Saxton, James Hutchinson (1863-1929)

Rev and Mrs Saxton at Hinckley Road, c1905
Englesea Brook Museum 30k/01
Primitive Methodist Magazine 1930
Primitive Methodist Magazine 1930

Early years

James was born in 1863 at Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, to parents James Saxton and May Hutchinson Daws. James, senior was an elastic bandage maker.

James worked as a coal miner as a young man. He became a local preacher in his teens and was an ardent worker in his native circuit. Denied the privilege of much schooling, he earnestly applied himself to study.

Ministry

Although James never claimed to be a great administrator hen nevertheless, was diligent in the manifold duties incident to a minister’s life. He believed a minister should be a shepherd of souls and his pastoral work was efficiently done.

It was, however, as a preacher of the Gospel that he excelled. The pulpit was his throne, and all his pursuits and hobbies were directed to help him as a preacher. James had an artistic temperament and was naturally poetic. As a make of epigrams he excelled. But his utterances were more than a collection of phrases. In the best sense he was an evangelist. In him was blended the prophet and poet.

James was President of the Tunstall Conference in 1929. He had planned for his Presidential year. His chief concern was to carry out a crusade in the interests of youth, and next was his eagerness to help the cause of Methodist Union. But his dream was not to be fulfilled in the way he had thought. In the fourth month of his campaign he was taken ill. He disregarded his doctor’s advice and continued to fulfil his engagements. After taking Harvest Festival Services at Stafford Street Church, Walsall he collapsed and died a few days later.

Family

James married Amy Evelyn Nutman (abt 1871-1943) in the spring of 1892 at Leicester, Leicestershire. Census returns identify three children.

  • Evelyn (1893-1952)  – married Tom Arnold in 1913
  • Marion (1894-1961) – married Norman Clifford Jepson in 1922
  • James Evan (1905-1992)

James died on 22 September 1929 at Nottingham, Nottinghamshire.

Circuits

  • 1885 Nottingham II
  • 1886 Leicester II
  • 1888 Nottingham II
  • 1890 Leicester II
  • 1893 Mansfield
  • 1898 Nottingham V
  • 1901 Leicester II
  • 1908 Birmingham V
  • 1911 Northampton
  • 1918 Herts & Beds Mission
  • 1922 Middlesbrough
  • 1928 Northampton

References

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1930/1

PM Minutes 1930/304

R Newman Wycherley, The Pageantry of Methodist Union, 1932, p177

B A Barber, A Methodist Pageant, 1932, p281

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers

 

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