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Campaigns: The Longer Tour

Many of the people who followed Wesley in the early days were ordinary people artisans (craftsmen), shopkeepers and servants. We know that a few of them were of African origin. Today many Methodists from around the world come to The New Rooms to visit the Chapel, to see the statues of John Wesley and his brother Charles.

Above: The statue of John Wesley on horseback outside the New Rooms at Broadmead, Bristol

Above: The statue of Charles Wesley at the front of the New Rooms

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Further into the shopping area, and now tucked away inside a large courtyard formed by the back of shops is the building known locally as Quakers Friars.

Quaker's Friars

This former Quakers Meeting House was built in 1757 and is the Bristol Register Office, and the Central Bristol Meeting House (Friars) has moved to a site nearby. The Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers, are a small Christian group formed in the 1600s. In the early days of the Britain's Caribbean and American Colonies some Bristol Quakers were heavily involved in trading to America, and some bought and sold enslaved people from Africa.

Quakers believe that every human being's soul is of equal value to God, and that there is good and the light of God in everyone. For some Quakers the idea of owning slaves quickly stood out as against the basic beliefs of the Society. By 1760 the Bristol Quakers spoke against the slave trade and the ownership of slave plantations. The Bristol Quaker, Harry Gandy, a former slaveship captain, helped Thomas Clarkson uncover the cruelties practiced aboard the Bristol slave ships.

Somewhere at Quaker's Friars is the burial place of a 12 year old black slave named Ned. We are unsure exactly where as Quakers do not usually use gravestones with names on them.

St Stephen's Church
(Trail Location 34)

This Church was the home church of Josiah Tucker when a Curate and Rector, who became Dean of Gloucester. Reverend Tucker became an active abolitionist and helped Thomas Clarkson gather evidence against the slave trade.

The Longer Tour ends here.
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