as shown here:
Salterforth
Salterforth chapel closed in 2008 and has now been converted to housing.
__________________________________________
