▶Date of birth:  February 1830        Place of birth: Leigh, Lancashire

▶Father: Samuel Unsworth      Mother:  Margaret Farington

▶Spouse(s):  (1) Frances Lucinda Ebbels; (2) Mary Anne Peach     Date(s) of marriage: (1) 14 October 1856; (2) 12 January 1875     Place(s) of marriage: (1) Glasgow; (2) King Street Chapel, Derby

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Wesleyan Methodist minister); Author

▶Lifestory: The Revd. William Unsworth served as Methodist minister in several northern stations before moving south later in life to London and Cheltenham. He was born in Leigh, Lancashire in 1830, probably the third son of Samuel Unsworth, weaver, of Leigh, and his wife Margaret (née Farington). Unsworth spent his life amongst Methodists; he was baptised at the Wesleyan Chapel at Leigh, and was appointed to his first post in the Methodist ministry in 1858 at Lerwick, Shetland.

As was standard with Methodist ministers he was normally appointed to a new station every two or three years, and gained a reputation as a strong preacher, of an amiable disposition, and active within his station. After Lerwick his early appointments were: Dunbar, East Lothian 1854-5 and at Cockermouth and Keswick, Cumberland 1856-7; while he was at Keswick, in 1856, the whole vale was submerged in water after a violent snowfall and subsequent thaw, suspending all traffic between Keswick and Cockermouth. In 1856 he married Frances Lucinda, daughter of Henry Ellis Ebbels and his wife Jane Stevenson, in Glasgow.

Subsequently he was appointed minister at Alford, Lincolnshire 1858-60, Beverley, Yorkshire 1861-2, Pontefract, Yorkshire 1864-6, Derby 1867-9, Leeds 1870-2 (where he lived with his wife Frances at 22 Springfield Terrace in 1871), and Bradford (Manningham), Yorkshire 1873-5. In 1873, while he was serving in Bradford, his wife died; he remarried in Derby in 1875, to Mary Anne, daughter of William Peach, of Wheat Hill, Mackworth, near Derby.

His several publications included sermons and Self-culture and self-reliance (1861), The brotherhood of men: its laws and lessons (1872), and The aggressive character of Christianity (1878). Further appointments brought him to Manchester (Oxford Road) 1876-8, Macclesfield, Cheshire 1879-8 (in 1881 he lived in Wellington Road, Bollington), and London (Hinde Street) 1882-4, where he was the Superintendent Minister. In 1885 he was stationed as Superintendent Minister to the Cheltenham district, and between 1886 and 1888 lived at the de facto Wesleyan Superintendent’s residence, 27 Clarence Square, Pittville. He preached widely throughout the Wesleyan chapels in Cheltenham and the surrounding district.

But in 1888 he requested that he become a Supernumerary Minister for a year, and left his post in Cheltenham to retire to Derby. He spent the remainder of his life in Derby, engaged on “public work of a religious and philanthropic character”, living eventually in Highfield Road, where he died in 1917 at the age of eighty-seven; his wealth at death to reckoned as just over £1,625 for probate purposes.

▶Moved to Pittville from:  Elsewhere in Cheltenham      Moved from Pittville to: Derby

▶Date of death:  11 April 1917      Place of death: Derby

▶Date of burial:  16 April 1917       Place of burial: Old cemetery, Uttoxeter Road, Derby

▶Notes:        ID: 5631

Contributor(s):  John Simpson