Dornford, Josiah
1734-1810

Wine merchant and JP for the county of Kent, he was born at Deptford and after his conversion joined the local Methodist society. When he married Eleanor Leyton at St. Dunstan-in-the-West, Fleet Street on 14 December 1759, William Romaine performed the ceremony and John Wesley gave the bride away. Charles Wesley and Thomas Maxfield were also present at what John Wesley called 'a Christian wedding'. Her influence was felt mainly through her correspondence on spiritual matters. She died in 1790 and was buried by Wesley in Bunhill Fields on 17 January. Josiah edited her memoirs and also wrote several pamphlets on the affairs of the city corporation and on the reform of debtors' prisons. When he died at Sydenham on 12 September 1810 he was buried in Bunhill Fields in the same grave as his first wife.

Sources
  • Some Memoirs of the Life and Death of Mrs. Eleanor Dornford (1790)
  • WM Magazine, 1911 pp.621-

Entry written by: WL
Category: Person
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