John Grant Sargent (1813
- 1883), founder of the Fritchley
Friends
Significant events in John's life are outlined below:
- 30th July 1813 born in Paddington,
London.
John was the son of Isaac Sargent, a coach maker and brick maker,
and his wife Hester Sturge
- 1823 his parents moved to Paris leaving their sons to be educated
in boarding schools at Epping and Islington.
- April 1830 apprenticed to John
D. Bassett, a Quaker draper, at Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire
- 1834 joined his his father in Paris, and was employed
in the same trades as his father
- 1835 attended Wesleyan services, discarding his
Quaker costume
- 1838 started attending regualrly a Friends meeting promoted
by his father at 24 Faubourg du Roule
- 1842 dispossed of his businesses to take up farming in England
- 1843 & 1844 went on religious missions to the south of France
- Studied farming with Thomas Bayes at Kimberley, Norfolk
- 23rd December 1846 married Catherine Doubell.
Catherine was the daughter of George & Elizabeth Doubell of Reigate.
- 1846-51 managed Bregsells Farm near Dorking, Surrey
- 1851-4 superintending Hall Farm, near Moate,
co. Westmeath, Ireland
- 23rd November 1851 spoke for the first time in a Friends' meeting
at Clonmel
- 1853 published An Epistle of Love and Caution. This was critical
of the growing influence of Joseph John Gurney's evangelical
views
- 1854 took over a wood-turning mill at Cockermouth, Cumbria
- April 1860 issued a manuscript circular letter
suggesting the assembling of conferences. These conference were
held approximately
three times a year between 1862 and 1869
- 1864 moved to Fritchley, Derbyshire where he took
over a bobbin mill
- 1868 travelled to America with other Quakers to confer with
the groups of primitive Friends known as 'smaller bodies'. They
returned with the idea of separation from the London yearly meeting
- January 1870 a general meeting was held at Fritchley and then
twice a year thereafter. The members of this were known as the
Fritchley Friends or Wilburites. John was clerk of the meeting
and its leading light.
- 27th December 1883 John died at Fritchley. He was buried on
the 29th December in the Quaker burial ground at Toadhole Furnace,
near Alfreton, Derbyshire.
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