He became a disciple of William Bridges (1802 - 1874) a hat block maker based in Southwark who was leader of the Peculiar People in London from c.1837 [3] and the man Sirgood called his 'father in Gospel'.

[4][5] It was through Bridges that Sirgood came into contact with James Banyard founder of the Peculiar People, a populist sect originally known as the Banyardites that was primarily based in Essex.

He married Harriet Coxhead (1811 - 1876) from Godalming in Surrey at St Mary-at-Lambeth on 17 March 1845 and worked as a shoemaker out of 9 Market Place, Bromells Rd, Clapham.

Sirgood was overtly critical of the Anglican Church, and the inequality of 19th-century society in general, which led to his movement being harassed by the gentry and threatened by outraged parish authorities.

Church efforts to stop Sirgood were thwarted by the repeal of the Conventicle Act but action by others resulted in evictions and the sackings of servant girls and labourers.

Sirgood replied to his landlord, a magistrate and a member of parliament, advising the man that the fewer properties he owned, the more he would be free from "care, anxiety and responsibillity".

Quite early in their history the Society of Dependants acquired the soubriquet Cokelers,[11] possibly because an 'obscure Sussex joke' made by their opponents and neighbours stuck to them, or because Sirgood relentlessly promoted Cocoa drinking in place of alcohol.

[12] In his Dictionary of Sects (1873) John Henry Blunt spelt Cokelers as 'Coglers' and 'Coplers' and refers to a Book of Cople[13] supposedly written by Sirgood (whose name the learned gentleman did manage to spell correctly).

[14] There is little evidence of Sirgood's actual teachings, although the influence of men like Aitken, Bridges and Banyard must have shaped his thought; he seems to have been a millenarian, commenting once "even the professors [Sic] will acknowledge that this is the last time or the latter days".

For many years Sirgood spent weeks at a time in Sussex and elsewhere but still retained links with south London where his father George died at Kennington in October 1865.