TheCountess of Huntingdon's Connexion is a small society ofevangelical churches, founded in 1783 bySelina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, as a result of theEvangelical Revival. For many years it was strongly associated with theCalvinistMethodist movement ofGeorge Whitefield.^[1]

The Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion was founded in 1783 bySelina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, as a result of theEvangelical Revival. It seceded from theChurch of England, founded its own training establishment –Trevecca College – and built up a network of chapels across England in the late 18th century.^[2]

In 1785John Marrant (1755–1791), an African American from New York and the South who settled inLondon after theAmerican Revolutionary War, became ordained as a minister with the connexion. He was supported in travel toNova Scotia as amissionary to minister to theBlack Loyalists who had been resettled there by the Crown. Many of the members of the congregation which he organized inBirchtown, Nova Scotia later chose to emigrate and resettle inSierra Leone, the new British colony in West Africa. What was called a Province of Freedom was founded in 1792.^[3] Additional Connexion churches were founded in Sierra Leone (see below), and the British and Sierra Leone movements re-established contact in 1839.^[4]

The connexion had earlier efforts at congregation building in Canada. In the 1850s, the entrepreneurThomas Molson built a church for the connexion near hisbrewery inMontreal. It was poorly attended as the city's population was predominantly Catholic. The building was adapted for use as a militarybarracks.^[5]

The Countess of Huntingdon's gave strong support to theCalvinistic Methodist movement in Wales in the 18th and early 19th centuries, including the foundation of a theological college atTrefeca (Trevecca) in 1760.^[6]

As of 2019^[update] the connexion has 22 congregations inEngland and "more than 30" inSierra Leone.^[7] A UK-registered charity provides financial help with ministers' wages and training and for Connexion schools and teaching salaries in the latter country.^[8][9][10]

Of the UK churches, seven normally have full-time pastors: Eastbourne, Ely, Goring, Rosedale, St. Ives, Turners Hill and Ebley. Total regular attendance at all churches is approximately 1,000 adults and children.

Connexion churches were formerly active in:

• Bath, Somerset: founded in 1765, later Trinity United Reformed Church and now theMuseum of Bath Architecture
• Bodmin,Cornwall: in January 1880 the congregation bought the "very desirable" property known as Springfield for a minister's residence.^[11]
• Brighton,East Sussex, the first of the churches, was founded at North Street in 1761.^[12]
• East Grinstead, West Sussex: Zion Chapel founded in 1810, now theWest Street Baptist Church
• Cheltenham, Gloucestershire Portland Chapel, North Place was built at the expense of Robert Capper in 1816 for a Connexion congregation. It was later joined by and then merged with a Baptist Congregation from Golden Valley, Cheltenham.
• Fordham, Essex was active in the 19th century.^[13]
• Preston, Lancashire, founded before 1826, in Pole Street, is now closed.^[14]
• South Stoke, Oxfordshire, founded in 1820,^[15] is now a private house.^[16]
• Steyning, West Sussex:Jarvis Hall, a Connexion church from 1835 to 1841
• St John's Free Church,Westcott, Surrey remains as a community centre.^[17]
• Tyldesley,Greater Manchester, founded in 1789, known asTyldesley Top Chapel, now belongs to aPentecostal congregation.
• Worcester,Worcestershire had closed as a chapel by 1970. It is now a concert hall known asHuntingdon Hall.^[18]
• York Street,Dublin, built in 1808

Wikimedia Commons has media related toCountess of Huntingdon's Connexion churches.

• Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion – official website
• Countess of Huntingdon Connexion History – South Street Free Evangelical Church
• An Introduction to 'The Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion'
• New Connexions– New Connexions Group of Churches
• G.W. Kirby (1972),The Elect Lady

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