Hall, John (1861-1945)

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Primitive Methodist Magazine 1920

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Primitive Methodist Magazine 1920

Early years

John was born in 1861 at Freckleton, Lancashire to parents William and Ann. William was a brick-maker. When John was a child the family moved to Blackpool. He trained as a joiner.

John was converted when aged eighteen. In due course he became Sunday school superintendent, class-leader, and local preacher before being recommended for the ministry.

Ministry

John had particular success in increasing membership at Cleethorpes, 40, and Gainsborough, 100 in three years.

In the Grimsby and Lincoln District John served as Candidates Examiner and Building Committee Secretary. In the Hull District he served as Building Committee Secretary and was also Secretary for the Young People’s African Association. Whilst at Hull, he became the first PM Chaplain for the prison.

As a preacher he was evangelical, attractive, inspiring and arrestive, for he was always making new sermons.

His obituary records that John possessed a richly stored active mind, and was a constant reader with scientific interests, which he used to great advantage in his discourses. In his later years he gained a mastery of French and used to set aside one afternoon each week for French conversation with a friend.

John’s qualities of selective judgement and his gifts of direction led him to a particular ministry to young men preparing to become local preachers and candidates for the Ministry. He not only served his own Church but also the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, retaining constant correspondence with those who laboured overseas.

Family

John married Mary Bingley (1868-1941) in the spring of 1890 at Keadby, Lincolnshire. Census returns identify one child.

• Rene Bingley (1890-1970) – a PM Minister

John died on 22 March 1945 at Scarborough, Yorkshire.

Circuits

• Hartley
• 1891 Truro &c
• 1894 Merthyr Tydfil
• 1895 Nelson, Glam
• 1896 Winterton
• 1900 Grimsby II
• 1904 Gainsborough
• 1907 Lincoln I
• 1912 Hull III
• 1916 Lancaster
• 1920 Blackburn I
• 1925 Workington
• 1929 Pudsey & Stanningley
• 1933 Hull (Sup)

References

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1920/709

Methodist Minutes 1945/133

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers