Aitken as a divisive figure who was inimical to his own ambitions. Aitken was clearly a preacher of tremendous eloquence and power. The Christian Society Having been rebuffed by Conference, Aitken formed The Christian Society in Liverpool in December 1835; "separating himself from all sects and religious bodies" he became an evangelical revivalist taking some of the Methodist Association leaders and members with him. The Society was based on a merger of Anglican and Methodist polities, and mixed evangelism with tractarianism, preaching "the glorious gospel of Holiness and the New Birth". In 1836 he built Hope Hall in Liverpool as his headquarters; it was here he had his largest following, numbering 1,500 by 1837. His followers were called Aitkenites who responded wildly to his Pentecostal evangelism, and his themes of ancient prophesies and the imminence of Christ's return. Described as "jumpers and ranters" there were reports of "frenzied revivalist activities" in the vaults of Hope Hall. (Hope Hall was ceded to the Church of England in May 1841 and later became the Everyman Theatre. Following the death of his wife Anna, in late 1836 Aitken left the Christian Society and Hope Hall in the hands of the Rev. John Bowes; between 1837 and 1839 he continued his mission in the open air at Lambeth and in Spitalfields at White's Row Chapel. In Lambeth he preached outside a hotel, which so angered the proprietor that he arranged for some men to harass Aitken. A few days later the proprietor and his wife died suddenly; emboldened, Aitken believed that "God was his upolder". At White's Row Aitken (a strict teetotaler) had an enormous impact upon two Methodist local preachers, William Bridges and James Banyard the men who founded the Peculiar People. It was through Bridges that Aitken's message reached John Sirgood founder of the Society of Dependents. The restoration of a church in latter days was one of Aitken's most prominent themes and chapels were also established at Preston, Manchester, and Burslem. It was at Preston in 1838 that Aitken first began losing members to the newly arrived Mormon missionaries. He asked the Lord to "smite" their leaders but his combative stance seems to have worked against him; the poaching of his Christian Society membership proved to be a great source of Latter Day Saints converts. On 11 July 1839, he married again to Wilhelmina Day McDowall-Grant (1806–1886) and together they had