Sutcliffe, Joseph, MA
c.1762-1856; e.m. 1786

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WM itinerant, born at Baildon, Yorks. While stationed in Cornwall, 1786-89, he introduced Methodism to the Scilly Isles. Later on, in Bristol and with his interest probably aroused while in Cornwall, he published The Geology of the Avon (1822), a pioneer work on local economic geology. Among some twenty other works he wrote English grammars and a two-volume Bible commentary (1834). His four-volume manuscript 'History of Methodism' remains unpublished in the Methodist Archives Centre, Manchester. His last 18 years were spent in London. Though in the ministry for 70 years, he was never President of the Conference. He died in London on 14 May 1856.

Quotations

'Creeps along the street, as if unnoticing and unnoticed; yet a close observer of men and things, Inoffensive, unassuming, quiet, unbtrusive. A kind nature. Good taste. An easy, chaste, and somewhat elegant style; considerable critical acumen.'

Wesleyan Takings (1840), p.313

Sources
  • WHS Proceedings, 17 pp.123-4
  • Kenneth G.C. Newport, 'Methodists and the Millennium: eschatological expectation and the interpretation of biblical prophecy in early British Methodism', in Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library, vol.78, no.1 (Spring, 1996) pp.109-12

See also

Entry written by: CJS
Category: Person
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