Davidson, John (1841-1915)

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Primitive Methodist Magazine 1898

Early years

John was born in 1841 at Gartsherrie, Renfrewshire. He joined the Primitive Methodist church at Tollcross in 1858.

Ministry

Whilst at Glasgow, John built a chapel at Tollcross where he had been converted and from where he had entered the ministry.

As a worker he was quiet and methodical, physically not strong, but his methodical way of going about his work enabled him to do more than some stronger men. He was a good family visitor, and, having suffered himself, he was able to sympathise with the suffering.

His obituary records that in retirement John endeared himself to many friends, and by his pastoral work and helpful preaching he made an enduring name in Peterborough.

Family

John married Harriet Ellen Bradshaw (b1842) in the summer of 1869 at West Bromwich. Census returns identify four children.

• Robert (b abt1870)
• Harriet Phoebe (b1873) – married Robert Buchan
• John (b1877)
• Annie Mary (1881-1966) – manageress of an umbrella shop (1911); married Henry Bertie Rushmer, a clerk

John died on 14 March 1915 at Peterborough, Northamptonshire.

Circuits

• 1862 Paisley
• 1863 Alloa
• 1864 Newmarket
• 1865 Portsmouth
• 1866 Birmingham
• 1867 Abergavenny
• 1869 Glasgow
• 1873 Gravesend
• 1875 Cheltenham
• 1877 Exeter
• 1879 Dublin
• 1880 Grays & Romford
• 1885 Leighton Buzzard
• 1888 Peterborough I
• 1892 Aldershot
• 1894 Cambridge I
• 1897 Eston
• 1900 Birmingham (S)
• 1904 Peterborough

References

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1898/243

PM Minutes 1915/15

W Leary , Directory of Primitive Methodist Ministers and their Circuits , 1990

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers