John Bowes

John Bowes isn't someone I have looked into before; I don't know how much he had to do with Brethren, but here's a quote from ‘SHUT IN WITH THEE’: THE MORNING MEETING AMONG SCOTTISH OPEN BRETHREN, 1840s-1960s" by Neil Dickson (available on the BAHN site)

"That the Brethren morning meeting showed continuity with the traditions of some Scottish dissenters would explain why it proved acceptable to some within Scotland. John Bowes, a former Primitive Methodist preacher who had adopted Glasite practices in his congregation in Dundee, made contact with the early Brethren movement in the south of England in 1839, and for the following two decades he was the principal disseminator of Brethren ecclesiology within Scotland. During this period there were strong Glasite influences on Scottish Brethren worship."

There is a useful account of John Bowes in David Brady and Fred J. Evans, 'Christian Brethren in Manchester and District: A History' (London: Heritage Publications 1997) pp.20-35. He avoided the Brethren label, because he often found them to be too sectarian, but many of the assemblies he founded were later identified with the movement. Tim Grass in 'Gathering to His Name' gives several examples of such meetings. Timothy Stunt

Thanks, I have the Manchester book somewhere .. will take a look at that.

Tom, the most extensive treatment of John Bowes is in my Brethren in Scotland 1838-2000. I've also re-written the DNB entry on him. I discovered him through a MS history of a Lanarkshire assembly which quoted from his journals. He'd disappeared from Brethren history because of retaining some Methodist beliefs (women preaching, holiness etc.) and because of his extreme independency.

I read his autobiography and he does mention more than a couple of times his experience among the Brethren.