Higginson, Henry
1805-1871
PM minister, born on 19 August 1805 at Pendeford Mills, Tettenhall, near Wolverhampton. He was educated at Tettenhall and Brewood with the intention of going into medicine, but was then apprenticed in the drapery business. After a period given up to such worldly pursuits as dancing, gambling and dog-fighting, he was spiritually awakened by a visit to the PM chapel at Codsall and then converted at a love-feast at Coven. He became a local preacher in 1830. In 1831 he opened a day school at Bilston, where he ministered to the victims of the 1833 cholera epidemic. Called out that year to serve in the itinerant ministry, he was sent to Blaenavon and then to Swansea before being regularly stationed from 1834 on. In 1866 his health failed, but as a supernumerary in Newcastle-under-Lyme he continued to be in popular demand for Sunday appointments until taken ill while in the Bilston Circuit at the end of 1869. He died on 15 March 1871.
'Tall in stature, broad and muscular in build, the face firm set and weather-beaten, the gait awkward and almost lugubrious, the head square and massive, with bushy hair and slouch hat, the dress well nigh grotesque with its immense Inverness cape flanked with floating wings. Full of fun and cheerfulness, he carried in his breast a buoyancy of spirit, and so his presence brought a joy-giving and cheer-producing influence.'
(Aldersgate Magazine, 1903 p.871
- PM Magazine, 1872, pp.301-4
- PM Aldersgate Magazine, 1903, pp.869-73
See also
Category: Person
Comment on this entry