Harvey, Lucas Jason (1851-1928)

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1906
Primitive Methodist Magazine 1929

Early years

Lucas was born on 3 June 1851 at Pontypool, Monmouthshire to parents William Harvey and Jane Woolford. William was a PM Minister. Jane had been a travelling preacher from 1835 to 1838, when she married William. She continued to preach as long as her health allowed.

Lucas entered into ‘conscious Christian experience’ in his sixteenth year, when living at Tredegar and employed as a clerk in an iron works. Less than a year later, Lucas became a local preacher and was recommended and received into the ministry by the age of eighteen, going to Gloucester as a ‘supply’.

Ministry

Lucas did much towards the improvement of trust estates, by enlargements, renovations and debt reduction; but he was careful not to build huge chapels and leave large debts that would become a burden to others.

His obituary records that Lucas was a man of high ideals, full of the spirit of reverence and devotion. The sanctuary was his delight and his supreme ambition was to do the will of God. He was one of those plodding toilers to whom Methodism owes so much. In secretarial work, he was most painstaking and efficient.

Family

Lucas married Elizabeth Beckerleg (b1848) in the spring of 1874 at Penzance, Cornwall. Census returns identify four of seven children.

  • Alfred Cromwell (1875-1956) – a grocer
  • Maud Evangeline (b1877) – married Joseph Golcher Harvey, a draper
  • Perceval Theodore (1879-1918) – a commercial traveller, pottery (1911)
  • William (b1886) – a fancy drapery warehouseman (1911)

Lucas died on 6 November 1928 at Wylde Green, Birmingham.

Circuits

  • 1870 Stroud
  • 1871 Chippenham
  • 1873 St Day
  • 1874 St Ives
  • 1875 Bristol
  • 1877 Bedminster
  • 1878 Monmouth
  • 1880 Aberdare
  • 1884 Congleton
  • 1887 Newcastle under Lyme
  • 1891 Tredegar
  • 1893 Hanley
  • 1896 Darlaston
  • 1900 Northwich
  • 1904 Rhosymedre
  • 1908 Old Hill
  • 1910 Brierley Hill
  • 1912 Birmingham (S)

References

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1906/675; 1929/245

PM Minutes 1929/268

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers

 

Comments about this page

  • The 1891 census return (RG12, Piece 2148, Folio 90, Page 7) shows Elizabeth without her husband but with 5 children – those listed above and 7 year old Hilda H Harvey. A check with the GRO index shows Hilda Helena Harvey born March quarter 1884 in Merthyr Tydfil (mothers maiden name Beckerleg) and died December quarter 1892 in Bedwelty age 8.

    By Denise Bayley (20/06/2023)

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