Author: Smith, Thomas
Biography:
SMITH, Thomas (1759-1835: findmypast.co.uk)
He was possibly the Thomas Smith baptised on 22 Mar. 1759 at St. Oswald’s, Chester, Cheshire, the son of Thomas Smith, saddler. His mother’s name is unknown. Nothing is known of his education. He was a Wesleyan Methodist before being introduced to the Dukinfield (near Manchester) congregation (Independent/Presbyterian) by Rev. William Stevenson. He began preaching in Dec. 1794 after which he was invited to become minister. The congregation consisted “mostly of working people in low circumstances” (Gordon, 61). He formed a literary society there where poems were submitted and criticised. His salary was £33 p.a. and he left in June 1797 to take up a post at Stand, Pilkington, near Manchester, which offered a house and salary of £70 p.a. He left Stand in 1810 for Risley and finally moved to Park Lane Chapel, near Wigan, where he was minister 1812-22 after which he retired and at some stage returned to the Chester area. He died on 18 Dec. 1835 at Egg Bridge, Chester, and was buried on 22 Dec. at St. John the Baptist, Chester. He had eight children baptised at Stand (1789-1806), with his wife’s name given as Sarah. Her maiden name is unknown and there are various candidates. In addition to the volumes listed here, he wrote An Essay on Avarice, which is probably the anonymous and unattributed work in Manchester Central Library, An Essay on Avarice with a Sketch of Benevolence (1790). (findmypast.co.uk 17 Jan. 2023; Monthly Repository Dec. 1823, 684; Alexander Gordon, Historical Account of Dukinfield Chapel [1896], 60-62; Royal Cornwall Gazette 8 Jan. 1836) AA