Methodist Martyr who once lived in Cootehill By Jonathan A. Smyth

    In Cootehill, very few people will have heard of the forgotten preacher who helped to establish the town’s first Methodist community. Having suffered several attempts on his life, he would eventually die from the injuries received in an encounter with a bailiff.

    During the Eighteenth Century, a man named John Smith became a very important figure in the establishment of the early Irish Methodist church in Ulster. He was born around 1713, at Clare, Tandragee, in Co. Armagh. His father was a Scottish settler who had come to Ireland to work in the linen business. As a child John only learned to read the New Testament and Psalms while having never ‘mastered the art of writing’. At the age of eleven, he was apprenticed out to learn a trade. Following completion of his training, he enlisted in the army which was stationed in England. Because of a ‘spirit of impatient control’, John was totally unsuited to the armies’ strict code of discipline. Eventually, having decided to leave the army, he returned to live in Ireland; at first settling in Newry, County Down.

In 1738, he married his wife Mary __. Unfortunately, his impatient ways brought more trouble to his door when he ‘became the ringleader of a gang’ who were notorious for their intemperance, gambling and boxing. However, his life changed dramatically one morning as he returned home after a night of gambling. He saw his home as he thought; go up in flames, and in a terrible panic he began to run towards the house in order to save his wife and children. In his desperation, he stumbled and fell into a bog hole and after several more falls he eventually reached his house whereupon the fire was said to have ‘suddenly disappeared’. His wife and children were thankfully safe and well. At that moment, John fell ‘on his knees, thanked God for his compassionate warning, and resolved never to play cards again – a resolution he strictly adhered to’ for the rest of his life.

Cootehill

Eventually, John Smith broke all connections with his former companions. In 1757, both he and his family made a fresh start and moved to Cootehill, Co. Cavan. At Cootehill, he held family prayers each evening. On one particular evening, John was reading Romans chapter viii, when suddenly he felt as if he had been struck by lightning. Smith jumped up from his prayers and ran outside to a fir-grove adjacent to his home, whence he cried so audibly as to have been heard at a ‘considerable distance’.  Smith was said to have been unable to sleep or eat for the three weeks which followed this extraordinary experience. 

During the spring of 1758, John found himself amongst a crowd who had gathered at Cootehill to hear a Methodist preacher named Thomas Kead. John Smith’s conversion to Methodism was instant. In May 1758, John Wesley visited the town and having preached in the Market square, he subsequently setup the areas first Methodist society. Within a short time, John Wesley appointed John Smith as leader of the new Society at Cootehill. The early Methodists experienced widespread opposition; John Smith was regularly attacked but remained steadfast to his beliefs. C.H. Crookshank relates to some of the difficulties encountered by Smith and his followers in Days of Revival: history of Methodism in Ireland, vol. 1, when he states that ‘members of the different churches in the town’ of Cootehill, ‘began to oppose the little band, cavilling at their opinions, questioning the sincerity of their professions, mocking them in their presence, and slandering them in their absence. Their malice, however, was chiefly directed against John Smith, not only as the most zealous of the Methodists, but especially as one on whose behalf numerous and remarkable deliverances were wrought. Hence he was called a demonic, and charged, like his blessed Master, with being in league with the devil. They did not, however, confine themselves to malicious statements, but proceeded to use physical violence. They collected mobs, surrounded the place of meeting, seized the worshippers, knocked them down, beat, and even dragged them through cess-pools and sewers.’    

Many years after Smith’s death, it was said that some of the most devoted members of the society at Cootehill referred to him as the instrument of their conversion.’ Smith also received credit for having recruited many new Methodist preachers. The recruitment of a man named John Bredin, is mentioned in ‘the growth of Methodism in Leitrim and Cavan: 1750-1800’, by Liam Kelly, in the Breifne, 2002. Bredin was a school-teacher from Tullyvin, Co. Cavan, who had fallen on hard times and became an alcoholic. In early 1766, John Smith found Bredin ‘lying alongside the road between Clones and Ballybay, and within a few days Bredin had given up the drink and become a Methodist.’ Bredin went on to preach in both Ireland and Scotland.

On the 21^st February 1760, while praying at a barn, Smith received an unusual vision and thus informed his wife with the words, ‘Mary, the French have just landed in the North’. The story soon spread throughout Cootehill, and the local authorities reprimanded him for frightening people. Undaunted, John told the authorities that he was willing to remain in custody until ‘the fact should be ascertained’. However, a few hours later, it was confirmed that John’s prediction was correct. A French Admiral named Thurot, and his soldiers had landed at Carrickfergus where they were met by three English frigates. Action ensued between the French and English ships, during which Admiral Thurot and some of his soldiers perished. The remaining French soldiers were imprisoned. 

Itinerant Preacher

In 1763, an old soldier from Fermanagh named William Price ‘having heard of the success of Methodism in the County of Cavan’, came to see John Smith preach at Cootehill.  Mr. Price invited Smith to preach in County Fermanagh whereupon he hoped to see a revival of ‘the faith and fervour of former days.’ John Smith first visited Tonyloman, and it was here that Fermanagh’s first Methodist society was established. William Price became the first person to join the Tonyloman society.

In 1766, John Wesley appointed John Smith of Cootehill, to the position of itinerant preacher. Smith soon left his flock at Cootehill and began his work in the Counties of Monaghan, Cavan, Fermanagh and Tyrone. He eventually preached throughout the province of Ulster and setup many new Methodist Societies. Smith travelled through each County on horseback, whilst encountering much hostility in the places he visited. At Belturbet, it was said that ‘one fellow resolved to stand inside a door at the end of the market-house, and to slam it in the face of the preacher as soon as he approached’ but just as Smith ‘drew near, a sudden gust of wind drove the door so violently against the man, that he himself was thrown down on his back, and so bruised that he was a long time in recovering’.  On another occasion, John was approaching Killeshandra, when he was met by an irate clergyman who then proceeded to use his horsewhip to strike the travelling preacher. It would seem that the clergyman did not wish to see the Methodist church expanding at the expense of losing his own congregation. At other times, John had more success, and it was said that at one time as he ‘rode between Bawnboy and Swanlinbar, he saw two or three hundred persons on the side of a hill, some distance from the road, dancing, shouting, and in other ways amusing themselves.’ After a short prayer, he then rode his horse right into the middle of the crowd and in a ‘stentorian and solemn voice’ began to preach to the gathered people. When Smith had finished preaching, a society of forty persons was established in the area.

Crookshank’s biography of Smith, notes that ‘the first place in the County of Monaghan into which Methodism was introduced was Kilmore, near Rockcorry, and ‘the agent’ of its introduction was John Smith. At Kilmore, he faced the ridicule of a     particular dance teacher who mocked the ‘idea of such an ignorant man as John Smith attempting to preach’. However the same teacher attended Smith’s preaching and was converted to Methodism. Also at Kilmore, another individual attempted to kill Smith with a sharpened clasp knife; but, whilst hiding among bushes the man saw the preacher approaching and suddenly felt unable to carry out his deed. The man confessed his scheme to the preacher and converted to Methodism. The society at Kilmore increased until there were approximately seventy members in attendance. Following his success at Kilmore, John Smith travelled to Clones, County Monaghan whereupon a society was established. During the period of 1766 to 1767, the Methodists at Clones would initially meet in a barn provided by a local innkeeper. Eventually, the congregation were able to meet in a cottage they had procured in Whitehall Street, Clones. 

The Methodists at Clones were recorded as having two respectable tradesmen among their newly formed congregation, these men being Richard Kelso and John Kerr. Outside Clones,   families such as the Lemon’s of Killycronaghan would open their homes as a place of preaching. Crookshank’s biography of Smith records that ‘the village of Drum also partook of the showers of blessing that were at this time refreshing the adjacent country.’ 

During 1768, John Smith was taken hostage whilst preaching in County Fermanagh. A number of men took Smith ‘to an unfathomable spring, called the Lough of the bog’ with the intention of drowning him. The men soon discovered that John Smith had been a freemason and they themselves having had some connection with the craft, decided against drowning the preacher. After this incident, John was allowed to travel freely and without fear of being attacked for the remainder of that year.

In the late 1760’s, Smith was invited to preach at the home of Mr. John Gray of Lislap, Co. Tyrone. Subsequently, it was said that Gray’s family, a number of servants and ‘many of the neighbours, were made partakers of the grace of God.’ A class was formed at Lislap, and John Gray was appointed as the group’s leader. In February 1767, John Smith received an invitation to preach at Augher, Co. Tyrone. On that occasion, a Mr. James Smith heard the evangelist preach and therefore invited him to his home at Roughan, Co. Tyrone. Two months later, John Smith’s assistant, a man named Thomas Briscoe, arrived at Roughan where he set-up a class under the leadership of James Smith.

During the period 1770 – 1771, John Smith felt a strong calling to preach at Glenarm, County Antrim. He had not visited Glenarm previously and therefore enquired of a young lady as to the town’s moral condition. The woman informed Smith that the town was ‘a very wicked one’. John then inquired as to whether there were any good men living in Glenarm; he was referred to a man of high standing named William Hunter. Smith upon arriving at the home of William and Betty Hunter   thereby instructed Mrs. Hunter to inform the locals that he had good news which he would talk about. John preached twice a day for nine consecutive days at Glenarm. Members of Lord Antrim’s family were numbered among the people who attended these meetings.

In March 1774, John Smith was assaulted while travelling to Charlemont, Co. Armagh. A man named Nixon, ‘a bailiff to a gentleman at Aughintain, Clogher’, had ‘waylaid and struck’ Smith on the back of the head with a pitchfork. He was in great pain as he arrived for a prayer meeting at Charlemont. His injuries were such that he died within a few days. He became the first preacher of Irish Methodism to have been martyred. John Smith was buried in an unmarked grave ‘in the old graveyard at Legerhill’, Co. Armagh.