The Christian Brethren movement originated in Dublin, Ireland, in the 1820s. It became known as the ‘Plymouth Brethren’ because the first large church developed in that city under the leadership of J.N. Darby, B.W. Newton and others. At about the same time another large congregation recognizing similar principles grew up in Bristol under Henry Craik and George Müller of orphanage fame. The movement expanded to about half the size of the Baptist denomination by the 1860s. Its impact in evangelistic outreach was significant in that many of its evangelists were laymen who preached on street corners, at race tracks and wherever crowds of people gathered.
Essentially, the brethren (they prefer a small ‘b’) were opposed to sectarianism, believing that Christians should gather together ‘as unto the Lord’ without any other name. They put great stress on the communion or Lord’s Supper as the focal point of worship, in which any brother could participate audibly. They also believed strongly in the urgency of preaching the gospel, and from the beginning of the movement they were well represented in worldwide missions. In modern times the more ‘open’ assemblies are often active in local inter-faith evangelistic campaigns, open-air meetings, beach missions and the like. Finally, they were keen on the biblical concept of every believer being a priest, which led to an extraordinary knowledge of the Bible in the rank and file.
The exact beginnings of the Christian Brethren in London are obscure. But according to Roy Coad, a modern historian of the movement, ‘it is known that a church was started in the early 1830s, largely on the initiative of G. V. Wigram’ (an associate of Darby’s). In 1839 a group led by Robert and John Eliot Howard of the chemical manufacturing firm of Howard & Sons opened a chapel in Brook Street off Tottenham High Road. This is still in use, and it is the earliest of the Christian Brethren chapels in London. It was here that J. Hudson Taylor attended for a time before leaving for China. Other notable figures associated with this movement in London include Sir John Vesey Parnell; Second Baron Congleton; Philip Gosse, the eminent zoologist; and Lt Gen. Sir William Dobbie, the defender of Malta during World War II.