Clamp, Jane (nee Hatton) (1833-1899)

Transcription of Obituary In the Christian Messenger

Jane Clamp, my mother, was born at Hopton Bank, near Ludlow, Salop, and died at Burnley, on December 26th, 1899. The influences surrounding her early life were helpful to the formation of Christian character and found a ready response in her yielding and sensitive nature. Her mother was a member of our Church, and others of the family were identified with the Wesleyans. On her removal to Princes End in South Staffordshire – where she made the acquaintance of her surviving and sorrowing husband, my father – she joined our community, and the earliest impressions known to the writer were the outcome of accompanying her to the class and similar meetings in the old Queen Street Chapel. She afterwards removed to Burntwood, near Lichfield, where she found congenial spiritual companionship, then again to Barrow-in-Funness, where she enjoyed communion with our Foreshaw Street friends. The Rev. J. Pearce, who knew her intimately at this time, gives the following estimate of her – ‘Perhaps the leading ‘note’ in her life was simplicity. She was far from obtrusive. She believed in a modest religion – a simple faith in God, and a simple profession of that faith in times of ‘stress,’ and she knew these. Her simple faith never wavered, and many quoted her as a good Christian. In quiet more than in public forms she adorned the gospel of God.

Subsequently removing to Burnley she found here a ‘Bethel’ the kindly ministries of which could not be over-estimated. Shortly after this removal her health gave way and was never fully recovered. The beginning of the trouble was the breaking of a blood vessel in the head, which, with several recurrences completely undermined her constitution, while the loss of her daughter Rhoda added gravely to the situation. The Rev. G. Windram says of her at this period, ‘Your mother was a woman of more than ordinary ability, quiet and undemonstrative, yet deeply pious, regular and punctual in her attendance at the means of grace whenever health would permit. In the class meeting, which she valued, she always gave a clear, thoughtful testimony for the Christ who was so real and dear to her own life. I visited her frequently during her serious and painful illness and always found her the same simple, loving, trustful disciple of her Lord and Master, and waited patiently for Him.’

My mother did not figure in public life. I am not aware she had either the gifts or ambitions necessary for it. Her best work was in her home, and they who profit most by it are her family. Forty years ago it seemed as though the rock on which the family would wreck was intemperance. We tremble at what might have been. Encouraged by her, the writer led the way by taking the Band of Hope pledge. Father and others followed, and a curiosity for those times was soon an accomplished fact – a teetotal home. Three other events stand out conspicuously in my memory – the Sabbath evening when my conversion was reported to her, it having taken place in her absence; my first attempt at preaching, which I had studiously kept quiet, but when I ascended the pulpit she was among the most interested of my hearers; and the time when I returned to report on my examination as a candidate for our ministry.

Of her eleven children one died in childhood and ten saw maturity, but the death of another antedated her own by two years. Her husband and a number of her children are serving the same God in the same church, several are in official positions, and three of her sons are trying, in differing capacities, to preach the gospel of Christ. The Rev. G.W. King who, with his colleague the Rev. J.H. Hirst, ministered to her in her last struggles, says ‘She rendered better service to the church than the outwardness of her life suggested. She influenced by what she was, rather than what she said. She lived a quiet and deeply spiritual life. During the nineteen months I was brought into contact with her she was called to fight the fight of affliction, but in these days she was gentle and submissive, but brave and courageous. During these days of physical pain she prayed earnestly and incessantly that her husband and each of her children would meet her in the ‘abiding home’ she was soon to enter. When she passed away l mourned the loss of one to whom the Primitive Methodist church and the Primitive Methodist ministry was dear.’

THOMAS CLAMP.

Family and other information

Jane was born abt 1833. She married John Clamp (1830-1910) on 28 March 1853 at Sedgley, Staffordshire. Census returns identify the following occupations for John.

  • 1861 carter
  • 1871 coal hewer
  • 1881 haulier
  • 1891 labourer steelworks
  • 1901 builder’s carrier

Census returns identify eleven children.

  • Thomas (1853-1925) – a PM Minister
  • Mary (b abt1856) – a domestic servant (1881)
  • Benjamin (1857-1865)
  • Elizabeth (b abt1860) – married John Edward M Lewis, a fitter, in 1880
  • John (1861-1945) – a coal miner (1881); a stationary engine driver (1891)
  • Isaac (1863-1949) – an assurance agent (1911)
  • Sarah Jane (1866-1920) – married William Tickle, a coach builder, in 1889
  • William (b1868) – an ingot moulder (1891)
  • Rhoda (1870-1898)
  • Annie (b1872)
  • Martha (1880-1942) – a dressmaker/machinist (1901); married John Fletcher, a butcher, in 1904

References

Christian Messenger 1901/330

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers

 

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