Hill, John (1843-1878)

Supplied by Chris Wells

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference W. Mallalieu 

JOHN HILL was born in the year 1843, at Buckley, North Wales, and from an early age he attended the Primitive Methodist Sunday-school at Buckley, and owed much in after life to the good impressions he received there. His conversion took place at the age of thirteen years during a revival of religion. Soon after this he began to labour earnestly in the Sunday-school, and to exhort sinners. After serving with credit as a local-preacher for three years, he became an itinerant minister, and during the thirteen years of his ministerial life travelled successively and with great acceptance in the following circuits:—Chester, Birkenhead, Rochdale, Bury, Middleton, Preston Brook, and Liverpool Second. 

By the Conference of 1877 he was stationed to Liverpool Second Circuit, where he was happy and successful in this, his last circuit. Our late brother’s last illness commenced with ulcerated throat, and his complaint speedily developed other symptoms and issued fatally. During the four weary weeks of our brother’s last illness he cherished a hope of recovery almost to the last, expressing at the same time a desire to leave himself in the hands of an all-wise Parent, desiring Him to do what seemed Him good, During his last Friday on earth he was visited by the leading medical gentleman in Liverpool, but he could give no hope of continued life; while admitting nothing was impossible, he said there was nothing left to work upon—no strength, no appetite, no power to take any thing, not even to take medicine. He continued in a semi-conscious state after this until a short time before he died, when a continuous and almost miraculous state of sustained consciousness set in, which lasted for some time, during which he sung “There is light in the valley for me” in marvellously vigorous style. He attempted another piece, but failed, and fell away into a state of prostration, in which he died, about four o’clock on Sabbath morning, February 24, 1878, aged thirty-four years. On Wednesday, February 27th, the mortal remains of our dear brother were interred at Saughall, in a beautiful little cemetery, five miles from the city of Chester.

Family

John was born in 1843 at Buckley, Flintshire.

He married Elizabeth William (b abt1848) in late 1868 in the Great Boughton Registration District, Cheshire. Census returns identify three children.

  • Lizzie Mary (1869-1907) – a boot saleswoman (1891); married Harry Bland Bradley, a draper’s shop salesman (1901), in 1896
  • John Thomas (1871-1954) – a boiler maker’s apprentice (1891); a boiler maker’s labourer (1911)
  • Gertrude Alice (1872-1945) – a dressmaker (1891); married John Armstrong Smith, a delivery clerk at sugar refinery (1939), in 1901

John died on 24 February 1878 at Liverpool, Lancashire. He was buried at Ebenezer PM Chapel burial ground, Saughall, Cheshire.

Circuits

  • 1864 Stratford
  • 1865 Chester
  • 1866 Birkenhead
  • 1869 Rochdale
  • 1870 Bury
  • 1872 Middleton, Lancs
  • 1875 Preston Brook
  • 1877 Liverpool II

References

PM Minutes 1878/11

W Leary, Directory of Primitive Methodist Ministers and their Circuits, 1990

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers

Comments about this page

  • Above comment continuing:
    I have John Hill’s family tree going back 3 generations to John HILL, born about 1759, and continuing to the present. He came from three generations of North Wales coal miners based in Buckley.
    Can anyone throw light on his first station – ‘Stratford’?
    Probably not east London or Stratford-upon-Avon; one site suggests ‘Stretford’ in Manchester.
    I have found his name in several Preaching Plans: Middleton 1872-4 and Liverpool II 1877.

    By Christopher Wells (06/08/2020)
  • This John Hill is my mother-in-law’s grandfather. I have been gathering information on him for many years and visit his grave in Saughall often. Delighted to see this page. The Ryland Library had given me the photo you show as John Hill 1826-1907. I fear you may be right as there is a similarity with that John Hill’s 1907 photo.

    By Christopher Wells (06/08/2020)

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