James Banyard, sometime Wesleyan Local Preacher and founder of the group known variously as the Banyardites, the Christian Brethren, and the Peculiar People, was born on 31 January 1800 in Rochford, a small market town in Essex. The son of a ploughman, Banyard began his working life as an agricultural labourer, but learned the craft of shoemaking while serving a prison term for poaching. Attendance at the Rochford Wesleyan chapel led to a reformation of life and a commitment to teetotalism. This led to contact with William Bridges (1802-74), a London hat block maker, whose sister lived in Rochford. Bridges experienced a powerful evangelical conversion under the ministry of Robert Aitken, a Church of England clergyman and revivalist, and in 1837 founded the 'Plumstead Peculiars'. While visiting Bridges, Banyard had a similar conversion experience. Already a Local Preacher, he began to advocate this experience in the Rochford chapels, but met with opposition and transferred his preaching first to his own cottage and then to rented premises. By 1842 the Banyardites were renting their own chapel in Union Lane, Rochford, and a literal reading of James 5:14-15 persuaded them to adopt the prayer of faith as the remedy for sickness, eschewing conventional medicine.

In 1844 Banyard's wife Susan, nee Garnish, died. The following year he married the widow Judith Lucking (1822-71), nee Knapping, daughter of a farming family, and her resources enabled him to buy a site for a chapel in North Street, Rochford. The growth of the group and the acquisition of property led to the adoption of a constitution in 1852. Banyard and three other leaders became bishops and the group took the name 'The Peculiar People' from biblical texts.

The fifth of the Banyards' seven children, Josiah, born in 1855, was sickly, and James was persuaded to seek the help of a local doctor. He subsequently argued for a combination of prayer and medical attention, but this provoked a schism in the denomination and Banyard was removed from the leadership. He continued to preach until his death on 31 October 1863.

The Peculiar People endured several secessions during the nineteenth century. They established between thirty and forty chapels and meeting places, mostly in Essex, but with outposts in Kent and London. The denomination changed its name in 1956 to 'The Union of Evangelical Churches'.

Entry written by: DHR
Category: Person
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