Smith, John George (1) (1834-1904)

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1880
Primitive Methodist Magazine 1905

Early years

John was born on 11 July 1834 at Kings Lynn, Norfolk to parents John Smith and Jane Rogers. John senior was a PM Minister.

The 1851 census records John as a printers apprentice living with his family in Yarmouth, Norfolk.

Ministry

His obituary records that the main feature of his preaching was its mighty spiritual power. In the introduction and explanation of his subject his clear logical exposition carried the minds of his hearers with him, then at the close he pressed the application home to their consciences with a Divine fervour that laid hold of men.

With sanctified business instinct he saw the importance of the successful financing of the trust estates of his circuits and readily, first of all, he led the way himself in practical beneficence.

Possessed of a highly-strung nervous temperament, he suffered much from those occasional misunderstandings incidental to the proceedings of Connexional business meetings. After one of these it would require some time in solitary communing with God to restore his equanimity. The opinion of his brethren was manifest by his appointment as a delegate to Conference.

Family

John married Amelia Hartley (1838-1913) in the summer of 1861 at Sheffield. Census returns identify four children.

  • John Hartley Smith (1862-1927) – a railway goods agent
  • Jane Amelia (b1866) – Head Mistress of a council school in 1911
  • Margaret Hartley (1868-1949) – married Frederick Benjamin Holdsworth, a director of leather belling manufacture in 1911
  • Ellen Gertrude C (1870-1941) – a teacher

John died on 29 May 1904 at Rotherham, Yorkshire.

Circuits

  • 1858 Sheffield ll
  • 1860 Boston
  • 1861 Sheffield l
  • 1864 Melton Mowbray
  • 1867 Boston
  • 1871 Sheffield ll
  • 1874 Grantham
  • 1878 Leicester l
  • 1881 Nottingham ll
  • 1884 Rotherham
  • 1888 Gloucester
  • 1890 Wirksworth
  • 1892 Derby lll
  • 1895 Cross keys
  • 1897 Newport, Mon
  • 1900 Rotherham (S)

References

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1880 (Portrait); 1905/570

PM Minutes 1904/35

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers

 

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Comments about this page

  • This page was modified on 7 April 2018 to add a transcription of the obituary published in the Primitive Methodist Magazine, 1905.

    By Geoff Dickinson (07/04/2018)

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