Transcription of obituary published in the Primitive Methodist Magazine by J Goldthorpe
AMELIA HIRST, wife of the Rev. C. Hirst, was born at Yarmouth, in 1832. She was the child of pious parents who gave her a Christian training, so that while she was quite a child she became a member of society, and sometimes her leader, in his enraptured moments, would take her up in his arms while speaking to her. Up to the time of her marriage she was a Sunday-school teacher, a tract distributor, and an earnest worker in the cause of the Master.
With her husband she has laboured in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Norfolk, and in every circuit she has proved herself to be a true helpmeet, co-operating with him in advancing the interests of the church.
In sewing-meetings, and in soliciting subscriptions for chapel and other purposes, she made herself generally useful, won the esteem of the church and public, and gathered around her a large circle of friends. She was of an affable and open disposition, cheerful and interesting in company, remarkably fluent in speech, fond of family visiting, and a friend of the poor.
She would speak for Jesus to the most unlikely characters, and such was her kindly method that her friends never knew her to be insulted even by the most rude. As a wife and mother her conduct was exemplary; she always studied to please, and was never harsh where kindness would serve. She was self-denying, sometimes above measure, which often needed a kindly check. It was a great luxury for her to give, and her greatest affliction consisted in not being able to give more than she did. The extent of her generosity is not known to anyone, but she never gave less than one tenth of her income to the Lord’s cause.
For some years her health was declining, and an attack of apoplexy seriously impaired her powers, her speech being specially affected. After a while a second stroke followed, and it became evident to herself and the family that she could not long survive. In fact she was apprehensive of an early change, and did her best to prepare her friends for it, remarking to her husband, ‘I shall slip through your fingers some day like a shadow.’
Some months before her death she longed to depart. Reckoning up her father, mother, brothers, sister, and three children all in heaven, she said, ‘I have more in heaven than I have on earth.’ She was the last of her father’s house tarrying behind. She was fully ready, however, calmly trusting in Christ, free from fear, and in fact anxious to be gone. She talked daily of dying, laid in order the clothes necessary for laying her out, and gave directions accordingly.
Her end came suddenly. Having removed to a fresh residence for the benefit of her health, she was busy setting in order her new home, when she was seized with illness, became unconscious, and remained in that state until the next evening, when she quietly passed away as ‘a shadow that declineth,’ in sure and certain hope of a resurrection unto eternal life. She died March 9, 1886.
May her sorrowing husband and family meet her in the Eden above.
Family
Amelia was born in 1832 at Yarmouth, Norfolk, to parents Robert and Ann.
She married Crispin Hirst (1831-1915) in the spring of 1858 in the Yarmouth Registration District, Norfolk. Census returns identify six children.
- Mary Jane (1861-1890) – married Frederick Littlewood in 1886
- Ellen Angelina (b1863) – emigrated to USA in 1890; married Titus Moseley, an insurance agent (1900), in 1890; married Matthew Paul Brown, an insurance agent, in 1909
- Robert (b1866)
- Henry (1870-1950) – a merchant’s clerk (1891); a brewer’s traveller (1911)
- Amelia Ann (1872-1929) – married Frederick Baines, a brewer’s clerk, in 1894; married James Walter in 1925
- Clara (1875-1951) – married Arthur Ryder, a post office clerk (1911), in 1898
Amelia died on 9 March 1886 at Bramley, Yorkshire.
References
Primitive Methodist Magazine 1888/55
W Leary, Directory of Primitive Methodist Ministers and their Circuits, 1990
Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers
No Comments
Add a comment about this page