Collingwood, Thomas (1795-1837)

MEMOIR OF THOMAS COLLINGWOOD,

(Westgate circuit.)

Thomas Collingwood was born at Stanhope, in Weardale, in the county of Durham, in the year 1795, of poor but honest parents.  He was not addicted to many of the vices of the day, such as swearing, drunkenness, &c.

In his thirty-fourth year, through reading the scriptures and attending a gospel ministry, he was brought to the knowledge of his state, saw his danger, and that if God had not mercy on him, his destination would be with the rich man in hell, lifting up his eyes in torments.  His conviction of sin was deep, and his sorrow on account of it was great.  Sin was to him an evil and bitter thing, and he had no rest in his bones because of it.  He prayed, and groaned, and wept before the Lord, on account of the sins of his heart and life.  But Jan. 1, 1830, God blotted out his transgressions, adopted him into his family, and gave him his Spirit to bear witness with his spirit, that he was accepted, of God, through the Beloved.  And to be fully conformed to the image of God was the desire of his heart; and through faithful, fervent, persevering, agonizing prayer, he obtained the blessing of a clean heart; and his language was, “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I to the world,” &c.

I do not mean to say he had no failings in thought, word, or deed, for he was not angelic, but human; and has been heard to confess and lament his failings and imperfections; yet he feared the Lord above many.  His motto was the glory of God.  As a husband, a parent, and a servant, he endeavoured to faithfully discharge the several duties which devolved upon him.  His wife says, that during the eleven years of their conjugal life, he never gave her any cause to complain through improper conduct, either in word or deed.  He frequently retired into secret for the purpose of praying and holding communion with God.  He erected the family altar, around which, he, his partner, and their children, bowed down.  He also regularly attended the house of the Lord, the place where his honour dwelleth.  The means of grace, and the law of the Lord, were his delight.  He could in truth say, “My soul longeth for the courts of the Lord’s house; and thy word is sweet unto my taste, yea, sweeter than honey, and the honey comb.”

His patience and fortitude did honour to the Christian religion.  His last affliction was a consumption; and he was long laid aside from his work, hut his mind was kept in peace.  I visited him twice and found him as I could wish to he found when death stops the weary wheels of life.

On the day of his death, he with all tenderness invited his wife and the Christian friends present, to unite with him in praising God for the great salvation with which he had blessed him, and urged them to trust in God, and he would not suffer them to he confounded.  And Oct. 24, 1837, in the forty-second year of his age, he died in the full triumph of faith, to be forever with the Lord; leaving a wife and two children to lament their loss.

J. Day

(Approved by the Quarter-day board.)

 

Primitive Methodist Magazine, 1838.  Pages 461-462.

 

Comments about this page

  • Does anyone have details of his wife and children? It’s possible he married a Mary Westgarth in Stanhope 23rd Sept. 1826

    By Norris Atthey (05/03/2015)

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