This Amiable Family

First Methodists at Cloud Chapel Congleton

My maternal great x 5 grandparents were some of the first Primitive Methodists at Cloud chapel. They lived at Ashmore house farm Rushton, a farm used by Hugh Bourne, James Bourne and James Crawfoot as a preaching place. It had formerly been a Wesleyan preaching place.

On 26 April 1811 Hugh Bourne converted Rebecca Dakin, two of her sons, two of her daughters-in-law and two of her daughters. The seven were one of the first classes at Cloud. In Rebecca’s 1823 obituary Bourne wrote “together with Mary and Elizabeth, –after some time two of her sons, with their wives met in the same class.”.

Of the two daughters Mary was an invalid dying in 1814, but being the subject of one of the first influential obituaries in the Primitive Methodist Magazine ( 1819) because of her holy living. Bourne wrote “Mary Dakin sustained an eminent rank ; she grew in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; and such was her steadiness that it is supposed she never lost ground.”

Her sister Elizabeth (Betty) was described by Kendall as a protege of Hugh Bourne and became one of his first camp meeting preachers, and a preacher on the Tunstall plan. She was to marry a Wesleyan, George Harvey of Gratton, Leek, and on moving to Cheshire, Wynbunbury and Broomhall Green their farm ‘The Oak’, became a preaching centre, hosting among others Hugh Bourne. Elizabeth and George became important members of the Burland Primitive Methodist Circuit, and in his biography of Hugh Bourne, Bourne’s nephew John Walford described the Dakins of Rushton as THIS AMIABLE FAMILY.

Rebecca died in 1822 and was buried at Astbury Church Congleton. Her obituary appeared in 1823.

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  • The significance of the family is detailed in Ranters Digest, Autumn 2022. The family growth in faith was due to the missionary labours of Hugh and James Bourne.
    1 In the first three volumes of the Primitive Methodist magazine three of the 82 obituaries related to this one family, Mary 1819, Elizabeth daughter in law, 1821, and Rebecca 1822.
    2 Mary’s obituary is the first lengthy obituary for a female, and uniquely ends with Hugh Bourne’s initials ‘HB.’
    3 Elizabeth Dakin, the daughter, was the first lady to write a contribution to the Primitive Methodist Magazine.
    4 In 1820 when Hugh Bourne distributed the tickets, the Dakin family provided seven of the twelve members of the Cloud society, being Joseph and Rebecca (parents), Elizabeth (daughter), Charles and Mary Dakin (son and daughter in law), William and Elizabeth (son and daughter in law). Charles and William were trustees of the then new Cloud chapel.

    By David Leese (02/01/2023)

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