Standrin, Susannah (nee Flitcroft) (1827-1861)

Transcription of obituary published in the Primitive Methodist Magazine by John Standrin.

 Departed this life in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, at Mount Barker, November 20th, 1861, Mrs. Susannah Standrin, in the thirty-sixth year of her age.

She was brought into union with the great Eternal when about sixteen years of age, and among other relics of her early piety is the first class ticket which she received as a member of the Primitive Methodist Society at Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, England. A few of the members of that society, then small and feeble, can testify that she adorned the doctrine of Christ by a meek and lowly walk and by highly consistent conduct, which greatly endeared her to all who knew her, and which raised her to the enjoyment of—

“That sacred calm which does not move,
And all the silent heaven of love.”

Possessed naturally of an amiable disposition which grace matured in her to the full fruition of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. Her habits of devotion were constant, unassuming, earnest, and sincere. The lives of Mrs. H.A. Rogers and Mrs. Fletcher, with the Word of God, were her study in the hours of her retirement, and by a prayerful use of these helps to the cultivation of inward holiness, she added to her faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, &c., and was not lacking in the more illustrious grace, charity. The class-book, and the congregation with which she worshipped, tell of her punctuality at the means of grace as long as her health permitted; her habit in this respect said, “Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth.” The narrative of her Christian experience was scriptural, earnest, clear, and confident. She was no “outer court worshipper,” but had rested her hopes upon the Rock of Ages, and appealed to the Searcher of hearts as her Lord and her God.

On the 12th of July, 1851, she was united in marriage to the writer of this sketch, and she entered on her new vocation in the Foxhill Bank Branch of Haslingden Circuit, Lancashire, England. With unaffected diffidence she accepted an appointment to raise a female class, and was happily successful. The members of that class will not readily forget her untiring vigilance, faithful counsels, and earnest pleadings at the throne of grace for their spiritual well-being; but the infinitely wise God so overruled that it was her lot to suffer rather than to toil. We removed from our station at Foxhill Bank to the Knowlwood Circuit, where she had the great joy of witnessing a net increase to Zion’s travellers of 120 souls in two years, and her frequent references to the Sabbath morning services in our Salem chapel at that place gave evidence how her soul prospered whilst worshipping with that congregation. The last station on which we laboured in England was Staleybridge, in which circuit she  as many years before converted to God, and disciplined for a more extensive warfare, and her demeanour evinced that her profiting had been great indeed. Stalybridge Circuit was dear to her for various reasons; it was the home of her early days, the residence of her early associates in church-fellowship, and of her natural relatives; but on the decision of her husband to offer himself for South Australia, she readily assented, saying, “Where God appoints, I’ll go.”

On the 4th of August, 1857, we bade farewell to the happy homes and exalted privileges of England, and landed in South Australia, November 24th of the same year. For one year in Salisbury, and three years in the Mount Barker Circuit she pursued the even tenor of her way, often feeling as a consequence of affliction, protracted for between fifteen and sixteen years, that it was, indeed,—

“Hard toiling to make the blest shore,
Where all is assurance and peace;”—

but the voyage of life is ended. She fought the battle by her Captain’s side, and by grace she hath won the day.

On Saturday morning, November 16th, 1861, we left Mount Barker for Kooringa, by appointment of the District Meeting, but at the end of the first stage, not a fourth part of the journey, it was evident that she was too far spent to proceed; she was therefore pillowed in a chaise, and carefully taken back to Mount Barker, where, in much bodily pain, but with faith in lively exercise, she patiently “lingered into life”—

“As fades the summer cloud away,
As sinks the gale when storms are o’er ;
As gently shuts the eye of day,
As dies a wave along the shore:”—

so sank her weary frame to rest.

If testimonies in the “climax of life’s struggle” are a criterion by which to judge of hope in death, hers were satisfactory. But of more importance in truthfully determining the condition of the departed, is the life by which such testimonies are preceded; and of her it may be said, “She died as she had lived,” a consistent believer in the lowly Jesus—a practical follower of the “Man of sorrows, and who was acquainted with grief,” and with whom she is now glorified. On the day after her death, about 200 persons followed her to her long home, and numbers more congregated around her grave. The Rev. J.G. Wright, assisted by the Rev. H. Cole, conducted the funeral service. The coffin was let down into the grave, and her infant, which had been interred six wecks previously, was placed at her feet.

“Lov’d one! although thy childhood’s home
Holds not the treasure of thy dust;
Who bade the pilgrim cease to roam,
Will safely guard the sacred trust.”

And when Gabriel’s shrill clarion shall awaken earth’s entombed millions, then shalt thou have part in the first resurrection. May the bereaved husband and child, and the reader of these lines, meet thee in heaven! Amen.

Family

Susannah was born on 16 February 1827 at Bolton, Lancashire, to parents John and Martha. She was baptised on 15 July 1827 at Bolton, Lancashire in a methodist new Connexion chapel.

She married John Standrin (1826-1897), a PM minister, on 12 July 1852 at Ashton under Lyne, Lancashire. They had two children.

• John Hiles (1857-1921) – a railway employee for 38 years
• Thomas William (1861-1861)

Susannah died on 20 November 1861 at Mount Barker, South Australia.

References

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1862/459

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers

Note: She married in 1852, not 1851 as stated in the obituary.