Heath, Samuel
1816-1882

Samuel Heath, born in Haslington, Cheshire, in 1816, was the eleventh and last child of John Heath (1766-1846) and Catherine Heath (nee Stockton) (1772-1850). John Heath was a bricklayer; John and Catherine were Primitive Methodists and their home was a preaching centre. From a very frugal childhood, with limited opportunities for education, Samuel became a timber merchant, builder and farmer, owning land in Crewe. The siting of the engineering works for the Grand Junction Railway in Crewe led to the development of the town and Samuel held several civic offices: he was surveyor of highways from 1848 and a founder-member of the Coppenhall Local Board (and chair of the Board in 1868-69). Converted in the Burland revival in the early 1840s, Samuel was a Local Preacher and was instrumental in the building of the Market Street PM chapel (1845) and in successive and larger chapels in Heath Street (1854-55) and Ramsbottom Street (1865-66). His financial support for some twenty PM chapels was recognised in a resolution of thanks from the PM Conference and in the later naming of Ramsbottom Street as the Heath Memorial Chapel.

Samuel's daughter Mary Alice Heath (1849-1912) married the PM minister Thomas Powell (1841-1915) in 1868. They emigrated with their family to Queensland, Australia, in 1881, as PM missionaries.

Samuel Heath was married three times: to Martha Boden (1816-55), Betsey Steele (1816-77) and Mary Davies (1831-1900); five children outlived their father. Samuel died on 23 August 1882.

Sources
  • 'Funeral of the late Mr Samuel Heath', Crewe Chronicle, 2 September, page 8 and 'Funeral Sermon of the late Mr Samuel Heath', Crewe Chronicle, 7 October 1882, page 5.
  • Primitive Methodist Magazine, 1886, page 227.
  • 'Samuel Heath', in Sandy Calder, The Origins of Primitive Methodism (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2016), pages 240-42.

Entry written by: DHR
Category: Person
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