Author: Matthews, Richard
Biography:
MATTHEWS, Richard (1796-1854: ancestry.com)
He was born at Histon, Cambridgeshire, and baptised there on 3 Apr. 1796, the son of Richard and Frances (King) Matthews and younger brother of Elizabeth Matthews (q.v.). Richard senior died in 1809, so it was his son who signed the application for the first Methodist chapel in Histon in 1819 and who became a local preacher and class leader. He entered the Middle Temple in 1823, moved to London, and was called to the bar in 1828. His ventures in poetry were limited to a few pieces in periodicals, one independent collection, and some contributions to his sister’s Original Hymns. On 25 Sept. 1835 he married Hannah Day at Histon. The couple settled near his sister in Barnsbury, Islington, but the marriage was childless and she died in 1840: he wrote an account of The Last Days and Hours of Mrs. Hannah Mathews (1841). On 29 Sept. 1843 he married Lucy Maria Heald (1817-59), with whom he had six children. Matthews had a busy life as a lawyer with chambers in London and regular practice on the Northern Circuit. He and his sister were both ardent abolitionists. He acted as Secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society from 1825 and when he had to give up that position because of pressure of work, he remained as an active regular member of the Committee and took a lead in legal issues, notably with the formulation of a bill, passed into law in 1838, that recognised the legal status of marriages between former slaves in all Crown Colonies and provided for future marriages. For the Methodists he provided similar service as a member of the Committee of Privileges (1828-51), of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society (1828-50), and of the Education Committee (1842-51). Matthews was made a Serjeant-at-Law in July 1852. Besides occasional pamphlets and opinions on legal issues, his most noteworthy publication was his anonymous Companion to the Wesleyan Hymn-Book (1847). He died “in great peace” at his home in Belitha Villas, Barnsbury, on 24 Feb. 1854, and was buried at Highgate Cemetery. (ancestry.com 17 Apr. 2023; findmypast.com 17 Apr. 2023; Brian Beck, “Richard Matthews, a Layman Overlooked,” Epworth Review 35:3 [2008], 52-63; Patriot 27 Feb. 1854)