The Rev Samuel Josiah Washington, 1847-1915 “The Baptist steam engine”

 

Porus Baptist Church

During his lifetime, Samuel Josiah Washington attracted the epithets “the Baptist steam engine” and “the giant of the Baptist Union.” Such was the esteem in which people held this servant of God.

Washington was born on November 21, 1847, in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, the fifth of Jane and Jacob Washington’s six children, some of whom were enslaved persons. He attended the Savanna-la-Mar Primary School and then worked with his brother as a mason. Later, he gained admission to Calabar Normal School and trained as a teacher. He gained his reputation as an excellent teacher and school administrator when he served at the Baptist school in Stewart Town, Trelawny. He answered the call to the ministry and, in 1875, he was admitted to Calabar College for ministerial formation and training.

After serving in the Port Antonio circuit, Washington made the Porus circuit in Manchester the main sphere of his work. There, he employed his gifts in the service of the people to the glory of God. He carried out an extensive building programme in the circuit and was dearly loved in the communities in which the churches were set.

Washington is remembered for his participation in the inaugural assembly of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) that took place in London, UK, in July 111-19, 1905. Other representatives from Jamaica who accompanied to this meeting included Augustus Kirkham of Sav la Mar and Frederick Edmonds of Ocho Rios. But it was Stephenson who gave the official response on behalf of Jamaica at the appointed time during the Congress. He was elected a vice BWA president and became the first in a line of Jamaica Baptists who held office in BWA. While at the BWA Congress, Washington invited the renowned Rev.  R. H. Boyd of the National Baptist Publishing Board of Nashville, Tennessee, USA, to visit Jamaica. Boyd seized every opportunity to ensure that the Publishing Board would promote religious liberty by enabling Black churches to produce their own materials for worship and Christian education.

Washington was an author. On the 50^th anniversary of emancipation, he joined with four other Jamaicans – Rev. R. Gordon, Mr. W. F. Bailey, Mr. J. H. Reid and Mr. R. Dingwall – to produce Jamaica’s Jubilee or Who We are and What We Hope to Be. The book was published in London by S. W. Partridge & Co., in 1888. Washington contributed the chapter entitled, “Some Hindrances to the Greater Prosperity of Jamaica during the last Fifty Years.” In the Preface to the book, R Dingwall said this: 

In thrusting this little volume upon the attention of the public, we do not think any apology is needed. The occasion demands it. For fifty years have we enjoyed the privileges and advantages of Freedom; and it is but reasonable that we should by some effort of this kind endeavour to examine ourselves as to how we have profited by them, as well as give the world an opportunity of forming a correct opinion of us, the emancipated people of Jamaica and these British West Indies in general. Once and again, others have had their say about us; surely the world will not count us presumptuous, if, for once—on an occasion so highly momentous, so deeply interesting—we venture to ask permission to speak for ourselves!

After serving for 36 years in the Porus circuit, he died on November 5, 1915, at the age of 68. The cause of his death was certified to be cardiac failure. The funeral service took place at the Porus Baptist Church on November 11, 1915. In his funeral oration, Rev the Hon. E. B. Esson, a Congregationalist, praised Washington’s “ability as an orator, his sincerity and earnestness as a preacher and his tact and firmness in dealing with all matters pertaining to the administration of his church.”

At a Memorial Service for Washington, held at Porus on August 4, 1920, the Baptist churches at Porus, Harmons, Zion Hill and Mandeville remembered Washington as the “giant of the Baptist Union” and “the Baptist steam engine.” A mural tablet in Washington’s honour was unveiled and Rev. L M Beverley of Point Hill delivered the sermon based on Acts 13:36 “Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep.”

A servant of God, who had served as Chairman of the Jamaica Baptist Union, 1899-1900, and who was truly concerned for the welfare of the people in his charge had “fought the good fight, finished his course and kept the faith.

 

 

 

 

William Menzie Webb, 1879-1912: Combining Daring Vision and Courageous Action

 

Stewart Town Baptist Church

 

William Menzie Webb was born on January 12, 1839, at Southampton, near Brown's Town, St Ann, which was then the property of Mr J. Parry.

His father, William Webb (Sr.), was united in marriage to Jane Syms, who was born in Shillington, Central Bedfordshire, England. The wedding took place at a church in Aboukir in 1838. Webb Sr. became manager of the Southampton Estate.  

Webb’s mother, a deeply devout woman, sought to bring up her son “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”  Webb spoke frequently of the godly influence his mother provided him during his childhood. Mrs Webb was a member of the Brown’s Town Baptist Church. She was principally responsible for bringing up her children in an atmosphere marked by the daily reading of the Holy Bible and family worship morning and evening with father, children, servants and visitors in attendance.

When he was about six years of age, Webb’s parents removed to their own property in Alexandria, in the Dry Harbour Mountains. They owned properties called Orange Vale and “The Mills.”

In those early years after emancipation, many parents longed for their children to receive a good education and this was one of the main concerns of Mr Webb (Sr.). So, while his son was still young, when men from Britain travelled about the countryside seeking jobs as teachers and accountants, he hired an elderly Englishman, a Mr. Cousins, as William’s tutor. Cousins taught young Webb to repeat from memory the Church of England Catechism and he introduced him to Thomas Dilworth’s spelling book and other books of that class.

At ten years of age, Webb’s father took him to Falmouth, boarded him with a family of strict Church people, and enrolled him at the Kirk school, under Mr. William Miller, a Scotch teacher with an outstanding reputation. Young Webb remained there for three years and his progress was considered satisfactory. While at Falmouth, Webb paid close attention to the sermons of the learned and devout rector, Dr Mc Grath. Webb was growing up in the path of godliness and virtue.

When he was 13, Webb returned home to his parents with solemn thoughts of God and of God’s gift of salvation given through Jesus Christ. He shared his thoughts with his mother, which filled her with joy. She advised her son to contact Rev John Clark, the celebrated pastor of Brown’s Town and Bethany Baptist Churches, and let him know about his desire for baptism. In that same year, his thirteenth, Webb was baptized and received into the fellowship of the Bethany Church.

He remained at home for two years pursuing his studies, and in January 1854, when he was fifteen years of age, he applied and gained admission to the Mico institution, which was then under the leadership of Julius Oliver Beardslee, an American abolitionist who contributed to the introduction of the Disciples of Christ Church in Jamaica.

For three years, Mr. Webb pursued his studies at the Mico. One of his outstanding teachers was   William Whitehorne, who succeeded Beardslee as principal of Mico. Webb left Mico with a first-class certificate when he was only eighteen. At the invitation of Rev. Benjamin Millard, then Baptist Minister of St. Ann's Bay, he took charge of the St Ann’s Bay Baptist Day School. Some of his students were young men and young women older than their teacher. They soon discovered that the teacher, although young, knew how to command respect, maintain discipline, and teach his pupils.

Webb was a strict and efficient teacher and the school flourished under his leadership. Soon, the student body moved from about 60 to more than 100 pupils. Mr. Millard recognized Webb’s exceptional gifts and not only placed his name in the church’s preaching plan, but offered to assist him in further studies. After two years of successful teaching work at St. Ann's Bay, Webb applied for admission to Calabar Theological Institution, then located at Calabar, near Rio Bueno. He was admitted, and came under the able leadership of Rev. David Jonathan East, Calabar’s president.

Over his four years at Calabar, Webb excelled in his studies and developed proficiency in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Theology and English Literature. East had the highest regard for Webb and looked forward to his future ministry with enthusiasm and optimism. 

When Webb completed the Calabar programme in December 1862, President East had temporary oversight of the Stewart Town Baptist Church, where Thomas Lea, William Knibb’s nephew, had just resigned the pastorate. East encouraged the church to invite Webb to be their minister. However, some of the deacons of the church and many of the members were not ready to have a Black minister and a young one at that. However, one of the deacons, Edward Samuels, a man of means and influence in the church, favoured Webb and promised that if Webb were accepted as pastor, he would contribute to augment Webb’s salary. The people accepted the offer and, in March 1863, Webb became pastor in the Stewart Town circuit, which included the Gibraltar church. In protest, some members left the church, but  returned later after realizing their folly. In November, 1863, Webb was ordained to the ministry and, with wisdom and zeal, he applied himself to the work of God.

Gibraltar Baptist Church

The Gibraltar Church was meeting for worship in an old coffee house when Webb became pastor there. Webb led them to erect a beautiful edifice which became the pride of the district. Church membership grew as people responded to the proclamation of the Gospel. Such was the rate of growth that, after a few years, Webb suggested that some of the members who had to walk for several miles to church should withdraw from the Gibraltar Church and form a church in Watt Town, some five miles away. One of the members, a Mr. Jarrett, donated land for the construction of a church building and the people, in appreciation, called the church Jarretton Baptist Church.

A visionary, Webb continued to plan for the expansion of the ministry of the church. Recognizing that the Stewart Town church building was too small to accommodate the worshippers, he influenced some members of the church to unite in forming another church in the district of Keith, a few miles from Stewart Town. There they erected a church building which brought corporate worship in the community nearer to people who were not likely to travel on foot over the distance from Keith to Stewart Town.

   

William Webb

             

Keith Baptist Church

 

                  

 

Thomas Gordon Somers: The Silver-tongued Orator

 

A single institution – the Gordon Somers Society (TGSS)— bears his name. The organization’s first meeting took place on October 12, 1946, with Isaac Henry as president. At the meeting, Rev Ernest C. Askew, tutor at Calabar Theological College and Editor of the Jamaica Baptist Reporter made a presentation.  TGSS was an organization formed by Baptist students attending Calabar Theological College and other tertiary institutions in Kingston and St Andrew. In later years, Baptist students attending the United Theological College of the West Indies (UTCWI), the University of the West Indies (UWI), the College of Arts, Science and Technology, now called The University of Technology, Jamaica, and three teacher-training institutions in Kingston — The Mico College, Shortwood and St Joseph’s –  comprised its membership. Baptists from all over Jamaica who were students attending tertiary educational institutions in the Kingston metropolitan area shared rich fellowship and formed lasting friendships in TGAS over many years. The Society’s value was based partly on the remarkable prestige the Thomas Gordon Somers’ name attracted and the salutary example and inspiration the Society’s founders believed Gordon Somers provided for future Baptist leaders. It is unclear whether TGSS is still an active and vibrant organization.

Thomas Gordon Somers was born on May 28, 1866, in Camrose near John’s Hall in the parish of St. James. He attended the Buckingham Day School. He grew up in the environment of the Mount Carey circuit of Baptist churches, where he answered the divine call to the Christian ministry.

He applied for admission to Calabar College where he commenced his formal preparation for ministry in 1889. On his graduation, he served as pastor in the Yallahs Bay (now Yallahs) circuit of churches in the civil parish of St. Thomas.

In 1897, Somers answered the call to serve as pastor of the First Baptist Church (now Phillippo Baptist Church) in Spanish Town. His fame as a pulpit orator was established there.

Gordon Somers figured prominently in the public life of that town. A Justice of the Peace for the parish of St Catherine and a member of the Conciliation Board, he was an ardent advocate in the cause of Education and he served on many school boards. He served on the Parochial Board of St. Catherine and was for one term its chairman; but he resisted the pressure to run for a position in Jamaica’s Legislative Council. Gordon Somers was able to hold in balance his calling as a pastor and his involvement in the political life of the country.

Somers’ service in Spanish Town came to an end in 1922, when he accepted a call to the pastorate of the Stewart Town Baptist circuit which included, Stewart Town, Keith, Jarretton (Watt Town), and Gibraltar churches. He served in this circuit until his death in 1931.

In his book, Bananaland, former Calabar Principal, Ernest Price, who was an English Baptist missionary to Jamaica from 1910 to 1938, tells an interesting story about what transpired in a Baptist church in England one Sunday morning in 1901.

T. Gordon Somers was on his first visit overseas and, on his first Sunday morning in England, he was in Bristol. He decided to worship at the Old King Street Baptist Chapel – a large membership church that was under the pastoral leadership of the eloquent preacher, J. Moffat Logan.

On the Sunday morning when Somers arrived at the church, he was the only Black person present and the people were curious to find out who he was. He introduced himself as an accredited minister of the Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU).

That morning, Rev. J. M. Logan suddenly fell ill and the deacons anxiously sought someone to replace him as preacher at the service. They decided to approach the visiting pastor to ask whether he would deliver the sermon. Somers requested fifteen minutes to collect his thoughts, after which the service began. After hearing Somers’ sermon that morning, the deacons asked if he could return to preach at the evening service, which he did. And when Rev. Mr. Logan's illness persisted, Somers preached at the Church for another six months before returning to Jamaica, where, like the Greek church father, John Chrysostom, he had already earned the moniker “the silver-tongued orator.”

Nine years later, he was elected JBU Secretary-Treasurer. He served in that capacity from 1918-1929, after which he was for two years the first JBU General Secretary.

Gordon Somers served on many JBU committees and in many capacities including as secretary of Calabar College for nearly 10 years, and as chairman (now called President) for 1908-1909. He was Secretary-Treasurer of the Union for 13 years starting in 1908. He led deputations on behalf of JBU to Britain in 1902 and Costa Rica in 1909.

He offered his gifts to the local ecumenical community, serving as president of the Jamaica Union of Christian Endeavourers and president of the Jamaica Union of Evangelical Churches. In 1905, he was chosen as president of the Jamaica League, an organisation formed “to advance Jamaica’s best interests.”

Mr. Rupert E. Meikle, a journalist, delivered a lecture before the Quill and Ink Club at their Jamaica Evening at the YMCA Hotel, Port Maria, in 1933, in which he declared:

 

In building up some definite background of Jamaican Culture and National Pride we can take the lives of two outstanding personalities of this our island community and hold them up to the youths of the country and know that we are showing them the strength and grace and charm of the land. These mirrors of national excellence are Thomas Gordon Somers and Aemelius Alexander Barclay, and in them we see reflected the full-grown fruits of those good qualities which Jamaica and the Negro Race most naturally produce. Both of them were born of the people in humble homes, educated exclusively in the country and rose to great heights in the land acting as national stimuli to its people. Gordon Somers, who cradled in himself all the virtues of the country and its people; and Barclay, who by the force of his personality, character and actions inspired the people.

Meikle identified the Baptist and the Presbyterian ministers as “ideal Jamaicans.”

In announcing the passing of Gordon Somers, The Gleaner newspaper of March 21, 1931, reported Somers’ passing on page 1 under banner headlines, describing the deceased in the following words; “Was For Many Years One Of Island’s Outstanding Personalities” and “WAS NOTED ORATOR” and “Took prominent part in all works for social uplift in Colony.”

On the February 1, 1931, Somers preached his last sermon at a special service at the East Queen Street Baptist Church to mark the Jubilee of the Christian Endeavour movement. Shortly after this, he passed away at the Sanitarium operated by Dr. Anderson in lower St. Andrew. Alice Maud, his wife of thirty-three years, their sons and their daughter were present watching at his bedside.

At his Memorial Service at East Queen Street, on April 5, 1931, Rev Cowell Lloyd, the pastor, declared: 

Gordon Somers is dead! When that message was flashed along the wires and then leaped across the seas, finding its way into newspapers, letters, churches, homes, and hearts, the spontaneous exclamations from every lip were: "A great man has passed on;” “A big Christian has been called away;” “Jamaica has lost one of her most worthy sons.” The news of his death brought a sense of vast loss. It meant a gap in the front line of the battlefield; an empty chair at the council Board, a vacant pulpit in the Church, the removal of a pillar and support of the truth.

Somers’ mortal remains were buried in the church cemetery in Stewart Town after his second funeral service.

God gave many gifts to Thomas Gordon Somers and he dedicated them all to the service of the Lord, whom he loved.

The First Baptist Church, Spanish Town, convened a Memorial Service for Gordon Somers on April 22, 1931, at which the serving pastor Rev Gillette Chambers preached on the text Psalm 127:2. Chambers reminded the congregation that Somers was “a worthy human example, a man whom [they] knew, watched, honoured and loved.” He called Somers a “steward of the manifold grace of God: faithful ambassador, and full dressed soldier of the cross.” He continued: 

Jamaica has lost a worthy son; the Baptist Union, a trusted counsellor and an able leader; the churches a faithful pastor and effective preacher; the family a loving husband and tender father, and I have lost a personal and trustworthy friend.

 

On March 13,1932, a function took place at the East Queen Street Baptist Church to unveil a tablet and portrait of the late Gordon Somers. Mr. A. J. Newman, Principal of the Mico Training College presided and, the choir members of the Coke and East Queen Street Baptist Churches rendered special items. Mr. Frank Somers expressed thanks on behalf of his family for the erection of the tablet to honour his father.

 

We thank God for the ministry and legacy of Thomas Gordon Somers, for those led to Christ through his preaching, and for the stewardship he exhibited as a minister of Christ’s Church.

 

 

Angus Duckett: Missionary, Pastor, Educator & Translator

 

Hayes Baptist Church Building Being Restored

Angus Duckett was a member of the Falmouth (now William Knibb Memorial) Baptist Church. He grew up in a church where the pastor advocated strongly for Baptists in Jamaica to take seriously what he regarded as their responsibility to take the Gospel back to their continent of origin. Duckett was among those who responded favourably to William Knibb’s urging and joined BMS missionary John Clark when, in 1843, he led a group of 42 Jamaicans on a journey to evangelize and contribute to the development of the people of Africa.

Another person who was among those who decided to throw in their lot for the cause of the development and Christianisation of Africa was Miss Ann Cooper from the Brown’s Town Baptist Church. She was a teacher and she joined the team to Africa with a plan to continue her ministry as a teacher there. Duckett and Cooper met in Cameroon and they got married there on July 17, 1844.

Duckett discovered his gift of language acquisition. He developed some mastery of Isubu, a Bantu language spoken in Cameroon, and he went to serve in Bimbia, in the southwest of the country with Joseph Merrick.

In 1843, Merrick, after giving up the pastorate in the Jericho Circuit to travel, with his wife, on the BMS/JBMS sponsored mission to Africa, departed for the continent. In 1844, with permission from King William of the Isubu people, Merrick planted a church and established a school in Bimbia.  Over the next few years, Merrick also established a brick-making machine and a printing press. He used this press to publish his translation of the New Testament into Isubu. Duckett provided valuable assistance to Merrick in his translation work. Merrick and his assistants also translated the New Testament into Duala, a major language spoken in Cameroon.

Unfortunately, the Jamaicans serving in Cameroon experienced severe health challenges. From as early as 1837, John Clarke, who had led the team of missionaries to Africa stated, in a letter to BMS:

The last year has been one of peculiar trial to our brethren in Africa. Two of their number, Mr. Thompson and Mr. Sturgeon, have been removed by death. Four of the teachers from Jamaica have returned, and the health of all our friends has suffered very seriously from the climate. Indeed, it is feared that some of them may be compelled to leave Africa, either permanently or at least for a season. If this fear be fulfilled, two missionaries and two teachers will be all the foreign labourers engaged in this field…. Surely this is a cry of distress, which will arouse the churches to think of our state.

 

Duckett was among those who faced ill health in Cameroon. Unfortunately, in 1847, acute bronchitis forced his return to Jamaica, where he was to continue the ministry to which God had called him. In 1853, he was admitted to Calabar College, where he completed two years of ministerial training.

To read the account of the oral examination that the students had to endure before twelve outstanding BMS missionaries, including Phillippo, Dendy, John Henderson, John Clark, William Teal, Edward Hewitt and Ellis Fray, and in which Duckett participated at Calabar is to recognize the enormous giftedness of the men who were admitted to Calabar in its earliest years.

As a first-year student, Duckett was required to present a paper on "Christian Watchfulness," which was followed by an examination of the several methods of Scripture exegesis, analysis of scripture, scripture geography, and Jewish antiquities.

 

After completing his time at Calabar, followed by his ordination, Duckett served, with his wife, at The Cross (now Palmer’s Cross) in Clarendon and at Hayes in the parish of Vere as a devoted and zealous pastor.  At Cross, Duckett established a school. In December 1872, a reporter in The Gleaner wrote about Duckett’s zeal “in forwarding the work of education among the people of his district” and the progress exhibited among the pupils [at the school] as being “astonishing as well as gratifying.”

Duckett, “assisted by his son George Duckett, Esq.” was among the featured speakers at the Jamaica Baptist Missionary Society annual meeting that took place at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Spanish Town on January 17, 1886.

The Hayes Baptist Church where Duckett served is still ministering today, but the Cross church passed into the hands of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Some information on this church can be gleaned from Sharon Grant’s Rebaptism Calmly Considered: Christian Initiation and Resistance in the Early A.M.E. Church in Jamaica (Eugene, OR; Pickwick Publications, 2019).

On May 30, 1859, Mrs Ann Duckett died leaving for her two children a wonderful testimony of a life devoted to Jesus Christ and spent in the service of the kingdom of God. In June 1860, Duckett remarried. He found another great partner in the Gospel in Miss Monroe from St Mary who had been a teacher in Lucea.

 

Patrick O’Meally: Sincere Service Appreciated and Remembered

 

 Patrick O’Meally

 

Plaque at Ulster Spring Church

Only those who are conversant with the history of Baptists in Jamaica can truly appreciate the significant contribution of the historic Jericho Baptist Church. Patrick Mitchell O’Meally, 1818-1904, was one of the persons whom the Jericho Church helped to form for Baptist ministry in Jamaica.

Born in Spanish Town in 1818, O’Meally, aged 35, was admitted to Calabar College near Rio Bueno. While in College, he began to show his giftedness from the early stages of his studies. All students attending the College were required to participate in the annual oral examination conducted by the Calabar Committee. At the end of his very first year at Calabar, O’Meally distinguished himself when he presented to the outstanding panel of external examiners an excellent essay on effectual prayer.

When he completed the course of preparation at Calabar, he answered the call to serve as pastor of the church at Coultart Grove, near Claremont in St Ann. This church had been in the St Ann’s Bay circuit under the pastoral care of BMS missionary Benjamin Millard who became JBU Secretary (later, General Secretary) in the 1860s and 1870s.

O’Meally’s gifts had commended him as a suitable person to serve at Coultart Grove, which was set in a community without enormous financial resources. When he arrived there, O’Meally found the Coultart Grove church building and mission house in a dilapidated state. However, he noted two signs of hope: the Sunday School population was 160 children and the church operated a day school that enjoyed an average attendance of 97 students.

O’Meally’s stay at Coultart Grove was not to last long. After a year there, he moved on to serve the churches associated with the Alps Baptist Church in the Cockpit Country in Trelawny, namely, Warsop, Albert Town and Crombie, which was eight miles inland from Alps – churches that are now in the Ulster Spring, Warsop and Spring Garden circuits.

Alps, the centre of O'Meally’s circuit, was a “free village,” established by William Bull Dexter, who was one of William Knibb’s close relatives who served the Baptist cause in Jamaica. The son of the sister of Mary Knibb, William Knibb’s wife, Dexter was a missionary to Jamaica from 1834 to 1853.  

Ulster Spring Baptist Church

With the help of William Knibb, Dexter established New Birmingham, later named Alps, as a free village. in the community, he set aside land on which the Baptist church was erected.

 O’Meally was joined in matrimony to Margaret Eliza Sicard in August 1861 and theirs was a crowded home – six daughters and four sons.

So impactful was O’Meally’s ministry that, on September 21, 1919, fifteen years after his death, a special gathering took place in the Ulster Spring Church to raise funds for the erection of a special tablet in honour of the beloved former minister. Addressing the people, Rev J. T. Dillon of First  (now Burchell) Baptist Church, Montego Bay, used Judges 1: 12 as his text. Dillon challenged the people to follow O’Meally’s example and be the Othniel who will “storm the Kirjath Sepher of Upper Trelawny.”

Pointing to O’Meally’s example, Dillon said this; “He laboured here for 40 years and when he came there, conditions were just revolting and means of communication with the outside world almost nil. These parts were then giant mountain fastnesses, tenanted by wild boars and a fairly large human population who had emigrated from lower Trelawny and St. Ann to these fertile slopes and glades so well-known in Upper Trelawny for their proverbial productiveness.

"From a situation where civilised life was practically non-existent, there arose the dawn of a new era, heralded by Patrick O’Meally of revered memory. He was not afraid of difficulties, privations and dangers. His encounters with wild boars would make thrilling reading if the story of them all were written. He became at once to the poor ignorant people, father, minister, teacher, doctor, advocate and judge; he led the way and called them upward; he bore the lion's share in helping to establish the present order of things—from good roads, spacious and neat churches, schools, and commodious cottages, a post office, etc., and that was why his name would always live in the hearts of the people of Upper Trelawny.”

The people’s response was splendid and the tablet they erected is still to be found today in the Ulster Spring Baptist Church, where it reminds the current members of two faithful Christian workers in the early life of the church – Patrick and Margaret Eliza O’Meally.  

At 87 years of age, Patrick O’Meally died in Kingston on January 23,1904. Cause of death is listed as old age.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eleazer McLaughlin Service to God through Church and Community

 

Eleazer McLaughlin 

                                                                                        

                                                    Mamby Park Baptist Church

 

Eleazer Ezekiel McLaughlin was born in Salter’s Hill, St James, in June 1888. He grew up in Montego Bay where he attended school and became a member of Burchell Baptist Church, where he accepted the invitation to follow Christ. Burchell’s pastor, Rev H. L. Webster, helped to influence him to enter the Christian ministry.

After training for ministry at Calabar Theological College, he offered many years of devoted service as a minister, starting at Mt Charles Baptist Chrich in St Andrew. In 1928, he succeeded Rev David Davis as pastor of the Mamby Park and Ebenezer Baptist Church at Lawrence Tavern. He commenced serving at Barbican Baptist Church in August, 1926.

Most of his years in the ministry were spent at the six churches in what became a large circuit of churches: Mt. Charles, Mamby Park, Ebenezer in Lawrence Tavern, Union Hill, Barbican, and Cypress Hall. The circuit emerged over time as the pastor made himself available for still more sacrificial labours over a wide geographical space.

Within the Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU), McLaughlin was for several years a county councillor and an examiner of the JBU Sunday School Society. In the wider church community, he was once president of the Jamaica Christian Endeavour Union and twice Chairman of the Jamaica Christian Endeavour Union Good Citizenship Society. He was also president of the Jamaica Permanent Development Convention.

McLaughlin was a devoted community builder. He served for seven years as a trustee of the Wolmer' s High School and for eighteen years as a member of the St. Andrew School Board and manager of the Government School. He was for several years a member of the British Empire Club and the British Empire Permanent Exhibition. He was also president of the Jamaica Permanent Development Convention.

McLaughlin was a Councillor in the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) for more than 16 years, starting in 1923. For seven years, he was alderman. He worked alongside such famous Jamaicans as KSAC mayor Dr Oswald Anderson, who was one of the founders of the JBU Brotherhood. McLaughlin was once captain of the St Andrew Cricket Club, which he formed.

On two occasions – McLaughlin’s 16^th and 21^st years of service in his circuit – the churches celebrated their pastor’s ministry. Church representatives made speeches that offer an impression of the pastor’s service. This is what they said:

 

As our spiritual leader, you have given us of your best always. Your messages have always been very edifying, stimulating and encouraging.

 

In every department of the Church's activities, you have taken a keen personal interest and as a result of your wise and experienced leadership, you have surmounted many difficulties and accomplished remarkable achievements in spite of fearful odds.

 

By your zealous conscientious labours, many souls have been brought to the Church and won to God. The poor have been befriended and helped and as a champion of the people' s right, you stand second to none.

 

We cannot forget that, during your ministry, our buildings have been remodelled, enlarged and renovated. The spirit and tone of our worship have been very inspiring and uplifting.

 

Under your personal supervision, the standard of the efficiency of our choir and Sunday School has been greatly improved.

 

In every department of the Church's activities, you have taken a keen personal interest and as a result of your wise and experienced leadership, you have surmounted many difficulties and accomplished remarkable achievements in spite of fearful odds.

 

In every department of the Church's activities, you have taken a keen personal interest and as a result of your wise and experienced leadership, you have surmounted many difficulties and accomplished remarkable achievements in spite of fearful odds.

The described their minister as “pastor, teacher and builder, musician, educationalist, politician, legal adviser, and sportsman” and thanked him for his “cheerful words, sweet and tender voice and sympathetic action” when they faced challenges and said that their pastor had “never failed to inspire hope and comfort, courage and joy.” Through his “edifying and soul searching sermons and Bible addresses,” the churches said, “many souls [had[ been saved and brought to the Master’s kingdom.” His “sympathy for the poor, the sick and the distressed” would win for him “a gem in [his] expected crown.”

The churches also praised McLaughlin’s contribution as a politician and public figure, whom they respected on several counts: The referred to his:

 

sense of altruistic public service, your progressive political and social ideas, your extraordinary foresight, sagacity, and courage have not failed to impress us. Your interest in Agriculture, Public Health, Education, Markets, Water Supply, etc., etc., is well known to us. The implementation of a Hookworm and Yaws Campaign in Rural St. Andrew is the result of your effort…. Two new Government schools—Lawrence Tavern and Stony Hill are sufficient evidences of your work and worth.

 

As a member of the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation, McLaughlin was an advocate for rights of Black Jamaican. In 1933, when the governor refused to appoint the African Jamaican C. A.  Adams for the post of assistant water engineer in the corporate area on the grounds that he lacked experience, McLaughlin was among the few who firmly opposed this decision as being based on colour prejudice. McLaughlin advocated for the human rights of Black Jamaicans to be respected.

 

Mr. C. S. Codling, in paying tribute to McLaughlin, described the honouree as “a busybody” for communal good. He said he was in agree­ment with McLaughlin that religion embraced life in its entirety. Codling said that Laughlin must have, from his inception, been cherishing broad sympathies for his people, and innately desired to do his best for the community.”

 

To Rev F. Cowell Lloyd, pastor of East Queen Street Baptist Church, McLaughlin was “a champion willing to fight any battle his heart called him to and not afraid to be in the minority.” In the Jamaica Baptist Reporter, another of his colleagues described McLaughlin  as “a hard worker with an indomitable courage and persevering spirit. [He was] “in every sense a public-spirited man and a patriot … [who is] keen on social service work and deeply interested in education and in everything that tends to the uplift of his people and the making of a better Jamaica.”

Edwin Palmer Serving until your Work is Done

                                                                                  Edwin Palmer

Five years after emancipation in Jamaica, Edwin Palmer, a member of the Baptist Church in Spanish Town, commenced intra-mural preparation for the pastoral ministry at Calabar Theological College in Trelawny. Graduating in 1847, after four years at Calabar, Palmer, received and accepted a call to serve as pastor of the Stacey Ville (now Staceyville) Baptist Church in Clarendon. Palmer spent five years at Staceyville after which he assumed the pastorate of the Hanover Street Baptist Church in Kingston, where he served from 1852 until his death in 1892.

While at Hanover Street, Palmer also gave pastoral oversight to Yallahs Baptist Church in the parish of St. David, neighbouring parish of St Thomas in the East. The death of Robert Graham, the pastor of the Yallahs Baptist Church, led to Palmer assuming pastoral oversight of the Baptist church in Yallahs. Published accounts of an early morning baptismal service that Palmer conducted at Yallahs on Christmas Day, 1870, and at Hanover Street on Christmas Sunday, 1870, reflect the evangelistic zeal and pastoral commitment that Palmer displayed. The baptisms took place in the sea at both locations, the one at Hanover Street taking place in the nearby seaside community of Rae Town. Each of the baptismal services started at 6:00 a.m. and was preceded by a corporate prayer meeting beginning at 4:00 o’clock.   

Palmer met and married Olivia Johnson, the daughter of Rev. Francis Johnson, an early graduate of Calabar College who was pastor of the Baptist Church at Clarksonville in southern St Ann. Edwin and Olivia Palmer had a long and effective partnership in the Gospel ministry at Hanover Street Church. Olivia’s brother, Amos Johnson, became a minister of religion and was a pastor in Missouri, USA. Amos assisted his brother-in-law at Hanover Street during Edwin Palmer’s eight months of ill health preceding his death.

A man with a strong ecumenical commitment, Palmer, a Black Jamaican, collaborated with the mostly British pastors, such as W. J. Williams (Methodist Connexion), W. Clarke Murray (Presbyterian), C. A. Wookey (Congregationalist), Enos Nuttall (Anglican), James Roberts (United Methodist Free Church); and J. Seed Roberts of East Queen Street Baptist Church and Calabar, in united witness in the city of Kingston starting in 1878. These men were members of the Kingston Evangelical Union, which influenced the formation of the Union of Evangelical Churches in Jamaica in 1895.

Palmer had a strong commitment to God’s mission through the Church. It is not surprising that, when Joseph Jackson Fuller, his former fellow member of the Spanish Town (now Phillippo) Baptist Church, was in the last week of his furlough in Jamaica, Palmer arranged a Farewell Service for this veteran missionary to Africa. This was providentially Fuller’s final opportunity to address his fellow Jamaicans at a service in his home country. The people gathered in the Hanover Street Baptist Church on September 24, 1884 heard the Farewell Address as Fuller prepared to resume his ministry in Cameroon.

Edwin Palmer’s name appears in several studies in Jamaican history because of the injustice meted out to him in the aftermath of the Morant Bay uprising in 1865. Jamaica’s Governor Edward John Eyre, a former sheep farmer in Australia, whose British father had been a vicar in the Church of England, initiated a cruel and unjust response to the 1865 uprising when members of the Jamaican peasantry pushed back against racial supremacy, desperate economic hardship and the absence of concern for the poor by the governing authorities. Everyone associated with persons who were implicated fairly or unfairly in the uprising was targeted for violent treatment, including physical personal attack, swift execution, their houses being burnt down, etc. Although Palmer lived in Kingston, perhaps partly because his charge included the Yallahs church in the civil parish neighbouring St Thomas in the East where the Morant Bay uprising took place, Eyre marked him out for inclusion in his collective punishment scheme. Perhaps, additional reasons existed for Palmer being caught up in the collective punishment meted out to Black people who had even the most tenuous link with the justice seekers who participated in the Morant Bay uprising.

Early in the year of the uprising, Kingston’s mayor, Edward Jordan had called a meeting on May 3, 1865 to seek people’s opinions on the state of Jamaica and Palmer was one of the speakers at the meeting. An account of what transpired at the meeting had been sent to Edward Cardwell, British Secretary of State for the colonies and to Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) Secretary, Edward Underhill. Undoubtedly, Eyre had knowledge of the meeting that painted a picture of the devastating social and economic situation in Jamaica, where Black people who were poor were suffering hopelessly.  However, Palmer had had nothing to do with the Morant Bay uprising. That he was a Jamaica Baptist of African descent who had compassion on the suffering poor in Jamaica put Palmer in harm’s way.

On October 20, 1865, almost six months after the Morant Bay riots, the authorities had Palmer arrested without a warrant, while insinuating that he had used seditious language prior to the riots and might have helped incite those involved in the riot itself. Palmer’s hands were tied behind his back and he was marched through the streets of Kingston under guard of a detachment of armed soldiers. Then, Palmer’s persecutors cut his hair, confiscated his boots and locked him in a dark cell in confinement. Afterward, Palmer was handcuffed, taken to a wharf in Kingston and handed over to the cruel master of a boat who placed him in irons and took him to Morant Bay, where martial law was in force.

Palmer arrived in Morant Bay on November 2 to the taunts of the marines. He was shown the gallows, ropes, and other instruments of torture and was advised of a plan to execute him at seven o'clock the following morning.  He was forced to watch two fellow prisoners lashed to a post and severely beaten. Palmer’s trauma knew no bounds. After thirty-four days of imprisonment and ill-treatment, he was released and ordered to go to Kingston for trial before a Special Commission. He was charged, found guilty of using seditious language and sentenced to two months’ imprisonment. An innocent man was sent to prison and, in the end, Governor Eyre, who had described Baptist ministers in Jamaica as “political demagogues and dangerous agitators,” was recalled to England and excluded from further colonial service. He died at Devon in England 1901.

Edwin Palmer, who outlived Edward Eyre, exemplifies the suffering a servant of God may have to face. However, his life was also full of opportunities to share the Gospel of salvation and to help people find deliverance from slavery to sin. It was during his pastorate at Hanover Street that members of his church started a Christian mission that later received the name Tarrant Baptist Church.

After some four decades of service in the Hanover Street community, Palmer’s health began to fail. After prolonged illness, he breathed his last at 1:00 a.m. on January 18, 1892. Customary rites at the Hanover Street Mission House, which was at the corner of Hanover and Barry Streets in Kingston, preceded his funeral at what people referred to as “Palmer’s church” where Rev. Windsor Burke, pastor of the Lucea Baptist Church officiated. Palmer’s final resting place was the May Pen Cemetery in Kingston.

Olivia Palmer remained a widow for some 13 years that ended in an unexpected way. On Sunday, September 10, 1905, she was in her usual seat in the Hanover Street Baptist Church at the 11:00 o’clock service. The preacher at the service on that fateful day was Adjutant William Raglan of the Salvation Army. Earlier, on that fateful September day, Mrs. Palmer had attended the 6:00 a.m. prayer meeting, arranged as part of the evangelistic emphasis the Hanover Street Church was observing during that week. Suddenly, at about 11:20 a.m., when a prayer was being offered, Mrs. Palmer fell from her seat and lost consciousness. Shortly after this, a Dr. Henderson pronounced her dead. Her death was apparently the result of the cardiac troubles that had afflicted her for some time. Rev. E. A. Bell, Edwin Palmer’s successor at Hanover Street, preached the sermon at Mrs. Palmer’s funeral.

Incidentally, after ending his association with the Salvation Army, William Raglan served with the JBU, working as pastor of the Arcadia Baptist Circuit in St Thomas in the East. Soon, however, he combined with Mary Louise Coore, formerly of the Brown’s Town Baptist Church, to form the City Mission Church in Jamaica.

To return to Edwin Palmer, five years after his death, the members of the Hanover Street Baptist Church started a drive to raise sufficient funds “to erect a tablet in the chapel in memory of their late sainted pastor, Rev. Edwin Palmer.” Unfortunately, if the tablet was erected, it no longer adorns any of the walls of the Hanover Street Church. It would be fitting to have it complementing those that were installed in honour of Joshua Tinson and E. A. Bell. Yet, in Palmer’s ministry God answered the prayer included in the tablet placed in honour of  Tinson. It states, “This monument is erected … with the sincere prayer that the ardour of [Tinson’s] zeal in the cause of Christ may live in his successors when this marble shall have crumbled into dust.”