Hancock, George William (1853-1925)

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Primitive Methodist Magazine 1914

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Primitive Methodist Magazine 1914

Early years

George was born in 1853 at Cuckney, nr Worksop, Nottinghamshire. Quite early in life the family moved into the Bolsover Station, where at the age of fourteen, he gave his life to Christ and joined the Seymour Church. His name was soon on the plan. When about twenty, the migrations of mining life took George to Castleford. It was from the Pontefract circuit that George was recommended for ministry. He spent a year at the Sunderland Institute to prepare for ministry.

Ministry

His obituary records that George was peculiarly fitted to be a working man’s minister. His career was influenced by his early upbringing and the industrial character of the circuits in which he worked. He knew the miners, having worked side by side with them in the shallow pits at Selston. He had a big heart in a huge frame. A tenderness, so rarely found in one so big, made him popular wherever he went. His pulpit utterances were typical of his character – robust and intensely practical.

George served as Orphanage Secretary in the Norwich District, Sunday School Secretary in Sheffield and Temperance Secretary in Nottingham.

His wife, Elizabeth, died eight days after George.

Family

George married Elizabeth Ann Jarvis (1853-1925) in the summer of 1882 at Horncastle, Yorkshire. Census returns identify two daughters.

• Lilian Grace (1883-1956) – a schoolteacher (1911)
• Annie Muriel (1890-1956) – a schoolteacher (1911)

George died on 19 November 1925 at South Normanton, Nottinghamshire.

Circuits

• Sunderland
• 1878 Horncastle
• 1880 Clay Cross
• 1881 Belper
• 1882 Sheffield V
• 1884 Newtown Church
• 1886 Briston
• 1888 Wangford
• 1893 N Walsham
• 1898 Alfreton
• 1903 Hinckley
• 1906 Nottinghan V
• 1909 Northampton
• 1913 Lowestoft
• 1918 Yarmouth
• 1922 Bottesford
• 1924 Alfreton (S)

References

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1914/462

PM Minutes 1926/271

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers