Luddington, William Broadbent (1843-1888)

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Kendall

Ministry

A transcription of the obituary published in the Primitive Methodist Magazine for both William and his wife is attached. The writer sums up his character as follows: “ He was a life-long abstainer, and an enthusiastic temperance advocate, and during his ministry founded fourteen Bands of Hope in England and Africa. His sermons were forcible and impressive expositions of Holy Scripture, appealing powerfully to the emotions of his hearers, and often followed by conversions. There was a large revivalistic element in him. He was an earnest and effective advocate of the claims of missions, and could impart something of his own enthusiasm to his audiences. His business training was of considerable service to him as a superintendent. He was a careful and diligent administrator, and had a large inventive faculty, so that no enterprise to which he was committed was likely to fail either for want of ingenuity of method or energy of purpose. He had a highly devotional nature; and this with a fluent utterance, a fervid spirit, and great energy and industry made his services a blessing to any circuit to which he was appointed. He did not enter the ministry for a piece of bread. He heard the Lord’s call, and responded to it. It may be doubted whether any church is more indebted to the self-sacrifice of its ministers than Primitive Methodism ; and assuredly his talents would have secured in business a much larger financial return than the ministry could ever offer him. But he had no regrets on this question. His highest ambition was to serve his generation according to the will of God.”

Family

William was born on 9 March 1843 at Brampton, Lincolnshire, to parents William Luddington, a PM minister, and Ann Penny Stones Broadbent.

The 1861 census return records William as an apprentice draper.

He married Ruth Hannah Mitchell (1843-1888) on 15 July 1868 at Low Moor Chapel, Low Moor, Yorkshire. Census returns identify one child.

• Minnie Wilkins (1870-1900) – married William Richard Meggeson, a grocer and local preacher (1881), in 1891

William died on 25 November 1888 at Ilkley, Yorkshire.

Circuits

• 1865 Leeds III
• 1867 Colne
• 1870 Easingwold
• 1873 St George’s Bay
• 1875 GMC Agent
• 1876 Hull IV
• 1878 St George’s Bay
• 1881 North Bow
• 1882 Lancaster
• 1885 Leeds VIII
• 1887 St Isabel

References

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1890/177

PM Minutes 1889/24

H B Kendall, Origin and History of the PM Church, vol 2, p491

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers