Smith, Martha (nee Hamer) (1836-1914)

Transcription of obituary published in the Primitive Methodist Magazine by H.S.M.

Born at Knighton in 1836, converted and received as a member of the Primitive Methodist Church in 1859, removed to Leominster in 1863, for some time a Sunday school teacher and class leader, the oldest member of the Leominster Society passed away on October 13th, 1914.

Martha Smith was a woman of strong and forceful personality, and for half a century took a prominent part in the various activities of her Church. The record of her life is one long procession of unselfish acts, for behind an apparently austere demeanour there was a tenderness and generosity to which many bear ready testimony. She found herself perfectly at home in the simple worship which her Church afforded. It was as fortunate to secure her support as it was unfortunate to meet her disapproval.

The Green Lanes Church is largely a monument to the untiring zeal and liberality of herself and husband, who, with several children, remains to mourn her loss. One son, Mr. T.W. Smith, continues with us; he is a most loyal and generous Official. Rev. T.A. Kelley preached a memorial sermon before a crowded congregation on October 18th.

Family

Martha was born on 3 March 1836 at Knighton, Radnorshire, to parents Samuel Hamer, a shoemaker (1851), and Elizabeth Jones. She was baptised on 9 March 1836 at Kington Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Herefordshire.

She married Thomas Smith (abt1839-1923), a grocer (1881), in the spring of 1863 in the Hereford Registration District, Herefordshire. Census returns identify eight of ten children.

Thomas William (1868-1929) – a grocer (1911)
Mary Elizabeth Hamer (1869-1947)
Joseph (1870-1932) – a grocer (1911)
James (1871-1952) – a grocer shopkeeper’s assistant (1901); a groom (1911)
Rhoda Charlotte (1873-1961) – married Peter MacNiven Henderson in 1902
Sarah Martha (1876-1948)
Alice Annie (1878-1958) – married John Ruscombe Smith Francombe, a mechanical engineer, in 1916
Bertha (b1882) – helper at YWCA in Harrogate (1911)

Martha died on 13 October 1914 at Leominster, Herefordshire.

References

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1915/327

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers