Town Missionary

[wayne69]

Hello,
        My ggg.grandfather was, in 1853 " Town Missionary" for Halifax, West Yorkshire. Obviously, the job title speaks for itself, but, does anyone know exactly what these people did? Would they have been attached to a church, did they receive a salary and who appointed them? He left a well paid job in Lincolnshire to take up this job in Halifax, but why Halifax?
       All help appreciated
                  Wayne

[stanmapstone]

City(or Town)-Mission, a religious and benevolent mission to the poor and abandoned classes of cities/towns; so City (Town)-Missionary.
In the 1881 Census there are 1,875 people with missionary in the occupation. Evangelical religion was influential at every level of Victorian society from the Queen herself down to the very poor who were the recipients of Evangelical charity. For instance in 1845 Chester City Mission, the first of several interdenominational or un-denominational evangelical missions in the city was formed.
See http://www.british-history.ac.uk/search.asp?query1=city+mission

City Missions are still active, put "City Mission" into Google, there are 42,600 hits

Stan

[sillystu1422]

Hi There , I have a great interest in the Town Missionaries in Halifax UK and I may be able to help, what was your GGG Grandfather called.

[wayne69]

Hello Stuart,
                   Thank you for replying to my posting re Town Missionary. I would prefer to do this by
 pm as it may involve living people. You need to make three postings before I can contact you by pm.
              Many Thanks
                      Wayne

[sillystu1422]

OK, when I have made three posts we can talk further

[sandiep]

Hi Wayne
my ggrandfather was a City Missionary in London and I wrote to them and they sent me quite a lot of information about him.............if the mission is still going in Halifax it may well be worth writing to them