BCM

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        This decision coincided with him making peace with the Wesleyans – mainly due to the new Wesleyan Superintendent at St Austell – enabling him to make an evangelistic tour of northeast Cornwall and west Devon during early 1815. However, his 'strong personality', as Wickes puts it ⁵, brought about his final separation from the Wesleyans. The major cause of contention was the forming of an independent circuit at Week St Mary. His activities in the area had upset the local itinerant preacher, who was somewhat annoyed when the circuit steward, amongst others, declared themselves for Mr O'Bryan. This happened on the 1st October 1815.

        Eight days later, a group of sympathisers at Shebbear in north Devon, including James Thorne, also declared themselves for Mr O'Bryan, and in so doing organised themselves as the first Arminian Bible Christian Society under William's leadership. This later date, rather than the 1st October, tends to be looked upon as the starting date for the Movement, mainly due to the later influence of Mr Thorne, who succeeded O'Bryan as the leader of the Bible Christian Church.

        The foundation of the Bible Christian, or Bryanite Church [as it was nicknamed during the early years ⁶] coincided with Cornwall's "Great Revival" of 1814, which Pyke described in his lecture of 1941 as "a wave of mystic power which, like the wind, swept unseen across the land, and invigorated the souls of men by its viewless ministry." ⁷

        William Carvosso, ⁸ aided by his son, gives a wonderful first hand recollection of what was happening in the Duchy during this year:

           "Soon after this, in the beginning of the year 1814, a great and glorious revival broke out at Redruth, and spread to various parts of Cornwall. It was such a revival, as my eyes never saw before. I call it "a glorious revival," for such it proved to my own soul; my faith was so increased to see the mighty power of God displayed in convincing and converting such vast multitudes. For this great and merciful visitation, numbers will praise God to all eternity. It has been my privilege to witness the happy deaths of many who were brought to the knowledge of the truth at this time. At Ponsanooth we partook largely of the general good. The society, which, twenty-five years before, consisted of one small and feeble class, now became a society of near two hundred members, divided into eleven classes. Three of these came under my care; and one of them was committed to my younger son, who had for some time before acted as a Local Preacher".      [Carvosso]

        "Of all the various revivals of religion, of which Cornwall has been so remarkable a scene since Methodism was first planted in it, the revival of which my father here speaks is by many considered the most striking and interesting. It is therefore now generally distinguished by the epithet of "the great revival." It commenced in the month of February, at a prayer meeting in this town (Redruth); when eight persons found peace with God. The night following, at another prayer-meeting, many more were powerfully seized with Convictions of sin; and, after much wrestling and importunity in prayer, they found refuge in the Saviour. From this time, serious concern became very general; and, in the course of the following week, many hundreds in the town and neighbourhood, who had before been living in neglect of their souls, were brought into deep distress about their spiritual interests, and multitudes of them were enabled with much soundness of speech to testify that they had experienced remission of sins". [Benjamin Carvosso, as editor of memoirs] ⁹

5. Wickes, page 13
6. According to F W Bourne's history of the movement, it was in 1819 that O'Bryan overheard some women at Camelford saying that they were going to the Bryanite meeting "words which to him had a strange sound". From this we gather that the term had not been used previously, and certainly not by the leaders of the Connexion.
7. Pyke, page 22f
8. Memoirs of William Carvosso, page 50f. William Carvosso is a fascinating character. He farmed at Cosawes, near Ponsanooth [in the parish of St Gluvias] from 1788-1815, where he was a Wesleyan class leader. In 1815, at the age of 65yrs [after the death of his wife] he moved in with his married daughter at Mylor, learned to read and write, and became a proficient and voluminous diarist and correspondent. He made a number of journeys around Cornwall as a travelling evangelist and exhorter. [A History of Evangelical Christianity in Cornwall by Peter Isaac, page 118]
9. Thomas Shaw [The Bible Christians 1815-1907: page 104] argues that too much emphasis on the link between the start of the movement with the Great Revival overlooks O'Bryan's dress rehearsal for the movement [his ministry 1810-14] and his work around Newquay. However Shaw does admit that the Cornish Revivals, 1814 and previously, "provided both the inspiration and the form of O'Bryan's ministry".

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