Clarke, Alice (nee Simpson) (1830-1906)

Transcription of Obituary in the Primitive Methodist Magazine by J. Jopling

For many years a beloved member of our Church at Old Gooch Street, and later at Bristol Hall, Birmingham, Mrs. Alice Clarke passed away after much affliction, July 12th, 1906. Born at Anstey, Leicestershire, her parents, James and Alice Simpson, were loyal and devoted members of our Church. The home was the meeting-place of such stalwarts as George Lamb and Dr. Samuel Antliff.

Our sister learned such loyalty to our Church in her early home that when she married Mr. Clarke she induced him to leave the Congregational Church and join our people. He subsequently became a prominent official and nobly seconded his wife’s efforts on behalf of the cause. Some thirty years ago they removed to Birmingham where they took a large temperance hotel which soon became well known to Primitive Methodists far and near. In spite of the cares of business, religion and the training of her children still held the first place, and one of her sons is the secretary of the trustees of our Bristol Hall, and one of her daughters is the wife of the Junior Circuit Steward of the Birmingham I. Circuit. A regular attendant at the services week-day and Sunday she took her share of the exercises in prayer, class meeting and Lovefeast, and was keenly interested in the business of the Church. She delighted to have the ministers at her home, and not seldom half-a-dozen might be found under her hospitable roof at a time.

For three years failing health interfered with her attendance at the sanctuary, and on her seventy-sixth birthday she passed to the home on high. The old officials of our Church bore her to her last resting place as Yardley Cemetery. The Revs. J. Odell and J. Jopling officiated, the latter preaching her funeral sermon in Bristol Hall, August 5th, to a deeply interested audience. Our deepest sympathies are with the bereaved family, who however “sorrow not as those who have no hope.”

Family

Alice was baptised on 13 February 1831 at Anstey, Leicestershire. Her parents were Daniel, a bricklayer, and Jane. (not James and Alice as stated in the obituary.)

Before her marriage Alice worked as a stitcher.

She married Joseph Clarke (b1837) on 10 June 1856 at Anstey, Leicestershire. Before moving to Birmingham to takeover the Temperance Hotel, Joseph was a boot and shoe maker. Census returns identify five children.

  • Josiah (b1857) – a licensed victualler 91911)
  • George Henry (b1860)
  • Mary (b abt1863) – a waitress (1891)
  • James (b abt1867) – an insurance agent (1891)
  • Martha (b abt1871)

References

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1907/494

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers

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