A Short History Of The Methodists... - Media Sabda Org

some inclination to tarry among us. The bishop consented to his staying in Charleston; but at the
same time fixed another preacher in the city. This was in the beginning of the year 1791. In the
month of May following, Mr. Hammit traveled to the North as far as the city of New York, and
preached there a few times. He then returned as far as Baltimore, and there preached a considerable
length of time. While he was there, it was discovered that he had a wish to settle himself, if he could
do it to advantage. Some uneasiness took place in the society on his account, and leaving Baltimore,
he returned to Charleston in South Carolina.
Mr. Hammit had not been long in Charleston, before he began to lay his plan for a separation, and
to use his influence to divide the Methodist society.
In the close of the year 1791, Mr. Hammit left the Methodists, and on Christmas day he preached
in the market house in that city, for the first time after leaving us. From that time he continued to
preach in the market house or in other places, where it was convenient, but never after preached
among us as a Methodist preacher.
In the course of the next year, 1792, he drew off a great part of our society in that city. He
proceeded as he had formerly done, to preach, meet the classes, and the like; but made some
alterations in the government of the church, and pretended to be on a better plan than the Methodists
had established. He got Mr. P. Matthews, a Methodist preacher to unite with him. Some time after
that a few more preachers joined him. But none of our traveling preachers joined him.
Mr. Hammit called his party the "Primitive Methodists." He tried to make the people believe that
he was on the plan that the Methodists set out on at the beginning. He procured some lots of ground
in the city, and built a large church, and a dwelling house for the preacher to live in. After that they
built a small meeting-house in the suburbs of the city. They built another meeting-house in George
Town; and one of their preachers built a small meeting house in Savannah in Georgia; another of
their preachers went to Wilmington in North Carolina, and collected together a large number of black
people, and built a meeting-house there.
Mr. Hammit wrote against the Methodists, and Mr. Thomas Morrill and Dr. Coke in reply.
Several pamphlets were published on each side. -- After some years Mr. Hammit differed with the
preachers in connection with him, and the disagreement was so great that he disowned some of them,
and others of them could not fellowship him; and so they divided and came almost to nothing.
Mr. Hammit died on the 14th day of May 1803, after a very short illness; which was a little more
than eleven years after he left the Methodists. His name was never entered on our annual minutes
in the United States; but he had been in the traveling connection with the British conference for
several years.
After the death of Mr. Hammit, his society in Charleston was greatly scattered. The meeting-house
which he had built in George Town was given up to the Methodists; and the meeting-house in
Savannah was seldom used for public worship.