Life and Character
John had a taste for leaning and in this his father encouraged him. He attended the school of Mr John Driver, a Baptist Minister, who, besides following his calling as a hand-loom weaver, undertook to instruct young John, a son of his own, and the son and daughter of the neighbouring squire. Primitive Methodist preachers began to visit Salterforth from 1822 and the Petty household was open to them for hospitality. It was under the influence of these preachers that John was persuaded to commit his life to Christ. From the time of his conversion at the age of sixteen he began to preach to local congregations. Within two years he was called to work as a hired (i.e. paid) local preacher in the Keighley Circuit, and in 1826 when he was eighteen he was called to the work of the itinerant ministry.
His first circuit (1826–1828) was the Pembrokeshire mission based on Haverfordwest, which was followed by a year at Stroud. In 1829 when he was still only twenty-one he was appointed to Tunstall, the mother circuit of the Primitive Methodist Connexion, and surprisingly found that he was named on the plan as superintendent, an indication of the high regard in which he was held very early in his ministry. In 1831 he was transferred to Wearside and in 1832 to Guernsey to take over the Channel Islands mission. From 1835 to 1850 he worked in circuits on the Welsh border and in the Midlands until in 1850 he was moved to London to take responsibility for the publications of the PM Connexion. In 1857 he was asked to undertake a history of the Connexion to be published to mark its Golden Jubilee in 1860. Between 1857 and 1863 John Petty was involved with work at Hull before the Connexion honoured Petty by asking him to assume the Governorship of the Elmfield residential schools for boys opened at York early in 1864. The following year it was decided to accept into Elmfield a number of young ministerial candidates and Petty added to his duties those of theological tutor.
Read more about this topic: John Petty (Primitive Methodist Minister)
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