Fullagar, Kelsham (1810-1841)

Kelsham Fullagar  was born on the 13th May 1810 in Ulcomb, Kent to Kelsham and Ann Fullagar. The family moved to the neighbouring village of Headcorn where his parents became founder members of the Wesleyan chapel.

Ministry

He became a local preacher in 1831, and by 1834 was persuaded that he might be called to a wider ministry. From June to September 1834 he was employed as an assistant to Rev. J. Fordred in the Dover Circuit. He then moved to Margate and was able to study with the Rev.J. Brown. Following approval by the Circuit meeting and District Synod he entered the Wesleyan Methodist ministry on trial in 1835.

He was stationed in the Hinckley Circuit, but was only there between August 28th and October 13th. He was selected for the Jamaica Mission, and was sent out on October 27th. He remained for the rest of his short life. He was in Jamaica at a time of great change, including the abolition of slavery. His brother states that Kelsham “Had enlightened views of Christian liberty” and was opposed to ecclesiastical tyranny. He was accused of ill-defined faults by his superintendant minister, which resulted in him being dismissed from the Wesleyan Methodist ministry at the 1838 Conference. By then, however, he had made contact with his former District Chair Thomas Pennock whose views on baptism, and other matters, were contrary to those of the Connexion. Following their meeting Kelsham Fullagar returned to St. Anne’s and met with his congregations. They agreed to join the Wesleyan Methodist Association., and Kelsham remained a minister of that body until his death. The contemporary histories of Jamaican Wesleyan Methodism are silent on the  split and the ministries of Pennock and Fullagar.

Family

Kelsham married Elizabeth Trewick on 11th November 1837 in St. Anns parish in Jamaica.. They had two children

• Sarah Thomas (1839-1930)
• Kelsham (1840-1901)

During 1841 two of Elizabeth Trewick’s brothers and then her mother succumbed to fever, and her husband was not long avoiding the same illness. Kelsham died on 20 July 1841 in St. Ann’s, Jamaica. His obituary appears in the Minutes of the Wesleyan Methodist Assocation Assembly 1842 p7 and a full account of his life by his brother Thomas in The Wesleyan Methodist Association Magazine of 1843

Circuits

• 1835 Hinckley
• 1836-1841  St. Anns, Jamaica

References

Wesleyan Methodist Association Magazine  1843 pp257-264, 297-305

Minutes of the Methodist Conferences Vol. VIII [1836-1839] (1841) p283

O.A. Beckerlegge United Methodist ministers and their Circuits, 1968 p84

Foster, Henry Blaine Rise and progress of Wesleyan-Methodism in Jamaica (1881)