Ann Carr (evangelist)

Ann Carr (4 March 1783 – 1841) was a British evangelist who founded the Female Revivalist Society. An offshoot of the Primitive Methodists, the Society used female and male preachers.

Ann Carr
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Born4 March 1783
Market Rasen
Died1841 (aged 57–58)
NationalityKingdom of Great Britain
OccupationPreacher
Known forfounding the Female Revivalist Society

Life

Carr was born in Market Rasen in 1783 to a poor family. Rebecca, her mother, died when she was young and she was brought up as a Congregationalist by her aunt and her father, Tom, who was a builder.[1] When she was eighteen her boyfriend died and she had a breakdown.[2] At this point she became a Wesleyan, influenced by Zachariah Taft, who was a supporter of women in the church.[3]

Carr became known for her preaching and she would tour England evangelizing for Methodism. She was said to travel 300 miles in some months. In 1816 she went to hear Sarah Kirkland speak in Nottingham and she was attracted to Primitive Methodism. in 1818 she met Hannah Woolhouse and Sarah Eland. She and Eland returned to Carr's Lincolnshire where they created a revival. Carr was warned off allowing "ranters" into her meetings, but she reacted against this and went to Hull to join the Primitive Methodists.[4]

Ann Carr's grave is one of several preserved 10 metres north of Woodhouse Chapel in Leeds

In 1821 William Clowes was so successful in creating converts in Leeds that Carr, Sarah Ecland and Martha Williams were sent from Hull to join him. These new arrivals caused some problems as they were both popular and undisciplined moving from circuit to circuit as the will took them.[4]

Carr eventually founded the Female Revivalist Society in the poor area of Leeds. Her group would meet in cottages. In Morley the group caused a schism in the local Primitive Methodists as the women wanted to hear preachers from the Female Revivalists.[5]

In 1838 Carr and her friend Martha Williams published "A Selection of Hymns for the use of the Female Revivalist Methodists. A new edition, with additional hymns".[6]

Close up of Ann Carr's grave recording her as the "Foundress of the sect of Female Revivalists"

When Carr died the financial problems of the church caused it to collapse. Martha Williams wrote her biography the same year as Memoirs of the life and character of Ann Carr: containing an account of her conversion to God, her devoted labours and her happy death.[7] The monument that was placed on her grave recording her as the "Foundress of the sect of Female Revivalists" was recognised as part of a listed monument in Leeds in 1976. It is one of a number preserved in the remains of Woodhouse Cemetery[8] in what is now the grounds of Leeds University.

References
  1. Graham, E. Dorothy (2004). "Carr, Ann (1783–1841), Female Revivalist Society preacher | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/41258. Retrieved 2019-08-13. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. Bridget Hill (2001). Women Alone: Spinsters in England, 1660-1850. Yale University Press. pp. 152–153. ISBN 978-0-300-08820-5.
  3. Zachariah Taft (1825). Biographical Sketches of the Lives and Public Ministry of Various Holy Women: Whose Eminent Usefulness and Successful Labours in the Church of Christ Have Entitled Them to be Enrolled Among the Great Benefactors of Mankind : in which are Included Several Letters from the Rev. J. Wesley Never Before Published. author and sold.
  4. Jennifer Lloyd (19 July 2013). Women and the Shaping of British Methodism: Persistent Preachers, 1807-1907. Manchester University Press. pp. 127–. ISBN 978-1-84779-323-2.
  5. Deborah M. Valenze (1 December 1985). Prophetic Sons and Daughters: Female Preaching and Popular Religion in Industrial England. Princeton University Press. pp. 188–. ISBN 978-1-4008-4350-3.
  6. Carr, Ann; Williams, Martha (1838). A Selection of Hymns for the use of the Female Revivalist Methodists. A new edition, with additional hymns. R. Inchbold.
  7. Williams, Martha (1841). Memoirs of the life and character of Ann Carr: containing an account of her conversion to God, her devoted labours and her happy death. Leeds: Sold by H.W. Walker ... and M. Williams ... OCLC 450157067.
  8. Historic England. "Monuments Approximately 10 Metres North of Woodhouse Cemetery Chapel, Leeds (1256141)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 2019-08-13.
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