▶Date of birth:   1841       Place of birth: Horton, Northumberland

▶Father:  William Barnes Lawson     Mother: Mary Ann

▶Spouse(s):  (1) Agnes Howell ; (2) Mary Rebecca Spencer  Date(s) of marriage: (1) 5 March 1870 ; (2) circa 1874     Place(s) of marriage: (1) Denbigh Road Chapel, Kensington; (2) (probably) Barbados

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Wesleyan Methodist minister), Missionary

▶Lifestory: Methodist minister the Revd. Thomas Lawson worked first as a missionary in Barbados, before returning to circuit work mainly in the north of England; he passed through Cheltenham for two years between 1901 to 1902. He was born in Northumberland in 1841, the fourth son of husbandman William Barnes Lawson, and his wife Mary Ann. In 1870, while he lived at 10 Sunderland Place in Kensington, he married Agnes Howell, daughter of engineer Francis Thomas Nutt, of Bayswater.

Lawson travelled abroad to work at the Wesleyan Mission in Barbados, where his wife died in late 1872. After the death of his wife he married again, in about 1874, to Mary Rebecca Spencer, widow of the brother of his first wife, Samuel Henry Nutt; his second wife was born in Barbados, where they remained until after the first of their six children was born.

After he returned from Barbados, Lawson worked as a Supernumerary at the Fawcett Street circuit in Sunderland, from where he successfully applied to be appointed a circuit minister. His subsequent stations in the Methodist ministry were: Kilsyth, Stirlingshire (where he was the only minister) 1880-2, and Glasgow (Paisley Road) 1883-5 (Superintendent Minister). Lawson also spoke about his experiences in the West Indies; after one talk in Salisbury he was reported to be “first rate in telling a good story” in relation to Wesleyan Foreign Missions. Further stations followed: Southampton 1886-8, Nelson, Lancashire (Supernumerary) 1889-91, Birstall, Yorkshire 1892-4 (Superintendent), Newport and Cowes, Isle of Wight 1897 (Supernumerary), and Swanage, Dorset 1898-1900 (only Minister; he was initially allocated to Launceston in 1898 and was talked of for Wareham in Dorset, before he was offered the Swanage station).

After this he was allocated Superintendent Minister for the Cheltenham district, and in 1901-2 lived at the Wesleyan Superintendent’s residence, 27 Clarence Square. Later that year he was appointed Superintendent at Ryde on the Isle of Wight. Lawson lived latterly at Hytton, Churchfield Road, Poole, in Dorset, where  he died in 1920, at the age of seventy-nine. His estate at death was valued at just under £890.

The Revd. Thomas Lawson should not be confused with the President of the Calvinistic Protestant Union, of the Providence Chapel, Brighton (died 1894) or the Congregational Minister (died 1892) of the same name.

▶Moved to Pittville from:  Swanage      Moved from Pittville to: Ryde, Isle of Wight

▶Date of death:  10 September 1920      Place of death: Hytton, Churchfield Road, Poole

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial:

▶Notes:  Salisbury Times 28 January 1888      ID: 5637

Contributor(s):  John Simpson