Rev. Thomas Guttery ^{227,1101,1343,3674,41165,41166,41203,41842,41843,41844,41845}

  General Notes:

Exrtract from "The Life of Arthur Thomas Guttery":

Thomas Guttery was one of the most eloquent and popular ministers of the Primitive Methodist Church. He was born at Brierley Hill, near Birmingham, in 1837. His father, John Guttery, was an
Irishman. He was a builder, carpenter and cooper, and was known as " The Irish Cooper." He wore his hair in long curls down his back. The family were Congregationalists. Thomas was educated in a private school, and afterwards learnt his father's trade. When twelve years of age he was onverted under the influence of Primitive Methodism, in one of the revivals which were frequent in those days. It was in Round Gate Chapel. By his side at the penitents' form Joseph Ferguson knelt. When Thomas Guttery was at the height of his fame, Dr. Joseph Ferguson
was, also, one of the denominational orators. As a boy, Thomas Guttery was drawn to Primitive Methodism by its evangelism and its opportunities for service. At seventeen years of age he became a local preacher and, two years later, he was received into the ministerial ranks.

From the beginning he was distinguished. There was a gentlemanliness and courtesy in his bearing which won all hearts. Throughout his life and in every place he was esteemed and loved. His remarkable preaching gifts gave him supremacy. He was a natural pulpit orator. Thousands still remember the witchery of his speech and the fascination of his personality. The crowds waited on
his ministry wherever he " travelled." All his gifts were consecrated to the supreme work of winning souls for Christ his imagination, his wit, his dramatic power, and the unction and style of his speech. It was an experience unforgettable to hear him. His speech was lucid and alluring.

There was nothing loud in his manner. Quite quietly he spoke. His sermonic art, his vivid language, his musical voice, his fervour and abandon, all created interest and sustained attention.

He was equally famous as a lecturer. Without a note, for a couple of hours, he could hold an audience spellbound, as he described David Livingstone, General Gordon or Cardinal Wolsey, or told of 1 The Lights and Shades of London Life." As a feat of memory each lecture was a marvel. In word-painting and in soul-moving speech there were few to equal him. He was a great gift of God
to Primitive Methodism and to the Nonconformity of England.

He ministered at Oswestry, Tunstall, Dawley, Birmingham, Leominster, Shrewsbury, olverhampton, Toronto (Canada), Sunderland, London, Southport and Sunderland, a second time. As a special
preacher and lecturer he was in great demand, and at District Meetings and Conferences he was heard at his best. At the Sunderland Conference, in 1890, he was the last speaker at the great public meeting in the Victoria Hall. The miners of Northumberland and Durham were there, and, as he sympathetically described the white-washed cottages of the pitmen he had seen from the window of the railway carriage and spoke of the piety which beautified many of these simple dwellings, he excited the crowd to rapture.

When he went to Tunstall the mother circuit of Primitive Methodism he was only twenty-one years of age. There he served two of his probationary years. His superintendent was the Rev. Philip Pugh, and his junior colleague the Rev. William Jones. His salary was 9 IDS. per quarter. There is a minute in the circuit book to this effect: "That Brother Guttery be allowed to order a book-case, and the maximum price be ten shillings." William Jones, also, was a rising orator, which explains this resolution in the minute book, dated December I5th, 1858 : " That Bros. Jones and Guttery be allowed one Sunday each next quarter for foreign engagements." There were many applications
for Thomas Guttery's services for " specials " in other circuits, some of which were granted by the Quarterly Meeting, but quite a number were " turned down."

His Wolverhampton ministry (1868- 1871) was wonderfully successful. He joyfully accepted the conditions of the Primitive Methodist ministry of those days. The Rev. Silas L. George, a native of Wolverhampton, and whose father was a close friend of Thomas Glittery, says :

' Thomas Guttery came to Wolverhampton Circuit in 1868. He was then in the early morning of his great ministry, but had already made for himself a name for his magnificent preaching. The salaries
of that time were poor; the houses were small and meagrely furnished. At Wolverhampton, Thomas Guttery had ,76 a year and lived in a house at four shillings and ninepence per week, which included rates, but the Gutterys never allowed their struggles to be known. They always put
the bright side out, though it is to be feared they knew what it was to economise severely. I remember my mother saying that the Gutterys always laid the dinnertable fully, and, if there was nothing to put into the dishes, hot water was put in. They were never sure that they would be free
from callers, for, besides being at the head of a big circuit, Mr. Guttery was much in request for public services of all kinds. No Primitive Methodist minister for the last fifty years dominated the life of the town as Guttery did. His departure for Canada was a most serious blow to the circuit."

While in Wolverhampton he received an invitation to the pastorate of another Free Church at a salary of ^400, but the offer was no temptation.

For eight years (1871-1879) Thomas Guttery was in Canada, at the special request of the Conference. At once he took a foremost place. His first church, Alice Street, Toronto, was burnt down. The congregation then built the church in Carlton Street. Afterwards he was in charge
of the church in Yorkville, Toronto. He was equally popular with the Canadians. For seven years he edited The Christian Journal, the organ of the denomination, in which particularly he fought the liquor traffic.

Returning to England in June, 1879, he was left unstationed for twelve months, during which he preached and lectured in all parts of the United Kingdom. In July, 1880, he was stationed at Sunderland, and began the ministry which made his name a household word. He was a member of the School Board and an active leader of the Liberal Party. His name was a name to conjure with on Wearside and, indeed, throughout Durham and Northumberland. His firm political convictions, expressed in attractive speech and with dramatic power, made him a valuable ally to Liberal
candidates and members. His church, too, at Tatham Street, was at the height of its prosperity.

In London, at Caledonian Road, and in Southport, where the Cambridge Hall had to be rented, he also ministered, and retrned in 1894 to Sunderland. In 1892 he had been designated Vice-Connexional Editor, and,, if he had been spared, would
have come to the Editorial Chair in 1897. His biography of William Clowes, one of the founders of Primitive Methodism, showed his literary insight and skill. But his health failed. In the March of 1895 he was obliged to seek rest and change. He went to Ilkley, but nothing could
combat the dreadful disease which had seized him. He died, at the age of fifty-eight, of cancer of the liver on June 1 4th, 1895, the day before his son's thirty-third birthday. Earlier in the month of June his son had presided at the Quarterly Meeting of the Sunderland Second Circuit by reason of his father's illness. The Annual Conference was in session in Edinburgh at the time of his death. His son telegraphed the news : " Father ascended at two this morning." He was interred in the Sunderland Cemetery, Ryhope Road, on the follwing Tuesday. On his tombstone re inscribed the last words he breathed : " I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."

The pathos of his passing has never departed. Thousands who knew him and came under the spell of his matchless eloquence speak of him to-day with admiration and affection. He was a unique
personality in the Primitive Methodism of his day. He had qualities in common with many of his brethren, but he was as one apart and above, in the charm of his nature, his mastery of men, his unfeigned piety and the singular brilliancy and excitement of his speech.

Emily Guttery, the mother of Arthur Thomas Guttery, was in every sense the fitting consort of her husband. All who knew them recognised what an ideal pair they were. Holland was her maiden name and Thomas Guttery met her first at Burslem. She attended the " Salt Box," as the old chapel in Burslem was called. She was a teacher in the Sunday School and was known, too, for her gift of song. There was a fine blending of qualities in her. Her piety was sincere and attractive. She was gentle and wise, prudent and far-seeing, always on the look-out for souls. In every
circuit she sought out the young people to woo and win them to the Saviour.

She was proud of her husband and proud of her son, but she would never admit that
Arthur was equal to his father.

Everywhere she was admired and loved. This is the testimony of the Rev. S. L.
George : " Mrs. Guttery was a lady of great charm, of deep spirituality, and wielded a great influence in the Church. Certainly I, for one, loved her with all the romance of youth. Just as Thomas Guttery filled my early ideal of all that a minister of Jesus Christ should be, so Mrs. Guttery was my ideal of truly noble womanhood. ... I had left home for business when the
Gutterys left for Canada, but I wanted to see them again, and especially Mrs. Guttery, before they went, and I tramped the thirteen miles from Stourbridge to Wolverhampton in order to say good-bye.

How well I remember that parting

It was in the street, near my home. As Mrs. Guttery held my hand she looked at me with intensest concern, and I saw the tears in her eyes as she made a last strong appeal to me to give myself to the Saviour. She said she was sure that the Lord had work for me to do for Him and that some
time she hoped to see me in the ministry. Her appeal did much to decide my future. ... It was typical of her. She was ever trying to win the young people to decision
for Christ."

During A. T. Guttery's Newcastle ministry she was resident in the city and regular in attendance at the Central Church. All Mr. Guttery's colleagues speak of " Grandma Guttery " in terms of affection
and reverence.

The Rev. F. Hobson, who served with Mr. Guttery as an evangelist before entering the ministry, says : " Nor can we forget the part played by Grandma Guttery. It was a benediction to see her and to hear her in the prayer-meeting. She was a saint. How anxious and solicitous was her
concern for c Arthur ' ! How quietly she would remind him that 'his father* did not do this or the other which he did ! With the merriest twinkle in his eye he would receive her advice and reproof."

The Rev. J. W. Clifford, M.A., who was Mr. Guttery' s colleague for five years in Newcastle, pays this tribute :

" I remember his mother she died just before midnight on 3ist December, 1902, when I had been about six months in Newcastle. She was a gracious lady; her husband was her ideal, both as a
man and as a minister. She could pray in a prayer-meeting to the good of all present. She was proud of her gifted and successful son and glad to share in his ministry. I remember that she was clear and resolute in her thinking, and he was only like his ' little mother ' in fearless speech, joined with natural courtesy. She was buried at Sunderland it was a bitter winter's day. Mr. Guttery said that, after doing all possible to ensure her recovery, he felt defeated for the first time. ' I don't like to be beaten/ he said. He had hoped to save her for she was not old."

To such parents A. T. Guttery was born and, during each of their lives, he was beloved and tended. Often in Thomas Guttery's sermons he referred to ' my boy/

****

Probate:
GUTTERY Thomas of 2 Toward-terrace Sunderland primitive methodist minister died 14 June 1895 Probate Durham 16 September to Emily Guttery widow Arthur Thomas Guttery primmitive methodist minister. Effects £894 10s.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Registered Christening, 13 Nov 1836, Brierley Hill, Staffordshire, England. ²²⁷

• England Census, 1841, Kingswinford, Staffordshire, England. ⁴¹²⁰³

• England Census, 1851, Kingswinford, Staffordshire, England. ⁴¹¹⁶⁵

• England Census, 1861, Kingswinford, Staffordshire, England. ⁴¹¹⁶⁶

• Occupation: Methodist minister, 1861. ⁴¹¹⁶⁶

• Occupation: 'Dissenting' Minister, 1867. ¹¹⁰¹

• Engagement, 1871, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England. ⁴¹⁸⁴⁶

• Occupation: 'Primitave' methodist minister, 1871. ⁴¹⁸⁴⁶

• Directory: 4 Davenport Road, 1876, Yorkville, Ontario, Canada. ⁴¹⁸⁴⁵

• England Census, 1881, Bishopwearmouth, Durham, England. ⁴¹⁸⁴²

• Occupation: Minister (Waltham St chapel), 1881. ⁴¹⁸⁴²

• England Census, 1891, Noth Meols, Lancashire, England. ⁴¹⁸⁴³

• Occupation: "Primitive' Methodist minister, 1891. ⁴¹⁸⁴³

• Registered Death, 1895, Sunderland District, Durham, England. ⁴¹⁸⁴⁴

• Probate, 16 Sep 1895, Durham, Durham, England. ¹³⁴³

Thomas married Emily Holland in 1861 in Wolstanton District, Staffordshire, England.³⁶⁷⁴ (Emily Holland was born circa 1835 in Burleston, Dorset, England ^{41842,41843,41846} and died on 31 Dec 1902 in Newcastle Upon Tyne District, Northumberland, England ⁴¹⁸⁴⁷.)

  Noted events in their marriage were:

• Registered Marriage, 1861, Wolstanton District, Staffordshire, England. ³⁶⁷⁴