Graham, Margaret ( nee Warriner) (1798-1860)

Transcription of obituary published in the Primitive Methodist Magazine by William Jones

Companions in the journey of life, however intertwined their affections, however sweet their fellowship, however long they may have travelled together, must part at last. It is not often permitted to them to enter together into the rest of the future. One is left a lonely, but comforted weeper, while the other is triumphing in the possession of the blessings of the eternal home. Such is the reflection suggested by the name of the person whose departure is here recorded.

Margaret, the beloved wife of the Rev. John Graham, died at Macclesfield, on Sunday, May 20th, 1860, and was interred in the cemetery adjoining our chapel at that place on the 23rd.

She was a native of Westmoreland, but while she was young she removed into Lancashire, and was among the first-fruits of our Connexion in that county. She was converted to God in 1821, and at once joined the infant society. By her example and labours she did much to strengthen the hands of the first preachers, and to build up the cause of Christ. She pursued a steady and even course, not astonishing the world with great deeds, but manifesting a zeal which nothing could quench, and a fortitude which sustained her in the day of trial. The hardships common to a minister’s wife, in the early part of the Connexion’s history, she bore with patience, upheld by the arm of God; and she encouraged her husband to persevere, even when troubles thickened around them. For thirty-four years and nine months she endured the toils and enjoyed the honours of a minister’s wife, and in many of their stations she was successful in the conversion of sinners to God. Her death has cast a dark shadow over him who is left to mourn his loss; but her life finished with the glories of mercy and hope beaming around her.

Her departure was rather sudden. May 2nd she left home to visit some of her children; on the 15th she was taken ill while at tea with some friends at Macclesfield, a cab was procured as early as possible, and she was conveyed to her daughter’s. Medical aid was at once procured, but to no purpose, the journey was accomplished and the weary pilgrim was putting off her earthly robes, soiled with the dust of the desert, for those pure ones in which Christ clothes his devoted followers. To her husband as he bent over her in sorrow, she said “We have had many storms together, but now the last has come, and we must separate to meet again where parting will be no more.” A little water being administered to her, she repeated in a tone of ecstasy, the well known verse,

“Refreshing streams from Jesus roll,
The waters are divine,
Here I can bathe my weary soul,
And call the Saviour mine.”

The Rev. R. Pattison knelt and commended her to God, and while engaged in the solemn act, the gates of heaven opened, and the glory of God filled the room. To Mr. J. Barber who called to see her, she said her trust was in the bleeding Lamb. The last words her daughter heard were 

“I can and I do and will believe
That Jesus died for me.”

On the evening of the 20th of May, she quietly fell asleep in Jesus, aged sixty-four years. The light which had shone with such brightness in the household and in the church, was not extinguished; Jesus covered it with His wing, and removed it from the altar of earth to the temple of heaven to burn with ever increasing glory through numberless ages. Devout men carried her to her burial, and her ashes rest under the shadow of the house of God. She was a mother in Israel, and her name will be enshrined in the memories of the Churches which have shared her labours, but her highest reward is with God. Let the sorrower hope, for he, like ripe grain, is bending to the sickle, and the time of reunion cannot be far off. May he and her family meet her where the sound of the destroyer’s foot is never heard.

Family

Margaret was born abt1798 at Ambleside, Westmorland.

She married John Graham (1799-1885) in 1825. Census returns identify four children.

• Mary A (b abt1826) – married William Bratt in 1845
• Nancy (1829-1900) – married William Mycock, a butcher, in 1855; married Thomas Rowbotham, a butcher, in 1874
• Samuel (1834-1911) – a joiner
• Martha (b abt1836)

Margaret died in the spring of 1860 at Macclesfield, Cheshire.

References

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1861/124

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers