▶Date of birth: 25 October 1867        Place of birth: Ballyshannon, Donegal (the 1891 census has Camberwell, London)

▶Father:   William Beattie Monahan    Mother: Mary Hepworth

▶Spouse(s):  Hannah Louisa Piggott    Date(s) of marriage:  3Q 1898     Place(s) of marriage: King’s Norton, Birmingham

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Wesleyan Methodist minister, Anglican); Author

▶Lifestory: William Beattie Monahan began this clerical career as a Wesleyan Methodistd, though he seceded to the Church of England, objecting particular to the Methodist practise of relocation its clergy every two  or three years. He was born in Camberwell, London in 1867, the eldest son of the well-known Wesleyan Methodist minister the Revd. William Beattie Monahan, of Omagh, Co. Tyrone and Tramore, Co. Waterford, and his wife Mary, eldest daughter of surgeon John D. Hepworth Esq., near Leeds; his younger brother the Revd. Alfred Edwin Monahan was Bishop of Monmouth 1940-5. Monahan was educated at Wesley College, Dublin, and in 1889 received the degree of BA at Trinity College, Dublin, MA 1892, Divinity Testamonium 1895, BD 1904.

At the time of the 1891 census he lived in Camberwell as a Theological Student. He was drawn initially to Methodism, where his family roots lay, and later that year stood in as minister at Clapham (Queen’s Road) in the absence of the regular minister in America. By 1891 he was “on the President’s list of reserve” as a Supernumerary Minister, and later that year was stationed on the Cheltenham circuit, where he was a popular preacher and speaker on topics such as the progress of Methodism in Ireland; in 1892 the Revd. Monahan lived at the Wesleyan Superintendent’s residence, 27 Clarence Square in Pittville. By 1892 he was stationed in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire as second minister, and in 1893 had moved as a Junior Minister onto the Islington (London) circuit.

But this was to prove the end of his career as a Methodist, as in 1894 it became known that he intended to secede to the Church of England, citing the ecclesiastical position of Wesleyan Methodists and his objection to the principle of itinerancy. In 1894 he took holy orders in the Anglican Church, and was ordained Deacon in 1894, and Priest in Coventry in 1895. Monahan was licensed a Curate of Curate of St Mark’s in Birmingham 1894-6, moving to St Paul’s, Balsall Heath 1896-8. A convinced Anglo-Catholic apologist and an impressive preacher, in 1898 he became a Curate at St Michael’s Church in Coventry (where in 1901 he was initiated into the Freemasons’ St Michael’s Lodge), and stayed in the Midlands in various curacies until 1902. He married Hannah Louisa, eldest daughter of Joseph Piggott, of Park Villa, Moseley, Birmingham, in 1898; they had three daughters.

In 1902 the family  relocated to St Swithin’s with Old St Martin, Worcester as Rector. From Worcester he wrote numerous books and pamphlets on religious subjects (sometimes under the pseudonym “The Voice of Worcester”), including Meditations on the spiritual life (1910) and his three-volume Moral theology of St Thomas Aquinas (1942); he was also a gifted watercolourist (and was a member of the Parson Painters’ Society). He remained in Worcester until his death there in 1948, at the age of eighty; his wife predeceased him by four years. His estate at probate was valued at £5,410 16s.

▶Moved to Pittville from:   Clapham, Surrey     Moved from Pittville to: Wisbech

▶Date of death:  16 September 1948      Place of death: Worcester

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial:

▶Notes:  Waterford Standard 2 October 1948     ID: 5633

Contributor(s):  John Simpson