Bourne, Hugh (1772–1852)

English preacher, joint founder, with William Clowes of Primitive Methodism. His first chapel was founded in Tunstall, Staffordshire, in 1811, and the first annual conference was held in Hull in 1820. He visited Scotland, Ireland, Canada, and the USA, and before his death the members' roll numbered 110,000.

Bourne was born in Fordhays, Staffordshire. He became a Wesleyan Methodist local preacher, but his zeal for open-air meetings did not meet with approval and his repeated defiance of the resolutions of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference resulted in his expulsion from the society in 1808. His evangelical style of preaching was popular, and he gathered round him many followers, through whom he established a new denomination, which adopted the name of Primitive Methodists in 1812. He published a History of the Primitive Methodists in 1823.