April 3, 1772, Fordhays, Stoke-on-Trent, England.
October 11, 1852.
Englesea-Brook (near Balterley), Staffordshire, England.
Bourne joined the Methodist movement in 1799, in 1800 went to live near the Mow Cop Colliery (near Burslem), where he had secured an engagement. With two or three other similarly minded men there, he carried on a system of prayer meetings, which culminated in a great camp meeting, after the American fashion, on the Mow Cop Mountain, Sunday, May 31, 1807. Other camp meetings followed, but were condemned by the Wesleyan Conference later that year. However, Bourne continued his evangelistic work in connection with the Wesleyan Society until June 27, 1808, when he was excommunicated, without notice or trial, by the Quarterly Meeting held at Burslem that day. Subsequent acts of coolness and indifference on the part of the Wesleyan authorities, together with continued success in his evangelistic work, led him gradually to organize the Primitive Methodist Connexion. The decisive break occurred in 1810, and from then until his death, he gave himself to the work of extending and building up the Society of which he was the principal founder. He was the first editor of its magazine, and the first to compile a hymnal for its use.