Moody, Benjamin (1848-1892)

Ministry

A transcription of obituary published in the Primitive Methodist Magazine by R Clemitson is attached. He writes as follows. 

“He was a man of well-built physique, had a good voice and musical, was an excellent family visitor; had a firm grasp of evangelical truth, and a passion for soul-saving. He had thus all the essential requisites for an efficient evangelist. And much as Mr. Moody did for, the church of which he was, for nearly a score of years, an able minister, he would have done more and better had he been set apart to such work, instead of having had committed to him the official management of men. The friction and fret incident to such management tell unfavourably on some men: and perhaps Mr. Moody might have rendered longer as well as better service had he been saved from such. 

However that may be, Mr. Moody was a good man and true, was a faithful minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and threw himself with great abandon into the work of raising men to the enjoyment of a higher life. Nor did he neglect to qualify himself for his high vocation. He was a diligent student, who ordered his time well. The Bible was his chief book: and to know it well, he made himself fairly well acquainted with the languages in which it was originally written.”

Family

Benjamin was born on 2 June 1848 at Chilton, Co Durham, to parents James, a coal miner, and Ann.

Before entering the ministry Benjamin worked as a coal miner (1861).

He married Mary Jane Dinning (1846-1901) in the spring of 1876 in the Durham Registration District, Co. Durham. Census returns identify two children.

• Thomas Benjamin (1884-1930) – a draper’s apprentice (1901); emigrated to Canada circa 1909; a Methodist minister
• James Herbert (1887-1949) – a butcher (1911)

Benjamin died on 20 June 1892 at Seaton Delaval. He was buried on 23 June 1892 at Shincliffe, Co. Durham.

Circuits

• Sunderland
• 1872 Carlisle
• 1874 Sunderland
• 1875 S Shields
• 1878 Shotley Bridge
• 1881 Alston
• 1883 Berwick
• 1887 Newcastle I
• 1890 Seaton Delaval

References

Primitive Methodist Magazine  1893/369

PM Minutes 1893/17

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers