Stafford, John (1830-1901)

Family

John was born on 27 February 1830 at Woodley, Cheshire, to parents Charles, a cotton weaver (1841), and Ann. He was baptised on 10 August 1830 at Bethesda Independent Methodist Chapel, Bamford St, Stockport, Cheshire.

Census returns identify the following occupations for John.

• 1851 pressman and compositor
• 1861 printer & bookseller & local Methodist preacher
• 1871 United Methodist minister
• 1881 United Methodist minister
• 1891 United Methodist Free Church minister

He married Elizabeth Plumb (1832-1875) in the summer of 1856 at Buckden, Huntingdonshire. Census returns identify eight children.

• Anne Jane Josephine (1857-1938)  – married Thomas Alker Austin, a mechanic, in 1883                  St Giles, Herts
• Albert Ernest Augustus (1860-1862)              
• John Wesley Coward (1864-1908) – a solicitor’s clerk
• Adelaide Sophia E (1866-1950) – married William Henry Hales Holder, an entertainment accountant (1911), in 1891
• Florence Augusta (1868-1918) – married Jethro Wickett, a commercial traveller (1901), in 1890
• Walter Hamilton (1870-1946) – a letterpress printer (1901)
• Charles Henry (1871-1940) – a grocer’s assistant (1911)
• Arthur Bruckshaw (1873-1952) – a window ticket writer (1901)

He married Sarah Elizabeth Tabb (1842-1914) in early 1877 in the Newport Registration District, Monmouthshire. Sarah was the daughter of a Bible Christian minister. Census returns identify five children.

• Percy Gorbell (1878-1933) – a grocer’s assistant (1911)
• Elizabeth Prestridge (b1878) a baker and confectioner (1911) 
• Mable Silverton (1880-1969) – a head teacher (1911)     
• Ernest Moffat (1883-1892)
• Francis Granville (1885-1955)  – a United Methodist Minister (1911)

John died in early 1901 at Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.

Circuits

• 1853 Buckden
• 1854 Northampton
• 1855 St Albans
• 1856 Hertford
• 1858 disappears

References 

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers