While researching an interesting historical figure in the Caribbean, the Wesleyan minister Thomas Meade Chambers (1824-1892), I came across a large number of newspaper articles about his relationship to the temperance movement in St Kitts. He seems to have lit a firestorm of controversy in the small British West Indian island. After initially supporting a local group that advocated for total abstinence from alcohol, he made an about-face and fought against the group in newspapers and from his pulpit.
The group, which exists today as Movendi International, was founded in the United States in the 1850s as the Independent Order of Good Templars (IOGT). The consumption of alcohol was a significant social problem at that time, with the average American drinking about three times what they consume today. This created situations of domestic abuse and poverty for families, and an unreliable work force. The IOGT advocated for abstinence from alcohol , and held social events where non-alcoholic beverages were served. While not tied to a single religious sect, the IOGT was brought to St Kitts in the mid 1870s with the support of clergy from the Wesleyan, Anglican, and Moravian churches. Among them was the Reverend Thomas Meade Chambers (1824-1892). He was born in nearby Montserrat, lived for many years in St Kitts, and served for a time as a minister in Antigua.
The IOGT came (as far as I can research) in 1875 to St Kitts. A newspaper article from February stated that at a meeting held in his Wesleyan church in Basseterre, Thomas Chambers was elected chairman of the local IOGT group. By August of that year, he found himself the subject of strong criticism regarding his apparently sudden repudiation of the temperance group. One writer accused him of inciting his parishioners against the Templars:
“Will [the Rev. Gentleman] bear in mind that in speaking against Templars he is offending … thousands of people. Will he in the pulpit in the same public manner in which he spoke against them, forbid any Methodist under pain of his displeasure from insulting a Templar in any way or from introducing the subject in an offensive manner when they happen to meet with one of these outcasts. Will he desire his flock to refrain from calling out after them as they pass along the streets”
In 1877, another accusation was made against his use of his clerical position to promote anti-IOGT feelings:
“Mr. Chambers has allowed his fanatical opposition to Good Templary to carry him as far, as even at times to cause him to betray a lamentable want of good taste and propriety in conducting the religious services of his church. Striking evidence of this was given at the prayer meeting… when in giving out the hymn, “Who is on the Lord’s Side”, he designedly changed the words of the line reading – “For Satan appears as an angel of light” into the following – “For Satan appears as a Teetotaler.”
As to why Chambers had his change of heart, one possible explanation was given in a letter to the editor of a Basseterre paper, written in 1883:
“Probably you are aware that Mr. Chambers took a very active part in establishing Good Templary in this town, but afterwards withdrew his support, and did all in his power to crush it, he having been denied the honor of being the patron of that Society…”
He had apparently decided to support a rival temperance group (American Francis Murphy’s Blue Ribbon Army), as the author of the letter sniped
“I see by a notice in the ‘Advertiser’ newspaper of last week, that there is in town a Blue Ribbon Army, which is under the auspices of the Methodist connection; having as its patron and generalissimo the Revd. T. M. Chambers M.A. managing director, I presume…”
These attacks went on for several years. They were accompanied by criticism of the IOGT as a whole, accusing them of “sectarian bigotry and blind fanaticism”. One published letter even presented alcohol as essential to St Kitts for a strong economy, stating
“In point of morality and Good Templarism it might be all very well for us to have less of rum selling amongst us; but is the revenue of the island replenished thereby. In all of the British W. I. colonies Mr. Editor, the selling of rum is indispensable to the maintenance of a healthy, and flourishing exchequer…”
In spite of all the controversy, when Thomas Meade Chambers died in 1892, an obituary published in the Antigua Standard praised him as a tireless and caring missionary, clergyman, and abolitionist, crediting him with significant influence on the “history and growth of religious life in St. Christopher”.
Sources
- Movendi International The History
- VCU Libraries, Social Welfare History Project, The Temperance Movement 2025
- Heinz History Center, Will You Sign the Pledge?: Francis Murphy and Pittsburgh’s Great Temperance Movement 2018
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