The Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion is a small society of evangelical churches, founded in 1783 by Selina, Countess of Huntingdon as a result of the Evangelical Revival. For years it was strongly associated with the Calvinist Methodist movement of George Whitefield.
John Marrant (1755–1791), an African American who became an ordained minister with the Connexion. In the 1850s John Molson built a church for the Connexion group near his brewery in Montreal. It was poorly attended and soon became used instead as a military barracks.
Today the Connexion church has 21 congregations in England and some in Sierra Leone. Of the UK churches seven normally have full-time pastors: Eastbourne, Ely, Goring, Rosedale, St. Ives, Turners Hill and Ebley. Total attendance at all churches is approximately 1,000 adults and children.
The Connexion has churches at present in:
Bells Yew Green, Tunbridge Wells, KentBolney, Haywards Heath, West SussexBroad Oak, Canterbury, KentCopthorne, West Sussex: Copthorne ChapelCradley, Herefordshire, near Malvern, founded 1823Eastbourne, East Sussex: South Street Free ChurchEbley, Stroud, GloucestershireEly Cambridgeshire: Countess Free Church, ElyEly, Cambridgeshire: New Connexions Free Church, ElyGoring-on-Thames, Reading, BerkshireHailsham, East SussexMiddleton, Greater ManchesterMortimer West End, Padworth Common, Reading. BerkshireRosedale, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire (Rosedale Community Church) [1]Leysdown, Isle of Sheppey, KentShoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex: Shoreham Free ChurchSt Ives, CornwallTurners Hill, West Sussex: Turners Hill Free ChurchWivelsfield, East SussexWoodmancote, Gloucestershire: Woodmancote Evangelical Free ChurchWormley, between Hoddesdon and Cheshunt, Hertfordshire: Wormley Free ChurchConnexion churches were formerly active in:
Bodmin, Cornwall, in January 1880 the congregation bought the ″very desirable″ property known as Springfield for a minister's residence.Brighton, East Sussex, the first of the churches, founded at North Street in 1761.Fordham, Essex, active in the 19th century.Preston, Lancashire, founded before 1826, in Pole Street, the church is now closed.South Stoke, Oxfordshire, founded in 1820, is now a private house.Tyldesley, Greater Manchester, founded 1789, known as Tyldesley Top Chapel.
