Vincent Perronet
“The work of God which broke out here two or three years ago is still continually increasing,” wrote the Methodist founder John Wesley in 1773. He was referring to Shoreham and the growing impact of his new style of religious thinking on the village – an approach much encouraged by Shoreham’s vicar, Vincent Perronet.
“The work of God which broke out here two or three years ago is still continually increasing,” wrote the Methodist founder John Wesley in 1773. He was referring to Shoreham and the growing impact of his new style of religious thinking on the village – an approach much encouraged by Shoreham’s vicar, Vincent Perronet.
Perronet was a great influence on the Wesley brothers, John and Charles, as they spread their evangelical revival across the south-east and further afield. They often sought his advice and he umpired their quarrels, dubbing him the “Archbishop of Methodism” during an era when the new radical approach still sat within the established Church. Born in London of French Huguenot stock, Perronet began his Shoreham incumbency in 1728. It was in 1744 that he invited Charles Wesley to preach in the church. It did not go down well.
“The wild beasts began roaring and screaming,” Charles wrote, “turning the church into a bear garden.” He had to be shielded from stones and blows as he retreated to the vicarage. Yet 30 years later Shoreham had become “the most fruitful place” of all the locations on the Wesleys’ preaching circuit, according to John.
The Oxford-educated Perronet wrote at least 11 published works, including studies of the thinkers John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. Said to be warm and likeable, he welcomed people from all walks of village life to pray with him in the vicarage. But he also denounced the Sabbath-breaking, swearing, drinking and dancing that were to be found among Shoreham folk.
His daughter Damaris became leader of Shoreham’s Methodists as Perronet grew older, and she was praised as a “burning and shining light” by John Wesley. She died before her father, as did nine of his other 11 children with his wife, Charity. In his final years, Perronet was looked after by a granddaughter, Miss Briggs, who added to his catalogue of grief when she died suddenly – allegedly of a broken heart – after her fiancé broke off their relationship within days of their wedding.
Vincent Perronet died in 1785, aged 91, after ministering to the people of Shoreham for 57 years. He was buried at the church by Charles Wesley who preached the funeral sermon. His successor as vicar, Charles Wake, was soon complaining bitterly to the Archbishop about the ever-growing band of Methodists in the parish, most of them alarmingly “of the lower class”, such as “an ignorant cobbler named Hyder” (William Hider). Four decades later, the breakaway sect built their own chapel in Shoreham, just back from the bridge on the eastern side of the river. The building still stands today.