▶Date of birth:  4Q 1851        Place of birth: Homerton, Hackney, London

▶Father:   John Bishop    Mother: Mary Ann Ellen Kirrage

▶Spouse(s):  (1) Louisa Ann Bull; (2) Jane Chapman (maiden name uncertain)    Date(s) of marriage:  (1) 2Q 1874; (2) 1910    Place(s) of marriage: (1) Hackney, Middlesex; (2) (unknown)

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Unitarian minister); earlier, Coal merchant

▶Lifestory: A passive resister, a vegetarian, and once caught letting his dog out without a lead, the Revd. John William Bishop was a Unitarian minister who served in Cheltenham from 1923 for ten years. He was born in Hackney in 1851; he was probably the eldest son of John Bishop, a basket-maker, of Hackney, Middlesex, and his wife Mary Ann Ellen (née Kirrage). In mid 1874 Bishop married Louisa Ann (née Bull) at Hackney; they had at least one son and one daughter. By 1881 the family lived in Thames Ditton, Surrey, where Bishop was a Coal Merchant. But during that decade his inclination to the Church was realised, and by 1888 he was a student at Western College; he accepted the Pastorate, and was ordained at Silver Street Chapel, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, though he left for “another sphere of work” at Wellingborough the following year.

At the time of the 1891 census he was an “Undenominational Missionary” living at Chapel House, Binfield, Berkshire, with his family. He was appointed a Unitarian Minister and a “Missionary” at the Colleyhurst branch of Manchester Domestic Mission in Willert Street by 1896; amongst other things the Mission distributed the Lord Mayor’s Fund to the needy within Manchester. Like many churchmen he was a “passive resister” to the local rates in 1903 (and again in 1904), as a component of the rates was allocated to sectarian schools; “the usual distress warrants” were issued. He served as Honorary Secretary to the Central Relief Committee in Manchester, providing local soup kitchens, and remained in the city until at least 1911. About 1910 he married Jane Chapman (maiden name uncertain). Before his marriage he lived at Oak Bank, Harpurley, and afterwards at 21 Polefield Road, Blackley.

After a spell in Old Conway, he was welcomed as the new Pastor at Collumpton in Devon, based at the Pound Street Chapel. The following year he was fined 10s for letting his dog out without a muzzle (he said it was due to “inadvertence”, and the court clearly regarded the case light-heartedly). A Liberal, he was known for his “lantern lectures”, which he gave wherever he was stationed and which were “remembered with pleasure”. While at Collumpton he presided in 1923 over a meeting of the Unitarian and Free Churches of Devon.

But Bishop left Collumpton in 1923 to come to Cheltenham, where he took charge of the Bayshill Unitarian Chapel. While in Cheltenham from at least 1924 another facet of his beliefs became manifest, and he agreed to act as the active Honorary Treasurer of the Cheltenham Food Reform Association (later renamed the Cheltenham Vegetarian Association); he lived at this stage with his wife at Sunnybrae, Harp Hill. In 1927 he retired nearer to the centre of Cheltenham, living at Lake House, Pittville until 1933. He was re-elected President of the Cheltenham Vegetarian Association in 1932, but two years later had moved to Southport, where he was elected the first President of the Southport and District Vegetarian Society.

Latterly the Revd. Bishop lived at 1 Lima Road, St Anne’s-on-Sea, Lancashire, where he died in late 1941, at the age of (or almost) ninety, predeceasing his wife by two years.

▶Moved to Pittville from: Collumpton, Devon       Moved from Pittville to: St Anne’s-on-Sea, Lancashire

▶Date of death:   4 October 1941     Place of death: St Anne’s-on-Sea, Lancashire

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial:

▶Notes:   Transactions of the Congregational Historical Society vol. 2: “Nonconformity in Trowbridge: Silver Street Chapel”     ID: 15075

Contributor(s):  John Simpson