Allon, Henry (1818–1892), Congregational minister and leader, was born at Welton, near Hull, on 13 October 1818, the son of William Allon (1792–1878), a builder and later estate steward, and his wife, Mary, née Woolas. He followed his father in apprenticeship to a builder in ...
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Eileen Groth Lyon
Barker, Joseph (1806–1875), Methodist minister and politico-religious controversialist, was born on 11 May 1806 at Bramley, near Leeds. His ancestors, originally of Keighley, had been settled in this area for several generations as farmers and manufacturers. The identity of his parents has not been discovered, though it is known that his father was employed in woollen manufacture and served for some time in the militia, and that ...
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Simon Ross Valentine
Benson, Joseph (1749–1821), Wesleyan Methodist minister, was born at Melmerby, Cumberland, on 25 January 1749, the son of John Benson (d. 1769), a landowner, and his wife, Isabella Robinson (d. 1779). His father, intending him to enter the church, placed him in the care of the local Presbyterian minister, from whom he received a classical education....
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Pamela J. Walker
Booth [née Mumford], Catherine (1829–1890), evangelist and writer, was born on 17 January 1829 at Ashbourne, Derbyshire, the fourth of five children. Only she and her younger brother, John, survived. Her father, John Mumford (1804–1879), was a coach builder and wheelwright, and for some years a Wesleyan Methodist lay preacher. Her mother, ...
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G. C. Boase
revised by W. J. Johnson
Bourne, Hugh (1772–1852), founder of the Primitive Methodist church, son of Joseph Bourne, farmer and wheelwright, and his wife, Ellen Steele, was born at Fordhays Farm, in the parish of Stoke-on-Trent on 3 April 1772, and, after some education at nearby Werrington and ...
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Bunting, Jabez (1779–1858), Wesleyan Methodist minister, the only son of William Bunting of Monyash, Derbyshire, a tailor in Manchester, and his wife, Mary Redfern, was born in Manchester on 13 May 1779. The circumstances of Bunting's boyhood and youth suggested that he would develop in an entirely different direction from that which he finally took, and the later legends associating him personally with ...
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Clarke, Adam (1762–1832), Wesleyan Methodist minister and scholar, was born in Moybeg, Kilcronaghan parish, co. Londonderry. His father, an Anglican, was a village schoolmaster and farmer; his mother was a Presbyterian. His childhood consisted of a series of life-threatening mishaps. He was educated locally, fell under the influence of the Methodists in 1778, and met ...
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G. C. Boase
revised by W. J. Johnson
Clowes, William (1780–1851), a founder of the Primitive Methodist Connexion, the son of Samuel Clowes, potter, and Ann, daughter of Aaron Wedgwood (a member of the illustrious ceramics family), was born at Burslem, Staffordshire, on 12 March 1780, and employed during his early years as a potter. He was considered one of the finest dancers in his neighbourhood and for many years led a dissipated life, but on 20 January 1805 he was converted during a prayer meeting. He soon established a prayer meeting in his own house, became the leader of a Wesleyan Methodist class, and joined a society which endeavoured to promote the keeping of the sabbath. He was one of the attendants at the first camp meeting ever held in ...
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Freeman, Thomas Birch (1809–1890), missionary and colonial official, was born on 6 December 1809 at Twyford, near Winchester, of an African father, Thomas Freeman, a farmer, and an English mother, Amy Birch. He adopted the name Freeman in youth, perhaps from his father who may have been a freed slave. Little is known of his upbringing except that it was in poverty, or of his education, save that he could write with elegance....
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Peter J. Lineham
Hindmarsh, Robert (1759–1835), Swedenborgian preacher, was born in Alnwick, Northumberland, on 8 November 1759, the son of James Hindmarsh (1732–1812) and his wife, Elizabeth (d. 1775). His father was one of the schoolmasters at Wesley's school at Kingswood in the 1760s, and subsequently an itinerant preacher for ...
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Roger Standing
Hughes, Hugh Price (1847–1902), Wesleyan Methodist minister, was born on 8 February 1847 at 10 King Street, Carmarthen, to John Hughes (1817–1897), surgeon, and his wife, Anne, née Phillips (d. 1900). Educated at Carmarthen grammar school and Thistleboon boarding-school, Mumbles, near Swansea...
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R. C. Thompson
revised by Daniel C. Snell
Johns, Claude Hermann Walter (1857–1920), Assyriologist and Church of England clergyman, was born at Banwell, Somerset, on 4 February 1857, the eldest son of the Revd Walter Pascoe Johns, a Wesleyan minister, of a yeoman family settled for generations at Wendron, Cornwall, and his wife, ...
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Kirk, Kenneth Escott (1886–1954), bishop of Oxford, was born on 21 February 1886 in Sheffield, the eldest child of Frank Herbert Kirk, secretary and director of Samuel Osborn & Co. of the Clyde Steel and Iron Works, Sheffield, and his wife, Edith Escott...
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Lidgett, John Scott (1854–1953), Methodist minister and local politician, was born on 10 August 1854 at Kelso Cottage, Lewisham, the son of John Jacob Lidgett (1828–1869), shipowner and businessman, and Maria Elizabeth (1824–1911), daughter of the Revd John Scott and his wife, Maria...
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Lunn, Sir Henry Simpson (1859–1939), worker for ecclesiastical reunion and travel agent, was born on 30 July 1859 at Bridge Street, Horncastle, Lincolnshire, the eldest son of Henry Lunn, greengrocer and lay preacher, and Susanna, daughter of Simpson Green, of Horncastle. His parents were both Wesleyan Methodists. He was educated at ...
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Simon Ross Valentine
Mather, Alexander (1733–1800), Wesleyan Methodist preacher, was born in February 1733 at Brechin in Forfarshire. His parents, of whom little is known, instructed him 'early in the principles of religion' and consequently he was 'an utter stranger to the vices common among men...
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Moulton, William Fiddian (1835–1898), biblical scholar, was born at the minister's house, Leek, Staffordshire, on 14 March 1835, the eldest of the four sons of James Egan Moulton (d. 1866), a Wesleyan Methodist minister, and Catherine (d. 1855), daughter of William Fiddian...
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John A. Vickers
Smith, Rodney [called Gypsy Smith] (1860–1947), evangelist, was born in a tent in Epping Forest, in the parish of Wanstead, on 31 March 1860, the fourth child and second son of Cornelius Smith and his wife, Mary Welch (d. 1865). He was baptized in ...
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Soper, Donald Oliver, Baron Soper (1903–1998), Methodist minister, was born on 31 January 1903 at 36 Knoll Road, Wandsworth, London, the first son and first child of the three children of Ernest Frankham Soper (1871–1962), an average adjuster in marine insurance, the son of a tailor, and his wife, ...
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E. I. Carlyle
revised by Brian Stanley
Ward, William (1769–1823), missionary in India and journalist, born at Derby on 20 October 1769, was the son of John Ward, a carpenter and builder of that town, and grandson of Thomas Ward, a farmer at Stretton, near Burton in Staffordshire. His father died while ...
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