WILLIAM & CATHERINE BOOTH (PART 18)

Catherine’s Extensive Letters

Catherine might start a letter in the morning, add some lines after lunch and tea, and then include some more thoughts before she had to hand it over to the postman that evening. Each of her letters averaged about two thousand words. Before six months had passed, William returned to London for a time to visit with Catherine. During this visit, he was offered a position with the newly organized Methodist New Connection, another group that had formed in hopes of returning to the values and practices of their original founder. The Reverend Dr. William Cooke offered to take William under his tutelage and prepare him for the ministry. At first, William refused, but when his year in Spaulding was up, he accepted Rev. Cooke’s offer.

Early Ministry and Conversion Success

Again, William proved that he was not the scholar, but the first time that he spoke at the Brunswick Chapel, fifteen people were converted. William’s unorthodox preaching techniques confounded his teacher, but he couldn’t argue with the results. At the New Connexion Conference in June 1854, Rev. Cooke nominated William to be the superintendent of a large London circuit, but twenty-five-year-old William felt he was still too young for such a position. They decided on a compromise: William was appointed the resident minister of a new chapel on Packington Street in Islington, another part of London, under the guidance of an older minister. Demand for his preaching grew, however, and he soon began traveling and holding revival campaigns as much as he was ministering at Packington Street.

Full-Time Traveling Minister and Marriage

At the next Conference in 1855, William would be released from his duties at Packington Street and appointed as a full-time traveling minister for the New Connexion. Feeling he had finally achieved a proper level of support, he and Catherine were married on June 16, 1855. Catherine traveled with William for the first time on their honeymoon—a speaking engagement on the Isles of Wright and Jersey. Catherine found herself both taxed and amazed by the pace of William’s schedule. She stayed home during his next trip, hoping to recover so that she could accompany him on the next one.

Evangelistic Success and Family Life

In the following years, the Booths found themselves moving frequently to accommodate William’s preaching schedule. William was becoming more and more effective as an evangelist. Initially, there were handfuls of conversions at each set of meetings; then, there were dozens, and finally hundreds. In February 1856, a month of meetings yielded 640 converts. Then, at a six-week meeting that ended in December, William saw 740 people converted. On March 8 of that year, the Booths’ first child was born. They named him William Bramwell.