Roberts, James (1844-192x)

We have been alerted to the story of James Roberts through an enquiry from his great-grandaughter Ghislaine Davis. She is researching his life and we hope will be able to add to this account in time. In the meantime, here is what we have gleaned from Methodist records.

There were two United Methodist Free Churches ministers named James Roberts, and confusingly for the researcher they were both stationed in Bristol in 1901. The subject of this page was the younger of the two, who spent twenty-eight years in Jamaica. The United Methodist Free Churches mission in Jamaica began when Wesleyan congregations led by Thomas Pennock joined the new Wesleyan Methodist Association. A new Circuit was created in 1840, Providence, centered on Gordon Town, by Rev Abraham Hyams who ministered there until 1871. He remained as a supernumerary until 1874. James Roberts replaced him between 1871 to 1898. These long tenures seem to have been common in the mission fields – James’s second father in law Rev William Griffith (1831-1915) went out to Jamaica in 1860 and never returned home.

James returned home, but left the ministry in 1906, after he had retired, so we don’t possess an official obituary.

Family

James was born in Rawcliffe, near Goole in 1844 , to Richard Roberts, a barber, and his wife Mary. Before entering the Free Methodist ministry from the Chesterfield Circuit, he was a pupil teacher (1861).

He married a currently unidentified wife probably before leaving for Jamaica in 1871. She died in Jamaica before 1876. They had a daughter

• Elfleda (1872-)

He married Elizabeth Ann Griffiths (1859-1913) on 1st June 1876 in the UMFC chapel in Kingston, Jamaica. Her father, Rev William Griffith conducted the marriage. Six children have been identified in the records

• Emma (1878- )
• Lois Mary (1879-1880)
• Florence Edith (1883- )
• Frank (1885- )
• Minnie Constance (1886-)
• Dinah Winifred (1890-1965 )

James  died after 1925.

Circuits

• 1863 Liverpool
• 1864 Evesham
• 1866  South Sunderland
• 1869  Sowerby Bridge (received into Full Connexion)
• 1871   Providence (Gordon Town), Jamaica
• 1881  on furlough
• 1881   Providence (Gordon Town), Jamaica
• 1899  Macclesfield
• 1900  Bristol East
• 1901   Cleckheaton
• 1902  Redruth
• 1904  Holt
• 1905 Holt (Supernumerary)
• 1906 withdrew

After his withdrawal from the ministry he was employed in Norwich as a publisher’s agent (1911)

References

Oliver A Beckerlegge, United Methodist ministers and their circuits: Being an arrangement in alphabetical order of the stations of ministers of the Methodist New … and the United Methodist Church, 1797-1932

Missionary Echo of the United Methodist Free Churches 1894

Minutes of the United Methodist Free Churches Assembly 1906 p69

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers