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Bible Christian Ministers.

The movement was founded by William Bryant who was born in Luxulyan, near St Austell, Cornwall in 1778. He was a Wesleyan Methodist who spent his days as an itinerant preacher. He had applied to be a Wesleyan preacher, but was rejected so he formed his own ministry. William and Catherine Bryant emigrated to the United States in 1831 with 6 of their 7 children and are buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.

William Bryant had preached by invitation of the Thorne family at their home Lake Farm in Shebbear on 9 October 1815. 22 people stayed behind to encourage him to form a religious society. Farmer Thorne donated land for a chapel which still stands today as a Methodist chapel. Prospect College a school for the sons of ministers was also set up at Shebbear. Edgehill College for girls was later opened in Bideford. The whole Thorne family became Bible Christians. Mary Thorne, the mother, preached around the countryside and son James became a full-time Bible Christian minister eventually becoming its leader in 1829. He remained in post until his death in 1872 and in his memory the Thorne Memorial Chapel was opened in Barnstaple in 1876. Each year the annual conference of the Bible Christians would be held in a different chapel. In 1895 the conference was held in the memorial chapel in honour of James THORN’s centenary. James married Catherine Reed another preacher. Brother Samuel Thorne married a daughter of the founder William BRYANT, Mary O'Bryan, (BRYANT). Samuel and Mary had nine children of which Samuel Ley Thorne was the best known preacher. Third brother John, became a missionary in Canada. where he died in 1861.

The Bible Christians merged with the United Methodist Free Churches on 17 September 1907. This United Methodist Church joined with the Wesleyan Methodists and Primitive Methodists in 1932. In the 92 years of its existence,the Bible Christian influence spread way beyond its roots in the rural community of Shebbear with circuits across England and Wales. Missionaries went to Australia, Bermuda, Canada, China, New Zealand and the United States.

We do not know how many ancestors were Bible Christians but the following extracts are about family members who were ministers of the faith. The information has been gathered from Manchester University website, Genuki website and census records.

Albert James CONIBEAR [9735]

Albert James CONIBEAR (1865-1953) was born in Crediton, Devon. He entered the Bible Christian ministry in 1888 and exercised his ministry of forty-four years in home circuits. Conibear served as a leader of the Free Church Council in Portsmouth and was a passive resister during the 1902 education controversy.

Source: Oliver Beckerlegge, United Methodist Ministers and their Circuits (1968) and Methodist Recorder 26 March 1953, p.6

He was listed as attending the 1895 conference as an itinerant preacher.

His address was 55 London Road Blackburn where he had lived for 3 years Genuki website

His brother Lewis Gilbert CONIBEAR married the daughter of William GRIBBLE a Methodist Minister who ended his ministry in Canada.

Albert Allan CONIBEAR  [9737]

Albert Allan CONIBEAR (a minister 1897-1953) was born on the island of St Helier, the son of the Bible Christian minister Albert James Conibear. He trained at Victoria Park College for the ministry of the United Methodist Church and was appointed to the Ningpo District of China in 1922.

Conibear served in China until the outbreak of World War 2 when he returned to England and entered the home ministry. During his time in China, he had played a leading role in the development of a Chinese ministry and the establishment of a new Girls' School.

He went back to China in 1945 and remained there for two years. After he returned to England, Conibear worked as the Birmingham Secretary and later the Home Secretary of the United Society for Christian Literature.

He died in London after a long period of ill health.

Source: Minutes of Conference 1953

John DYMENT [423]

John Dymond (1835-1910) was born at Beaford near Torrington. He entered the Bible Christian ministry in 1857 and served as President of Conference in 1879, Connexional Secretary 1875-76 and Missions Secretary 1886-99.

His son Francis John Dymond was a pioneering Bible Christian missionary in China.

Source: Oliver Beckerlegge, United Methodist Ministers and their Circuits 1797-1932 (1968)

He is listed as attending the 1895 conference as a representative of both the London District Meeting and Devonport District . His address was given as 37 Mildmay Street Plymouth where he had lived for 1 year. [Genuki website]

Francis John DYMENT [2449]

On the 1861 Census he was a student at the Prospect College in Shebbear Devon.

Francis John Dymond (1866-1932) was born in Torquay, the son of John Dymond, President of the Bible Christian Conference in 1879. Francis offered himself for the Bible Christian mission to China in 1886 with Samuel Pollard and served there for forty-four years. During his time in China, Dymond suffered persecution at the hands of the Chinese authorities, near-death during the Boxer rebellion and periodic ill health.

Dymond returned to England in 1930 and died at Selly Oak near Birmingham.

Source: Encyclopedia of World Methodism (1974), and Methodist Recorder, 24 March 1932, p.3

In the list of the circuits and the preachers stationed at each FJ & MM DYMOND are listed at the Chao Tung Fu station in China. The address of DYMOND FJ was given as c/o China Inland Mission, Hankow, China and it records that he was appointed in 1886 and had served in station for 10 years. [Genuki website]

FJ was Francis John [2449] but as yet we do not know if MM DYMOND is part of our family.

There is a reference to a paper by MM Dymond ANTI-SLAVERY INTERNATIONAL 1930: Home for Freed Slave in China : An Appeal. [Manchester University website]

George Pearse DYMOND [2448]

He was brother of  Francis John son of John [423]. In 1881 he was a student at Shebbear Prospect College.

A List of Ministers based on Hills Arrangement

A little more information from Manchester University website showing when they commenced their Ministry and the year of their death based on Hills Arrangement, 1969 edition

The letter following the Minister's name denotes the section of the Church to which he formerly belonged., U - United (this included Bible Christians) or W - Wesleyan.

William CONIBEAR has not yet been identified as a family member nor has Frank S DYMOND but the later is mentioned in 2 web sites;

Jersey Methodists  In an article about Lilian Grandin a missionary from Jersey who worked in Choatung in Yunnan Province. On arriving there she wrote: “We are now in another world, near the borders of Burma, Tibet and North India.  Real mountains, river valleys, various tribes few of whom speak Chinese but have their own separate languages.  The climate is full of extremes of temperature and harsh conditions.  It is not a bit like Jersey!  She joins a real committed group of people: Sam Pollard and Mr & Mrs.Parsons responsible for work amongst the Maio tribe; Frank Dymond who looks after the Chinese speaking work”

The second site has an ebook  An Australian in China by G.E. Morrison. Chapter 8 describes his visit to Choatung

“... the comfortable home of the Bible Christian Mission, where I was kindly received by the Rev.  Frank Dymond, and welcomed as a brother missionary .....Mr. Dymond is a Devonshire man, and that evening he gave me for tea Devonshire cream and blackberry jam made in Chaotong, and native oatmeal cakes, than which I never tasted any better in Scotland”

He later writes “ The missionary in charge, Mr. Frank Dymond, is one of the most agreeable men I met in China, broad-minded, sympathetic and earnest--universally honoured and respected by all the district”

The big question remains is this Frank S DYMOND or Francis John DYMOND who we know did worked in Choatung? And who was Frank S ?

Chapel Benefactor.

The Bible Christian movement was centred on Shebbear but part of the legacy of the 92 years of the society was the meeting places they built throughout Britain for community use. One such chapel was built in South Street, Torrington one of the benefactors for which was the glove maker William Vaughan.

The Bible Christians were always in agreement to the ideals set out by John Wesley in the following passage :

Portrait of a Methodist.

by John Wesley

A Methodist is one who has the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit given unto him.
One who loves the Lord his God with all his heart and soul and mind and strength.
He rejoices evermore, prays without ceasing, and in everything gives thanks.
His heart is full of love to all mankind and is purified from envy, wrath, malice, and every unkind affection.
His one desire and the one design of his life is not to do his own will but the will of Him that sent him.
He keeps all God's commandments from the least to the greatest.
He follows not the customs of the world, for vice does not lose its nature through becoming fashionable.
He fares not sumptuously every day.
He cannot lay up treasures upon earth, nor can he adorn himself with gold and costly apparel.
He cannot join in any diversion that has the least tendency to vice.
He cannot speak evil of his neighbour any more than he can lie.
He cannot utter unkind or evil words.
He does good unto all men, unto neighbours, strangers, friends and enemies.
These are the principles and practices of our sect.
These are the marks of a true Methodist.
By these alone do Methodists desire to be distinguished from all other men.

We are grateful to Elsie Person, grand daughter of Lewis Gilbert Conibear, for her help with this page.

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