Of whom the world was not worthy Part II

Short accounts from the church book at Hope Chapel, Rochdale, of the church members during the early years of John Kershaw’s ministry.

JAMES PARKINSON (17)

James Parkinson, having attained to the age of three score years and ten, was removed from us by the hand of death to join the church triumphant in heaven. He was a native of Rossendale and was for many years a member of the church of Christ at Bacup under the pastoral care of the late venerable John Hirst. But as he came to live in Rochdale and attend the ministry of the Word with us, he considered it his duty to unite with us, so on the first Lord’s day in January 1827, he had the right hand of fellowship given unto him, and he continued a steady, affectionate member until his death which was on October 30th, 1829.

He left the following portion of the Word of God for our minister to speak from for the benefit of his brethren: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief (1 Tim. 1. 15). This text was the stay and support of his mind in his last sickness, for it was on the work of Jesus that his soul was built for heaven, and not upon his own works. John Hirst was one of the eminent Particular Baptist ministers at the end of the eighteenth century. John Kershaw speaks much of him in his autobiography. A biography of Mr. Hirst was published after his death, but the author was of a different calibre.

ABRAHAM EARNSHAW (18)

Abraham Earnshaw departed this life May 3rd, 1830, having been a member with us near six years and a member of the church in Town Meadows under the pastoral care of Mr. Littlewood for many years but left for the same reason as James Howarth of Brimrod Lane End (see the account of him, number 5). He was a quiet, peaceable member and was very useful both in the church and the Sabbath school, so that we have found the loss of him; but it is the Lord that has taken him to Himself and, blessed be His name, He is too wise to err and too good to be unkind. As a Christian he was established in the doctrines of the gospel, and he died very happy in the Lord, leaving a widow and a large family to mourn their loss. He worked a long time at Cronkey Shaw Factory and was much esteemed both by his master and the men. He would have no funeral sermon preached, no gravestone, for he considered himself not worthy to be named. In him the grace of God shined bright. Before his conversion to God, he was a wild young man given up to race running. He died in the Bent Meadow, near the Heights. At this time there were many dissatisfied with the legal strain that had crept into the old Particular Baptist churches and were constrained to leave and form new churches (or unite with those that had been formed).

JOHN TAYLOR (19)

John Taylor of Bury [a few miles from Rochdale] died February 6th, 1831, having been a member nearly nine years. His death was very sudden for he was seized with a fever and was insensible nearly from the commencement of his sickness. His wife died the day after him and the Monday following they were buried together in Bury churchyard. O Lord, make us watchful and prayerful, for in such an hour as we think not the Lord may call us out of time into eternity. And may we be built upon Christ the Rock of Ages and washed from all our sins in His precious blood and clothed in His glorious robe of righteousness, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, that we may be made meet to be partakers of that inheritance which is undefiled and fadeth not away. He left four orphans entirely unprovided for. How mysterious are the dispensations of divine providence, and though often trying to us, yet all is in love and faithfulness for our God is too wise to err and too good to be unkind! Teach us, then, to be resigned to Thy will and to say from our very hearts, k ‘The will of the Lord be done on earth as it is done in heaven,” and with old Eli, “It is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him good.” In 1835 William Gadsby opened a chapel in Bury. It was here that Robert Moxon became the pastor.

JAMES RAMSBOTTOM (20)

James Ramsbottom of Shuttleworth in the parish of Bury departed this life January 29th, 1832, having been a member with us eight years and four months. He knew the Lord many years before he joined us and was an attender at the Park Chapel [an old Independent chapel]. But being convinced by the Word and Spirit of God that believers 1 baptism is the baptism of the Bible, he came forward with several more from the same neighbourhood and was baptized September 7th, 1823, and added to us as a church the same day and continued a steady, peaceable member until his death. A few days before he died, our minister set off for Wolverhampton for four Lord’s days, and on the day he set off he called to see him and he said, “I shall be dead when you come back.” And so it was for he died in four days after leaving a good testimony behind him that he is with Jesus which is far better than being here in this world of sin and sorrow. He died at Huntley Brook near Bury, the family having removed thither a few months before his death, and being a man that had very poor health, he was much confined to his house for some time before his death.

MARY MILNS (21)

Mary Milns of Stoney Field died February 15th, 1832, having been a member about three years. She was baptized when she was old, though she had been a hearer for thirty or forty years, first at the Town Meadows under Mr. Littlewood, and for many years with us before she joined us. Her death was rather unexpected for, though she had been poorly, she was considered to be getting better but suddenly got worse and died, and we trust she died in the Lord, and blessed are all such. For Town Meadows and Thomas Littlewood see John Kershaw’s autobiography.

ANN WILD (22)

Ann, the wife of Thomas Wild, of Wrigley Square, near to this chapel, departed this life April 2nd, 1832, having been a member of this church seven years and five months. She died of a rapid consumption and during her sickness she was well supported in her soul for she found Christ to be precious and on Him she built for eternity. To His blood she looked by faith to cleanse her from all sin and to His righteousness to clothe her. The night before her death, she said to our minister and some other friends present that He, Jesus, had done all things well.

BETTY KAY (23)

Betty Kay of Freetown, Bury, was taken away by the all conquering hand of death, April 31st [sic], 1832, having been a member with us seven years. She was a poor, tried woman but was very much reconciled to the dispensation of the Lord towards her. She had been poorly for some time before her death but her end did not appear to be so near as it was, for she went to bed about nine o’clock on the night she died and as she got into bed, a blood vessel burst and she died immediately, and all that she was able to say was, with the martyr Stephen, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” May we not say concerning such, as Dr. Watts sings:

‘See the kind angels at the gate, Inviting us to come; There Jesus the Forerunner waits, To welcome travelers home.”

JOHN HOWARTH (24)

John Howarth of Moor Yate near the Shaw was removed from communion with us by the hand of death, November 28th, 1832, having been a member of this church fourteen years and a member

in the Town Meadows under the pastoral care of Mr. Thomas Littlewood before he came to us. He was a peaceable man and a precious companion in the path of tribulation. He was sick for twelve months before his death and he was very much blessed of the Lord in his sickness and left a pleasing testimony behind him that he was one of the Lord’s jewels. He left a widow and several children to mourn the loss of a kind husband and an affectionate father but their loss is his eternal gain.

JAMES TWEEDALE (25)

James Tweedale, one of the deacons of this church, was removed from us by the messenger death, November 31st, 1832, having been a member with us seventeen years. For several years before his death he was a poor, tried man with a family of small children and very poor health, for sixteen months before his death unable to work, but the Lord disposed the minds of many, both of His saints and of the men of the world, to help him. Mr. James Butterworth of Wardleworth Brow was uncommonly kind to him and (like ravens who daily fed the prophet Elijah in the wilderness by carrying him the bread and the flesh) he sent him his daily provision for some months. He was very much respected by all who knew him. He was one of the first persons that our minister baptized. He was one of the best bass singers in this town or neighbourhood. He was a kind, peaceable man, well established in the truth of God, and during his long affliction was blessed with great patience and submission to the will of the Lord. He was born and brought up at Prickshaw near Whitworth but after his marriage he lived near the Syketop of Cronkey Shaw where a few months before his death they removed to Wardleworth Fold. He died young. The following words of the poet were made very sweet unto him:

“Thou givest me the lot Of those that fear Thy name, If endless life be their reward I shall possess the same.”

Our minister preached his funeral sermon to a crowded congregation from a text that the deceased left him to preach from, which was Psalm 115 verse 1: “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth’s sake.” P.S. John Howarth and James Tweedale both died while our minister was in London and they were interred in our graveyard by Mr. Ely, a minister of Providence Chapel. John Ely was the Independent minister in Rochdale who signed John Kershaw’s begging book that same year (see autobiography, pages 199-200, 1994 edition).

BETTY CLEGG (26)

Betty Clegg (commonly called Betty Riley) of Lower Fold, Healey, died at Manchester, March 10th, 1833, having been a member nearly four years. At the time that our minister, John Kershaw, began to preach, the deceased and him lived next door neighbours at Lower Fold. She was one of his greatest persecutors, and for many years after his removal from Lower Fold to the chapel she continued in a state of enmity to the Lord until the set time to favour Zion came. When the Lord began the good work of grace in her soul, no place of worship would do for Betty but Hope Chapel. No minister suited her so well as the man she had so much despised and ridiculed and she proved our Lord’s words to be true: “And with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again” (Matt. 7. 2), for her husband persecuted her very much and often locked up her clothes to prevent her from going to the chapel, but it only tended to stir her up. For persecution never does the child of God any real harm but as Paul said, it is “for the furtherance of the gospel.” Her husband died before her and after his death, she and the children had to go to Manchester to get work, things were so bad at Rochdale. Our minister went on purpose to Manchester to see her the Friday before she died and he found her very weak in body but very comfortable in her mind. Yet the comfort our minister felt in conversing, reading and praying with her was such that he was abundantly satisfied with his journey. She died the following Lord’s day in the fiftieth year of her age. John Kershaw gives many additional details concerning Betty Clegg in his autobiography (pages 146-148), though he does not name her.

JOHN RILEY (27)

John Riley departed this life on April 10th, 1833, having been a peaceable, steady member for four years, but a hearer of the word many years before he joined the church. He lived twenty years at Leaven Greave behind Whitworth but his master James King, a Quaker, removing his works to the canals(?) near Lower Place, he and his family came to live there. His sickness was but for three days and mostly insensible. Our minister went to see him and he told him all his hope was in Christ.

MARY SYKES (28)

Mary, the wife of Edmund Sykes of Slaithwaite, near Rudders field, was removed from communion with us as a church May 13th, 1833, having been a member with us three years. She was baptized by Mr. Abraham Webster at Pole Moor and afterwards became a member of the church at Slaithwaite, which church Edmund and Mary Sykes and a few more were the honoured instruments of planting, and they built the chapel called Providence Chapel. But in consequence of Mr. Higson, who became their pastor, falling into error, the old members who were the founders of the interest were driven away and brother Sykes and his wife joined us and truly she was a valuable woman, a mother in Israel, well taught and established in the truth as it is in Jesus. When the Lord took her, the loss was great to her husband and numerous family but their loss will be her eternal gain having received the crown of glory which God hath promised to them that love Him. Pole Moor was the chapel John Warburton spoke about so much, where he longed to be pastor. John Kershaw regularly preached at Slaithwaite in the early days of his ministry. In his autobiography he gives a remarkable account of his first visit and his first meeting with Mrs. Sykes (pages 121-123).