NOTE: This was previously published as a separate page on this site, it has now been turned into a post. If you have previously read the page then nothing has been changed, if you haven’t read the page then welcome to the story of a great uncle who was a pioneering Methodist minister on Barbados.
John Rowland Gleave was neither black nor mixed heritage but he was the great, great uncle (I think that’s the right number of ‘greats’) of a member of the Historycal Roots team and so we have bent the ‘rules’ to include him. He lived in Barbados as a young Methodist Minister, married on the island and had his first two children there. His most significant contribution to black history was to help re-establish the Methodist Church in Barbados less than 40 years after one of his predecessors, Reverend William Shrewsbury, was forced to flee the island when his Church was torn down by a rowdy mob. The mob’s aim was to “eradicate from this soil the germ of Methodism, which was spreading its baneful influence over a certain class, and which ultimately would have injured both church and state.” The mob’s proclamation ended with a warning to any of Reverend Shrewsbury’s potential successors that “all Methodist preachers are warned not to approach our shores as, if they do, it will be at their own peril.”
The mob’s real issue was that they considered the Methodist Church as “enemies of slavery” and when they talked of “a certain class” they meant black people, in particular, enslaved black people.
After Reverend Shrewsbury left Barbados, incredibly brave people such as Sarah Ann Gill defied all threats and violence to ensure all were free to worship. There is little doubt that Gleave would have been a contemporary of Sarah who is now commemorated as one of the 10 National Heroes of Barbados. This is the story of John Rowland Gleave.
On 15th December 1910, after a lifetime of service to the Church, Reverend Gleave entered the Liscard Wesleyan Methodist Church. After getting his breath back he hung up the heavy coat which had protected him from the cold winter air outside. It was exactly 10 days to Christmas Day and, like all clergymen at that time of year, he was facing a busy couple of weeks.
This was his first Christmas back in the Liscard area which forms part of Wallasey in Cheshire. He had retired as resident Minister at Epsom and Ewell in Surrey earlier that year. Sadly, his replacement, Reverend John Wesley Howells, was destined to die in World War 1 in 1917.
Today he was here to give a religious instruction class to children from the adjoining school. He took his Bible from his briefcase, said good afternoon to the children and took his seat. He felt dizzy, then saw only blackness before slumping forward and hitting the floor with a thud. A Doctor was called but it was futile. In truth, Reverend Gleave was probably dead before he struck the ground. A couple of days later an inquest attributed his death to heart disease.
As a man of God, Reverend Gleave would have been content to draw his last breath in a place of worship. But the Liscard Chapel held even more special memories for him. As a former Superintendent of the Seacombe Circuit of which Liscard was part, he was instrumental in the building of the Church which had opened as recently as 12 July 1904.
John Rowland Gleave had been born in Warrington on 21 August 1837. Throughout his adult life he referred to himself as J Rowland Gleave but for the purposes of telling his story as well as for brevity, we will refer to him as Reverend Gleave.
Reverend Gleave’s life had been of sufficient importance for his death to attract interest. A syndicated article appeared in newspapers right across Britain and Ireland the following day. The article was short and to the point. The Dublin Daily Express of 16 December reported that “Reverend J Rowland Gleave, a supernumerary Wesleyan Minister, 70 years of age, died suddenly at Liscard, Cheshire yesterday afternoon.”
As might be expected, the local newspaper, the Liverpool Echo went into greater detail explaining that Reverend Gleave was; “About to give religious instruction to a class. He suddenly collapsed and when medical aid was summoned the Doctor pronounced life extinct and the body was conveyed to the mortuary.”
In summarising Reverend Gleave’s life the article recalled that he had been born in Warrington and went on to become a scholar at one of the great Wesleyan Colleges (the exact location is not quoted). He had worked in Liverpool, London and parts of Kent and also had a lengthy spell as Superintendent of the Seacombe circuit. He became a supernumerary Minister only 12 months previously and at the time of his death was living at Withens Lane, Liscard. He was said to have been 74 years of age when he died. He was, of course, having been born in August 1837, 73 years old when he died but at least the Liverpool Echo got it a lot closer than the syndicated article which had knocked 3 years off his age.
Given that Reverend Gleave had been a Minister since approximately 1861 and Wesleyan Ministers normally changed locations every 3 years, it is clear that the Liverpool Echo article omitted many of his previous posts. In addition to those towns quoted he had served as a Minister in places such as Hull, Huddersfield, Preston, Nelson, Bingley, Colwyn Bay, Rawtenstall and the north-east of England.
But far and away the most notable omission was the spell, almost 50 years before his death, that Reverend Gleave had spent in Barbados. We don’t know the precise year Gleave left for Barbados but it was quite probably his first posting as a newly-ordained Minister. He married on the island and his first two children were born and baptised there. He was living in Liverpool by 1871 which suggests he lived in Barbados for a number of years, certainly no less than three, between 1861 and 1870.
The Methodist, or Wesleyan, Church was introduced to Barbados in 1788 by the first ever Methodist Bishop, Thomas Coke. Methodists were detested by slave owners as one of the Methodists’ objectives was to introduce enslaved people to the Christian faith. The upper class saw Methodists as anti-slavery agitators but even more than that, feared their teaching would upset the ‘natural balance’ where black people identified themselves as inferior to the white population. Every effort was made to disrupt gatherings of Methodists, they were pelted with stones and there were even efforts to make Methodism illegal. In 1823 the Methodist Chapel in James Street (which was to later play a significant part in Reverend Gleave’s life) was torn down.
Coke died in 1814 well before Gleave was born. But Reverend Gleave would certainly have met one of the 10 National Heroes of Barbados – Sarah Ann Gill. Sarah was born in 1795 as a ‘Free Coloured’ of mixed heritage.
Sarah became a Methodist and even in the face of violence and threats, refused to renounce her religious beliefs. She joined the Methodist Church in her early 20s at a time when the establishment in Barbados was most fervently opposed to the principles of Methodism. She was a relatively wealthy person and in 1819 donated £10 towards the building of the first Methodist Chapel in Bridgetown.
In October 1823 that Chapel was destroyed by white rioters. The Methodist Minister William Shrewsbury and his pregnant wife were forced to flee the island in fear of their lives.
Sarah and her sister Christiana continued to defy all threats and hosted worship in Sarah’s home. In April 1825 one of Reverend Gleave’s predecessors, Reverend Moses Rayner wrote to Sarah asking for advice on taking the post in Barbados. She replied that “I don’t advise you to come, but if it was me, I should come.”
Partly due to the abolition of slavery, conditions had improved by the time Reverend Gleave arrived on the island in the early 1860s but nevertheless some of the hatred directed at the Methodist Church only 40 or so years earlier cannot have disappeared entirely. No doubt Reverend Gleave thought and prayed long and hard before deciding to take up the post.
Before leaving England Reverend Gleave had met Louisa Hitchcock a young dressmaker from Liverpool. This must have made the decision to leave England even harder for him. Reverend Gleave resolved the matter by asking Louisa to marry him and move to Barbados. She said ‘yes’ and sailed for Barbados where she joined her husband-to-be in October 1865.
The couple married on 10 October 1865 at the Wesleyan Chapel, James Street, Bridgetown. Reverend Henry Hurd, who was the Chairman of the District as well as the General Superintendent, officiated. Reverend Gleave’s address was shown as Speightstown which is about 10 miles north of Bridgetown.
It would seem highly probable that, as a leading member of the Methodist faith in Bridgetown, Sarah Ann Gill would have greeted Reverend Gleave shortly after his arrival on the island. Indeed she may even have been involved in his selection for the post. Sarah worshipped at the James Street Church so she would almost certainly have been in the congregation on that day in October 1865 to help celebrate the marriage.
Reverend Gleave had been appointed to the Bethel Church which opened as the Bay Street Chapel on 28 March 1844 and became the main church of the Bethel circuit in 1848. It is a beautiful church and has changed little since Reverend Gleave’s days.
A son, Henry Hurd Gleave, was born in 1866 and was baptised at Bethel by Reverend Henry Hurd on 8 August 1866. At this stage the family’s address is shown as Bethel. Reverends Gleave and Hurd obviously had a good relationship and respect for one another as young Henry was named after the Reverend.
A daughter, Florence Louisa, was born on 1 November 1867. We know she was baptised on Christmas Day 1868 but careful checking by officials of the Church and this author has failed to find an entry in the Bethel register of baptisms. This is a mystery that remains to be solved another day.
My search did however reveal the existence of a William Gleave Thomas of Bay Street, born on 17 February 1868 to William and Sarah Thomas. Reverend Gleave had carried out the baptism and the parents had paid him the honour of giving their son his name. Gleave isn’t a traditional Bajan surname but this discovery led me to wonder if there was a small enclave of people on the island who had inherited the unusual moniker. Alas, this wasn’t to be. William Gleave Thomas married his wife Annie on 9 September 1893. The couple moved to New York in 1905 where they had a daughter Kathleen in 1908. William took American citizenship on 16 April 1940, Annie having pre-deceased him. Thus the surname would seem to have disappeared from Bajan ancestry.
The pulpit where Reverend Gleave preached is still there:
Although the Liverpool Echo had failed to mention Reverend Gleave’s spell in Barbados we are fortunate in having a record of his views of the island and its people. On 19 October 1881 he gave a speech at the Annual Public Missionary Meeting and this was recorded by the Jarrow Express two days later.
What he said might seem patronising now but he was trying to argue against the widely held perception that prevailed in those days that black people were lazy, unintelligent and disruptive. He (or perhaps the reporter) avoids using the term ‘black’ or ‘white’ but instead contrasts ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ classes. However, he betrays what he really means by referring to Dr Davies, who, although black, was very wealthy and upper class, as an example of one of the ‘many’ who had an English outlook on life as well as a high level of intelligence.
“At one time the upper classes were callous and immoral, the lower sunk in ignorance and superstitions, whereas the immoral men were shunned and the lower classes were intelligent, religious, law abiding and industrious”. Of the Wesleyan churches on the island he said, “the people were conscientious, liberal and regular in all that pertained to their religion and had the respect of all classes of the community.” He also referred to the “people being imbued with English ideas, and many were endowed with the highest intelligence” and instanced several bright examples, including Dr Davies, at one time well known in this country. The ‘Doctor’ in question is surely James Pinson Labulo Davies the wealthy African who married Sarah Bonetta Forbes, the goddaughter of Queen Victoria, in Brighton in 1862.
By 1871 Reverend Gleave had returned to England and was living in Warrington with his young family. Shortly afterwards he took up a post in Lambeth, London. The rest of his career would see no more foreign postings but he did cover many other locations in England and Wales.
In the late 1890s Reverend Gleave was Minister at the Wesleyan Church in Carr Road, Nelson. The Home Reading Union, part of the Church, had organised a trip to the Lake District. On Friday 12 August 1898 eight members of the trip had set out on a boat on Derwentwater. The wind suddenly got up and the boat began to rock and take in water. Panic set in and the boat capsized. Five young girls drowned. They were all cotton weavers from Nelson. Four were aged 21 and the other was 20.
The girls were buried together. A monument in memory of them was unveiled in Nelson on 12 May 1889. At this ceremony Reverend Gleave, as reported in the Burnley Express of 17 May 1899, expressed his feelings at having to break the news to the devastated families. He said he “would never forget the testimony which was borne by those who had passed through great sorrow. The families bereft lost precious treasures, but they were cheering themselves with the thought that one day they would see their loved girls in the Father’s house on high.”
Reverend Gleave continued to serve the Church diligently until his death in 1910. If he was to now return to Barbados, he’d find that there are still people who believe black people have many of the negative traits touched upon in his speech at the Missionary Meeting in 1881 but his spirits would be raised to the rafters by his old Church in Bridgetown. It remains a beautiful, light and airy building. The congregation is thriving and enthusiastic. It is the most welcoming of churches and the young people that attend are truly inspirational. It also provides support for the less advantaged in the local community.
The inside will have changed very little since he last stood in the pulpit about 150 years ago and he would recognise the font (if not the dodgy wiring behind it!) where his first two children were christened:
and he would no doubt experience with joy the shaking of the floor when the famously loud Bethel organ gets into full flow.
