Tripp, Ebenezer Robert Squance (1849-1896)

Ministry

A transcription of the obituary published in the Primitive Methodist Magazine by W.H. Matthews is attached is attached. He records the following.

“As a minister he was faithful and successful. In looking up the statistics we have discovered that his circuits gradually and solidly grew under his guidance.

While making no pretensions to scholarship or literary attainment, he knew his business, and was well-informed on those questions bearing directly on the work of his life. He was shy as a youth, and very retiring as a man; only a sense of duty brought him to the front. He never sought popularity at the expense of his circuit. Many men more self-assertive, with less ability, have been preferred before him. His aim was to build up his circuit, which is the surest way to build up the Connexion. He was manly and generous, far above anything like meanness and self-seeking. He endeavoured to live the gospel he preached. He was a good man and of blameless character. He possessed a strong vein of humour, which made him a very genial companion, and with corresponding sympathy made him a welcome visitor to the suffering and the needy.”

Family

Ebenezer was born in 1848 at Sommercotes, Derbyshire, to parents Boaz Tripp, a PM minister, and Ann Squance.

Before entering the ministry Ebenezer was a joiner and builder (1871).

He married Mary Mason (1848-1939) in the summer of 1878 in the Bury Registration District, Lancashire. Census returns identify five children.

• Constance Annie Mason (1880-1970) – a draper’s assistant (1901); married George Ernest Lucas, a heating engineer (1901), in 1905   
• Sarah LIzzie Squance (1883-1911)         
• Ethel Mona (1885-1925)        
• Richard Herbert Boaz (1888-1969) – an elementary school teacher (1911)   
• Philip Bertram (1891-1942) – an electrical engineering apprentice (1911); a heating & electrical engineer (1939)

Ebenezer died on 21 August 1896 at Elland, nr Halifax, Yorkshire.

Circuits

• Sunderland
• 1874 Chorley
• 1875 Bury
• 1877 Liverpool II
• 1879 Wigan
• 1880 Skelmersdale
• 1881 Bolton I
• 1884 Ramsey
• 1887 Chester II
• 1889 Cradley Heath
• 1892 Castletown
• 1896 Brighouse

References

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1897/467

PM Minutes 1897/39

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers