Peacock, Paul (1848-1908)
Early years
Paul was born in 1848 at Bentley, nr Doncaster, Yorkshire. His father, Thomas, was a game-keeper. Paul was the youngest of fourteen children. His mother died when he was two, leaving him to be raised by older sisters.
Paul received his early education at the Grammar Schools of Bentley and Doncaster. He was converted at the age of fourteen. Soon after conversion, Paul was apprenticed to Mr Bailey, of Bawtry, a whitesmith and ironmonger. His master’s daughter became his future wife.
Paul started to preach at the age of eighteen in the Retford circuit. At the termination of his apprenticeship he was accepted for the ministry and attended the Sunderland Theological Institute.
Ministry
Paul had an exceptional aptitude for the business side of circuit life. He became a Connexional man and a familiar figure at all the great gatherings of the Church. For several years, Paul was Secretary of the Itinerant Preachers Friendly Society.
Paul was Secretary of Conference in 1902.
His obituary records that Paul was successful as a circuit minister. He was plodding, methodical and earnest in all that he did. As a preacher he was plain and faithful in the delivery of his message. There was a note of intense practicalness in all that he said. He largely dwelt on the experimental side of religious life. He was not a profound thinker or a close reasoned. He did not soar in his preaching, but he sought to lead his hearers to a more consistent life and a more devoted service.
Family
Paul married Annie Bailey (1843-1918) in the summer of 1873 at Bawtry, Yorkshire. Census returns identify three children.
- Thomas James (1874-1958) – a grocer
- Kate (b1876)
- Mabel (1880-1939) – married Henry Willis Tyson, an accountant
Paul died on 10 May 1908 at Middlesborough, Yorkshire.
Circuits
- Sunderland
- 1869 Hornsea
- 1870 Mexborough
- 1872 Patrington
- 1873 Retford
- 1875 Hull I
- 1878 Gainsborough
- 1881 Hull III
- 1885 Driffield
- 1888 Scarborough
- 1891 Sheffield V
- 1894 Grimsby II
- 1897 Manchester VII
- 1900 Driffield
- 1903 Hull I
- 1906 Middlesborough
References
Primitive Methodist Magazine 1907/45; 1908/826
PM Minutes 1908/22
W Leary , Directory of Primitive Methodist Ministers and their Circuits , 1990
Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers
Comments about this page
So interested to see this as he was my Great Grandfather, his daughter, Mabel, was my Grandmother. Interesting to note that my Father was baptised by him two days after his birth in 1907 and that Mabel and Harry Tyson were married by him at Linthorpe Rd PM church in Middlesbrough in 1904.
Add a comment about this page