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| John Maxwell |
John William Maxwell was born at Chatham, St. James, on May 14, 1898. His early spiritual formation took place in the Bethtephil Baptist church in Adelphi where Rev M. B. Burgess administered his baptism. In 1918, he was admitted to Calabar Theological College, where he excelled as a student. His ordination to the ministry took place on April 2, 1923 at Hanover Street Baptist Church. The preacher was Rev T. I. Stockley, Commissioner of the Baptist Union of Great Britain who had come to Jamaica to establish a Sustentation Fund to augment pastors’ salaries.
Maxwell was inducted into the pastorate of the Point Hill circuit in St Catherine on May 14, 1923, his 25th birthday. When he commenced his first pastorate, Maxwell did not know that he would be given only 23 years in which to make his contribution as a minister in the Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU). However, he set out at a pace that would suggest he had a premonition of his brief ministerial career. He threw himself with zeal into the work of pastor of a circuit that included churches in Watermount, Lluidas Vale, Kentish and Point Hill. He showed deep interest in the affairs of the North West St Catherine Teachers’ Association.
After three years in the Point Hill circuit, Maxwell accepted a call to serve in the Duncans circuit, where he commenced ministry on August 1, 1926. He had responsibility for four churches including Duncans, Clark’s Town and Refuge, where he superintended what he referred to as the “Holy Memorial and Eucharist Service” and conducted “Vesper Service” on Sunday evenings. This could be a reflection on Maxwell’s wife’s influence on him. Before marrying Maxwell, she belonged to the Anglican Church.
Maxwell was an active community member. He helped form a Citizens’ Association in Duncans and later in Clark’s Town and served each as Chairman or Secretary. He associated himself with the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) branch in the parish and with the Cane Farmers’ Association. He served the JAS as chairman of the Council and second Vice President.
Maxwell became a member of the Parochial Board of Trelawny. In November 1936, he was elected to the Legislative Council as the representative for Trelawny, defeating the incumbent who had been the parish representative for 22 consecutive years. He served continuously in this role for fourteen years including as chairman for five years. Among several other positions Maxwell occupied was that of Member of the Board of Education.
Maxwell served Jamaica Baptist Union in many ways. He was once editor of the Jamaica Baptist Reporter. He was JBU Chairman for the years 1934-35 and 1941-42. He was JBU Chairman during the year when the JBU Assembly passed a resolution supporting the Union’s incorporation. In his capacity as JBU Chairman, his oratorical skills were on full display. The text of his “inaugural address” before the JBU Assembly in 1941 was published in The Gleaner. In it, he declared:
Seven years ago, in my
Presidential Address from this very place [Hanover Street Baptist Church] I reminded you that the rise of Hitler and the advent
of Roosevelt in administrative affairs were epoch making factors and that those
events would prove to be matters of the greatest moment to international
relationships. How well fulfilled! These men today represent two diametrically
opposed views of life, two types of ideologies, each battling for supremacy.
I also reminded you
that things were then in a fearful flux and that, unless redemptive forces
produced radical changes, there would be nothing else to expect save chaos,
disintegration, and ultimate ruin.
What has happened
since, who does not know? Many ideas and ideals have crystallised into movements
pernicious and destructive in all their expressions. The forces of evil have
been let loose upon an almost sleeping world, and now men’s hearts fear and
quake! Organized banditry has employed military aggression to lay in ruins the
peaceful habitations of men and plunder has been rife. The great nations have fallen
one after another in rapid succession and, for them, life has been completely
disorganised and despoiled. The age of barbarism and cruelty has returned.
Maxwell’s contribution to both church and society were remarkable when one considers the disappointments he had in his family life. While he lived in Point Hill, he married Ernestine Amelia Chevannes, a Secondary School teacher. The wedding took place on December 31, 1924 at Calabar Chapel in Kingston. Officiating minister was Rev. M. B. Burgess and Rev Edmund Greaves was one of the official witnesses.
While living in Duncans, two sons born to Maxwell and his wife did not survive for a single year. In October, 1926, the first, Homer Fosdick Lloyd Maxwell, died when he was only nine months old. Cause of death was given as marasmus, a form of severe malnutrition. On June 24, 1928, the second son, Ernest John Maxwell died of malaria that resulted in heart failure when he was only six months old. Then, in January 1931, his wife, Ernestine Maxwell, died when she was only 32 years old. On May 10, 1931, a Memorial Service for Mrs. Maxwell was held at the Kettering Baptist Church, Duncans, with JBU Acting General Secretary, Rev. R. A. L. Knight, as the preacher. Maxwell was sustained by God’s grace while he faced such heartrending loss.
On February 28, 1933, John Maxwell married again, this time to Zelma Cynthia Thelwell, who was born in Myersville, St Elizabeth and was then residing at Cross Roads in St Andrew. Thelwell was a postmistress. The wedding took place at Christchurch Anglican in Port Antonio, Portland. The union produced a son, John Maxwell, who became one of Jamaica’s most outstanding journalists.
Some years after her husband’s death, Mrs. Maxwell, who was once my neighbour in New Kingston, returned to fellowship among the Anglicans. On July 15, 1950, she married Winston Vivian Lynch at the Lyndhurst Methodist Church. Forty-three years later, at the age of 80, she passed away on August 21, 1993, 47 years after her first husband’s death.
At
the height of his busy ministry, John Maxwell fell ill and, after only three
weeks, he died on April 20, 1946 in the public hospital in Montego Bay. This
was just two years after the end of his tenure on the Legislative Council. Maxwell was only 48 years old when kidney failure led
to his death. Presiding over his funeral at Kettering in
Duncans was JBU President Ivan Parsons. Other ministers participating included
M. E. W. Sawyers, J. A. Edwards, R. A. L. Knight, Sidney Helwig, Edmund Greaves
and Daniel Allen. Several representatives of the Trelawny Parochial Board were
also present.
In a page one editorial on April 21, 1946, the Gleaner announced:
Rev. J. W. Maxwell, Orator
and Ex-legislator Dies
The Gleaner announces
with regret the death of the Rev. John William Maxwell, a former M.L.C. for
Trelawny, a second vice president of the Jamaica Agricultural Society, and
former chairman of the Jamaica Baptist Union. He died in the public hospital at
Montego Bay early yesterday morning after an illness lasting over three weeks.
The death of Mr. Maxwell will
be deeply mourned by his wide circle of relatives and friends.
Highly esteemed, during
the years he represented Trelawny in the Legislative Council, Mr. Maxwell was
considered an able legislator and an eloquent speaker. For a number of years, Mr. Maxwell was a member of the Trelawny Parochial Board and at one time served as
Chairman. He gave invaluable service on several Government Boards and Committees….
The funeral, which took
place yesterday at Duncans was largely attended. Quite a number of prominent
citizens in different parts of the island journeyed to Duncans to attend the
funeral.
In a telegram sent to Maxwell’s widow and to the Gleaner editor, when Maxell passed away, Rev. B. A. Black, Member of the House of Representative for northern St. Catherine, writing on behalf of the Elected Members’ Association of the House, stated:
News has reached me on
the death of your dear husband, which must of necessity leave upon your mind
great sorrow. … The purposes of God are not often understood and, in this hour
of grief, we cannot understand why He has taken from us in the prime of his
life one so useful and interested in every phase of the island’s development.
But surely, behind it all there is a purpose and in this you must take courage
and cheer up. As one who did such
valiant work in the island’s legislature previous to this new constitution, I
now, as President, and on behalf of the Elected Members’ Association of
Jamaica, extend to you deepest condolence.
The Jamaica Agricultural Society, acknowledging his service to the organization also expressed regret at Maxwell’s passing.
A writer to the Gleaner offered the following assessment of John Maxwell:
In him Jamaica loses a
sincere Christian gentleman of general demeanour, a versatile statesman, a
silver-tongued orator, with a pleasant and easy mastery of language…. Had he
lived another year, he would have been occupying the chair of the Jamaica Baptist
Union for a fifth time. His record in relation to this high office is without
precedent in the history of the denomination…. Jamaica has lost an able
servant; the parish of Trelawny an outstanding public man; the Baptist churches
a great statesman, a pastor and preacher.
Maxwell’s 48 years were well spent in the service of God and his fellow Jamaicans.
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