Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion in the Nineteenth Century

Studies of British evangelicalism in the eighteenth century acknowledge the significance of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, her college at Trevecca, and her Connexion. This book addresses a gap in scholarship through an analysis for the first time of the Connexion throughout the nineteenth century. The results revise the understanding of the Connexion as a denomination for the elites that failed to carry the banner of Calvinism within Methodism. The study argues that unlike the Wesleyan Methodists and the Welsh Calvinist Methodists, the Connexion failed to emerge from the early evangelical movement as a denomination. Instead, it remained true to the characteristics of that movement. Whilst the absence of a clear denominational identity provoked internecine court cases, the development of a surrogate denomination and an endeavour to re-integrate with the Church of England, it also allowed the Connexion to persist until its eventual launch as a denomination in 1899. The book draws on deep, uncatalogued archives and offers a study of four prominent chapels that together illuminate the Connexion’s peculiar denominational ambiguity. It will be of particular interest to scholars of religious history, including those with an interest in Evangelicalism and Dissent.