Walford, John (1798-1869)

Ministry

A transcription of Journal Extracts published in the Primitive Methodist Magazine relating to his time in the Press Circuit, April to June 1828, is attached.

John wrote a two volume biography of Hugh Bourne, first published in 1856.

Family

John was born in 1798 at Grinshill, Shropshire, to parents George Walford and Elizabeth Mullineux. He was baptised on 4 November 1798 at Grinshill.

Census returns identify the following occupations for John.

• 1841 farmer
• 1851 master maltster
• 1861 builder

He married Sarah Owen (1797-1827) on 29 December 1823 at St Mary, Shrewsbury,  Shropshire. They had one child.

• George (1824-1867) – a police officer (1861)

He married Sarah Bourne (1815-1870) on 18 December 1832 at St Bartholomew, Norton le Moors, Staffordshire. Sarah was a daughter of James Bourne . Census returns identify nine children.

• James (1835-1891) – an agricultural labourer (1881)
• Mary Ann (1838-1889) – married John Twemlow in 1856; married Roderick Hope Bain, a physician & surgeon, in 1862
• John Hugh (1840-1908) – a shopkeeper & farmer (1881)
• Sarah (1843-1929) – married William Charles Culkin, a tailor (1891), in 1881
• Edward (b1847) – a mechanic (1871)
• Samuel (1850-1914) – a surgeon’s assistant (1891)
• Hugh Bourne (1854-1901) – a farm labourer (1891)
• Frank Robert Beech (1858-1938) – a bread salesman (1911)
• Elizabeth Mary Beech (1860-1922) – married Francis Harold Malam, an estate agent (1901), in 1882

John died on 9 January 1869 at Hough, Cheshire. He is buried at Englesea Brook.

Circuits

• 1830 Prees (6 mths)
• 1830 Tunstall (6 mths) 
• 1831 Hopton Bank (6 mths)
• 1832 Tunstall (6 mths)
• 1832 Prees (2 yrs 6 mths)
• 1835 Darlaston
• 1838 disappears

References

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1830/68; 1830/141

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers