PM itinerant, born in Newcastle upon Tyne. She taught herself to read and write, worked in a factory and then at home, spinning yarn. She married a seaman in 1803. Brought up in a strict Presbyterian family, she was converted in 1802 and became a WM in 1807, becoming a prayer leader, class leader (1814), sick visitor and Sunday Schoolteacher (1816). After hearing PM preachers, despite initial misgivings she felt a call to preach, seeming to hear God saying to her: 'Woman was the first that brought sin into the world; woman ought not to be the last to proclaim the remedy.' Accordingly, in January 1824 she became a PM local preacher and a year later an itinerant. Delayed by family commitments, she went to the Whitby Circuit in January 1826. Despite a decision by the PM Conference of 1827 restricting the work of female itinerants, she was treated as 'an extraordinary case'. She worked chiefly in the North, but ill health forced her retirement in 1840, though she continued as a local preacher for another 21 years. She died at Durham after a series of strokes on 18 April 1861.

Entry written by: EDG
Category: Person
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