Jackson, Elijah (1839-1881)

Ministry

A transcription of obituary published in the Primitive Methodist Magazine by P. Coates is attached.

Within the obituary the Rev. J. Beal says, ‘It was my privilege and pleasure to be the colleague of the Rev. E. Jackson in the following stations, viz.: Mexboro’, Gainsboro’, and Pocklington, and, during our ministry together, I formed the highest opinion of his piety and Christian manliness, and the more I knew of him the more highly I esteemed and loved him. He was, indeed, an excellent man, and the most agreeable and considerate of colleagues. He was a plain, unassuming Methodist preacher, his only aim and his highest ambition was to be a successful minister, and in this he was blessed with a fair measure of success. On the stations it was our pleasure to labour together, we often rejoiced over the conversion of souls, and reported progress in every department. I have frequently heard him say the happiest hours of his life were when pointing the penitent one to Christ, and he will have many souls as the crown of his rejoicing in the day of the Lord. His piety and Christian cheerfulness won for him a wide circle of friends in the stations in which he laboured in the Hull District. He was unquestionably a good man, an acceptable preacher, an excellent pastor, and a diligent business man, and his removal from the church below to the church above so early in life, and in the midst of useful labour, may be mysterious to us, and painful to his dear wife and her five little lambs, yet we dare not question the wisdom of that loving Father who does all things for our profit and His own glory.’

Family

Elijah was born in 1839 at Hanley, Staffordshire, to parents John, a potter’s presser (1851), and Mary.

Before entering the ministry Elijah also worked as a pottery presser.

He married Jane Brewer (1840-1930) in the summer of 1868 in the Cookham Registration District, Berkshire. Census returns identify five children.

• Albert (1869-1942) – a bootmakers assistant (1891); a bookmaker (1901)
• Mary Jane (1871-1945) – a dressmaker (1891); married William James Absalom, a nurseryman (1911), in 1900; married Henry S Goodread in 1915
• Philip Pugh (1873-1938) – an ironmonger’s assistant (1891); assistant secretary of a charitable institution Young Helpers’ League (Dr Barnardos’ Homes) (1911)
• Elijah John (1876-1949) – a draper’s assistant (1891); an accountant (1911); an ironmongery and engineering shop manager (1939)
• Ernest George (1879-1930) – a motor engineer (1911)

Elijah died on 12 December 1881 at Wickhambrook, Suffolk.

After Elijah died the family settled in Croydon, Surrey, where he had been stationed in 1875.

Circuits

• 1864 High Wycombe
• 1865 Maidenhead
• 1866 London II
• 1867 Leighton Buzzard
• 1868 London I
• 1869 Mexborough
• 1871 Gainsborough
• 1874 Pocklington
• 1875 London VI
• 1878 Canterbury
• 1880 Bedford
• 1881 Wickhambrook

References

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1882/627

PM Minutes 1882/9

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers