The Kendal Schoolmaster Who Burned His Poems and Preached Across Ireland
“When the Lord's power took hold of me, I sacrificed all my idols and burned all my collection of poems” — James Gough
Born at Kendal in Westmorland on the 27th of the twelfth month 1712 to John and Mary Gough, Friends; his mother taught him to read, and at five he entered Friends' school in the town under Thomas Rebanks, where his quick proficiency in Latin and Greek drew the notice of a justice of the peace who offered to send him to the university.
In his fifteenth year his father agreed with David Hall, 'the memoirs of whose life are extant', to take him as usher to his school at Skipton for his board and instruction; in 1729 he was bound for four years more. At a meeting in the school-house 'the baptizing ministry of John Fothergill' gave him 'the most particular reach' of those years.
Leaving Skipton, he became usher to Alexander Arscott at Bristol, who 'was like a kind and tender father to me'. When the Lord's power took hold of him he 'sacrificed all my idols and burned all my collection of poems'. He kept up Arscott's school after his master's death in 1737 until Jonathan Nelson of Reading arrived.
Hearing that Friends at Cork wanted a schoolmaster, he took leave of his brother at Pickwick in Wiltshire, buried his father at Kendal, and sailed from Pill with Dr Rutty of Dublin, ten days on the water to the Cove of Cork. Visiting Youghal for Cork men's meeting he met Mary, daughter of John and Martha Dobbs, and married her there about 1738.
About four months after his marriage, at a meeting at Youghal, his heart was 'filled with the sweet influence of God's universal love' and he invited those present to come to Christ, having 'desired never to dare to venture upon it until it should be so required'.
His brother John having come to Cork to keep the school, he accompanied his mother home and spent five weeks visiting the meetings of Cumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire and north Yorkshire; at Pardshaw he went to the sickbed of James Dickinson, and at Lancaster Quarterly Meeting first met Samuel Fothergill, 'then young in the ministry'.
Recalling his brother from a tutorship near Edenderry to supply his place, he sailed to Milford Haven for the Welsh Yearly Meeting at Tenby, went on to Bristol and the Isle of Wight, and came up to London Yearly Meeting from Guildford with Samuel Bownas, who 'was particularly kind and fatherly to me'.
The summer after his return he removed from Cork, 'leaving my brother John Gough there in my place', into Leinster province and settled near Mountmellick, in the centre of a large body of Friends, attending the province, half-year's and national meetings constantly.
By now keeping school in Bristol, he lost his eldest son John, a clerk in London, in about his twenty-first year; the funeral at the Park meeting-house in Southwark was 'excessively crowded', the service falling to Samuel Fothergill. In 1771 his brother met him again at London Yearly Meeting after several years' separation.
At the end of 1773 he resigned his Bristol school to visit Friends in the English counties and Ireland with Thomas Melhuish of Taunton, and in 1774 settled in Dublin, following his occupation of schoolmaster there until, in 1777, he gave it up to be more at liberty for his gift.
Set out on the 3rd of the ninth month 1778 through Clonmel, Cashel, Limerick, Cork, Bandon and Youghal, and on the 2nd of the ninth month 1779 through Ulster from Oldcastle to Lurgan, joining a family visit near Charlemount; in the cold weather of early 1780 he visited every particular meeting of Mountmellick and Edenderry.
Setting out again for Munster about the 22nd of the eighth month 1780, feeling 'that he must go forward, if his life went for it', he visited above fifty families in a week at Limerick and had nearly finished the families of Cork when dysentery overtook him; he died at Joseph Garratt's house on the 6th of the tenth month 1780 and was buried in Friends' burying-ground on the 9th, 'aged sixty-seven, a minister forty-one years'.
In 1727, in his fifteenth year, his father agreed with David Hall, 'the memoirs of whose life are extant', to take him as usher at Hall's Skipton school for his board and instruction; he served there until 1733 and 'came up to Bristol quite plain in my garb, as David Hall would not suffer any other in his family'.
James left 'my brother John Gough there in my place' at the Cork school in 1744, spared him to Benjamin Wilson near Edenderry as a tutor, and assented to his taking charge of Friends' school in Dublin; John compiled the memoir from his papers, writing 'Thus far my deceased brother proceeded in the narrative'.
At Pardshaw in 1740 he heard that 'our ancient valuable friend' was near his close, visited him, and heard him say 'I have served the Lord and his truth in my generation, and now I feel the blessed reward thereof'; he related it ever after in terms that showed the impression it left.
The 'most particular reach' of his Skipton years came at a meeting in the school-house 'under the baptizing ministry of John Fothergill'; he met him again at Knaresborough Monthly Meeting on his way to York Quarterly Meeting.
Met him at Lancaster Quarterly Meeting in 1740 'then young in the ministry; but even then appearing with a solemnity, brightness, and gospel authority', shared the public service with him there, met him again at Crawshawbooth, and it was Fothergill who spoke at his son John's funeral in Southwark in 1769.
Bownas joined him at Guildford on the road to London Yearly Meeting; 'in this journey, Samuel Bownas was particularly kind and fatherly to me', and they sat together in Gracechurch Street meeting on first-day morning.
Lodged at Neale's house at Christianstown on the way to Limerick province meeting, and in 1780 Neale was with him at Limerick and in the family visits at Cork; his epistle of condolence to John Gough says 'his sun went down bright, which is the crown of all'.
Went some miles out of his way with Moses Pim to see 'our dear friend Mary Peisley, being at that time in affliction', and records that she married Samuel Neale after her last journey and died within days: 'I attended both at her marriage and her funeral'.
His own review of his life, begun three times and last taken up in his sixty-sixth year, completed by his brother John Gough from the abstracts of his later journeys and his letters, with the testimony of Dublin Men's Meeting; reprinted in the Friends' Library, volume 9 (1845).
A numbered epistle found among his papers and 'seemingly designed for publication', urging Friends in every part of Ireland to buy the Truth and sell it not, annexed to the memoir by his brother.