Robertshaw, John Henry (1877-1957)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

JOHN HENRY ROBERTSHAW: born at Mytholmroyd in 1877 of a devout Primitive Methodist family. As a member of the Mission band of the circuit he early showed the gifts he was to use later in the ministry. He entered Hartley College in 1901 and two years later began his ministry in the Rotherham circuit From there he moved to York, and his ministry was then spent in the circuits of King’s Lynn, Holmfirth, Barnsley, Rochdale, Wakefield, Driffield, Clayton West, Crowle, Hornsea, and Wirksworth, Derby.

 In all these circuits he is remembered with love and respect. Throughout his ministry he revealed that love of the people which made him a splendid pastor and a keen evangelist. Always an eloquent and thoughtful preacher, his joy was to proclaim the Gospel and ‘build up’ his people in the Faith. His sermons revealed the prayer and thoughtful preparation of one to whom preaching was the highest honour and the greatest privilege. Gentle by nature, he exercised the spirit of Christian love in all business meetings. He retired in 1941 to York, to the house where he had first met his wife and the circuit he had served so long ago. 

Here he served as long as health permitted and after a short illness died on 4th August 1957, in the eightieth year of his age and the fifty-fourth of his ministry.

Family

John was born on 27 April 1877 at Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire, to parents William, an insurance agent (1901), and Charlotte. His younger brother, Arnold, was also a PM minister.

John was an iron turner before entering the ministry (1901).

He married Edith Jane Ware (1886-1969) in the summer of 1903 at York, Yorkshire. Census returns identify one child.

• Dorothy (1909-1963) – married George Ewart Gladstone Stringer, a car park attendant (1939), in 1932

John died on 4 August 1957 at York, Yorkshire.

Circuits

• Hartley
• 1903 Rotherham I
• 1905 York I
• 1907 Fincham
• 1910 Scholes
• 1913 Barnsley II
• 1918 Rochdale
• 1921 Wakefield II
• 1925 Driffield
• 1930 Clayton West
• 1932 Crowle
• 1935 Bristol, Kings
• 1939 Hornsea, Market Place
• 1940 Derby, Becket
• 1942 Wirksworth &c
• 1946 York (Sup)

References

Methodist Minutes 1858/171

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers