Parrott, John (1804-1873)

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Primitive Methodist Magazine 1854

Copy provided by Steven Carter

Early years

John was born in 1804 at East Bridgeford, Nottinghamshire to parents William and Ann. He was baptised on 6 May 1804 at East Bridgeford.

He was converted at the camp-lovefeast in June 1817 which had been organised by a senior namesake local preacher. This was the meeting to which John Wedgwood was summonsed to Nottinghamshire before he was imprisoned at Grantham.

Ministry

Cockermouth was missioned by John Parrott in 1834. He preached in the Market Place, and subsequently a camp meeting was held on Papcastle Common by the Carlisle preachers, and the lovefeast was held in the old Theatre, at the Sun Barn. There is a minute in the Carlisle records of September, 1835, authorising the taking of a room at Cockermouth, and it is presumed to be the rented room in St. Helen s Street, which was the meeting place for some years, after which a room was taken at Vinegar Hill. When the Wesleyans vacated High Sand Lane Chapel, the Primitives rented it, ultimately buying it. For almost fifty years they remained in this old sanctuary, in a yard, down a lane.

Petty comments on favourable progress being made in the Bedford mission during the time John was Superintendent, 1848-56, after a number of difficult years when the mission had been ‘stationary’. Chapels were built at Oakley and Colmworth and the Bedford chapel was rebuilt on a greatly enlarged scale.

Kendall writes; ‘ John Parrott was clever ; but his litigious propensities marred his usefulness, and sometimes were the occasion of trouble, both to himself and to others.’

Literature

John authored the following.

A digest of the History, Polity, and Doctrines of the Primitive Methodists, 1864

Family

John married Sarah Moralee (1812-1882) on 23 April 1835 at Stockton on Tees, Co Durham. Census returns identify six children.

• Mary Ann (1838-1897) – a hairdresser.
• Sarah (1841-1917) – a ladies hairdresser; married William Alderson.
• John (1843-1877) – an engine fitter
• Joseph (1846-1911) – a gentleman’s hairdresser
• Elizabeth (b1847) – a hairdresser’s assistant and later a housekeeper.
• William (1850-1871) – suffered from epilepsy

The 1871 census shows John lodging in Peterborough, described as a dissenting minister. His wife is with her mother in Durham and is described as a Primitive Methodist Ministers wife.

John died in 1873 in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.

Circuits

• 1831 Berwick
• 1833 Sunderland
• 1834 Carlisle
• 1836 Newcastle
• 1837 Middleham
• 1839 Edinburgh
• 1841 Sunderland
• 1842 Newcastle
• 1843 Barnard Castle
• 1845 Whitehaven
• 1846 Sheerness
• 1848 Bedford
• 1856 S Shields
• 1858 Kendal
• 1860 Haltwhistle
• 1862 Brighton
• 1864 Chelmsford
• 1865 Buckingham
• 1867 Richmond
• 1868 disappears

References

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1854/449 (portrait)

J Petty, The History of the Primitive Methodist Connexion, 1880, p417

H B Kendall, Origin and History of the PM Church, vol 1, p253, p383

W M Patterson, Northern Primitive Methodism, 1909, p147

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers