Wesleyan Shaftos

By Robert Shafto

In Wesleyan Shaftos Robert Shafto records his Wesleyan family history. The growth of Wesleyan Methodists was powerful in York during the Victorian era. The Shafto family ceased to be York clay tobacco pipe makers and they became builders, brick makers and Wesleyan ministers. With building and literary accomplishments, the Shaftos became class-conscious. There was a black sheep in the family and a feud developed which was hidden for more than 100 years. The author finally sees how the lives of his ancestors are sometimes reflected in his own life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert Shafto
• Release date: Dec 4, 2018
• ISBN: 9781999675110

Book preview

1

Introduction

In 1675 Richard Shafton, a tobacco pipemaker, was admitted as a freeman of York on the payment of 20 nobles (£6.67) with the Lord Mayor given discretion to reduce the sum. His brother John, my 20 times great-grandfather, was also making clay tobacco pipes in York at that time and they probably worked together. My ancestors then continued to make clay tobacco pipes in York until the middle of the 19th century. Some of Richard’s pipes can be found in the Castle Museum in York, and the Shaftoes have continued to be freemen of York to the present time. The name of Shafton is derived from the town of Shafton, which is 30 miles south of York and four miles north east of Barnsley. Shafton became Shaftoe over a period. Probably when the children were taken to the church to be baptised, the minister could not understand the local accent of my ancestors. He might have known the name of Shafto or Shaftoe, which was often found in Northumberland and the north of England, and entries in the York church registers eventually became Shaftoe.

From the 1820s, or perhaps a little earlier, most of the Shaftoes were Wesleyan Methodists in York and it is this next thread in the York Shaftoe history I am writing about in this book. In 1992 I wrote Shaftoes of York, the first book on my family history. Since then there has been a popular series of television programmes with the title Who Do You Think You Are? Some of the musicians whose genealogy was discovered found that their family had musician ancestors, albeit a different sort of music. I have not found that I have much in common with my pipe-making ancestors, but when it comes to the Wesleyans, I find there is some overlap with myself.

When I came to write Shaftoes of York I had no direct knowledge of my early ancestors, and I gleaned my information from parish records, censuses, wills, the records of the City of York, and John Andrews’ research on the clay pipemakers of York. For this second book I actually met some of the later Wesleyan Methodists in my lifetime, some of whom influenced my personal life.

My great-grandfather took the ‘e’ off the name so I am a Shafto, whilst my relations in York are Shaftoe. I always understood that taking the ‘e’ off our name was done deliberately to distinguish ourselves from those with an ‘e’. I don’t think I will ever find a definite answer to why this was, but I make some suggestions on this in the course of this book.

Since my book Shaftoes of York was published in 1992, I had a phone call at my office from the late Frank Cowan, who said: I am one of the black sheep in your book, and we then jointly discovered the career of Samuel Shaftoe of Bradford, whose mother was a Cowan and father was a Shaftoe, and I am including a chapter on Samuel in this book. Interestingly, Samuel was committed to following a very different association in life from that of his Wesleyan cousins.

In 2016, I met Alistair (Tig) Shafto from Ottawa in Canada. He is the son of one of my father’s cousins. He is a genealogist who has done much research on our family and I am grateful for his help on several of the details in this book.

Methodism and its organisation

John Wesley was an Anglican priest. He had an assurance of his personal faith, when his heart was strangely warmed at a meeting in Aldersgate Street in London in May 1738. He then began a preaching ministry to spread scriptural holiness throughout the country, and his missionary work was very fruitful as he travelled round England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. His brother Charles, who was also an Anglican priest, was a prolific hymn writer, as well as a gifted preacher. Methodism was not initiated as a new sect, but as a society within the Church of England. John Wesley did not have a parish but preached as a fellow of Lincoln College Oxford, and said that all the world was his parish. The first Methodist societies were open to anyone and were not restricted to those in the Anglican Church. In 1742 a class system was started, and members of a Methodist society were included in a class of 12 people. This class system provided fellowship and pastoral care for its members.

From 1744 John Wesley began a series of annual conferences and before he died he lodged a deed of declaration to appoint a conference of 100 men and this meant that his work could then continue after his death. When John Wesley died in 1791, he was still an Anglican priest, and Methodist societies had 72,000 members. However, after he died the separation from the Anglican Church was soon brought about by others.

The family unit of Methodism is not the local church. It is the circuit which is a group of churches, and Methodist ministers are appointed to circuits by the Methodist Conference, the governing body of the Methodist Church. The Methodist Conference appoints a president each year to hold office for a year, and since 1932 a lay vice president has also been appointed annually. Methodism produced other branches but we were always the original Wesleyan Methodists until 1932, when the Wesleyan Methodists merged with the Primitive and United Methodists and from that time we have been simply Methodists.

A Methodist minister’s appointment is for a fixed term and at the start of my history it was normally for three years. The two ministers in my family were therefore continuously on the move, and my father, uncle and aunts had a childhood which spanned different parts of the country. Methodist ministers are therefore itinerant ministers and they will often talk about how many years they have travelled. One minister in a circuit will be the superintendent of the circuit, and sometimes my family were superintendents. The circuits of Methodism send representatives to a district synod, which appoints representatives to the Conference. A circuit has a leaders meeting (now the Church Council), and its duties include the appointment of class or pastoral leaders and local preachers. Methodism in Great Britain is divided into districts, which roughly correspond to the dioceses of the Anglican Church. The chair of a district is in many ways the Methodist equivalent of a bishop, and is responsible for the pastoral oversight of the circuits in their district. One of my ancestors was a chairman of two districts.

Local preachers

In 1980 I was recognised and commissioned as a local preacher in the Methodist Church. Three of my ancestors were also local preachers. We start with a period on note from the superintendent of the circuit and after this we go on trial attending the local preachers’ meetings once a quarter when a report is made on our services. After a few years of studying and preaching, we then preach a trial sermon and have an oral examination, which includes some knowledge of John Wesley’s 44 sermons. To be a Methodist minister you have first to be a local preacher and two of my ancestors went on to be Methodist ministers. When I was 59 I became an Anglican priest and I have shown how this came about in the final chapter, My Christian Journey.

Methodist doctrine

Methodists stand within the Protestant tradition of the worldwide Christian Church and their core beliefs reflect orthodox Christianity. Methodist teaching is sometimes summed up in four particular emphases and are known as the four ‘Alls’:

All need to be saved – the doctrine of original sin

All can be saved – universal salvation

All can know they are saved – assurance

All can be saved completely – Christian perfection

For me the second ‘All’ is very important, because I personally do not agree with the barriers which can sometimes be erected by churches. These may include barriers on gender or on rules for church membership before receiving Communion. Methodist churches vary in their style of worship during services. The emphasis is often on Bible reading and preaching, but the sacraments are an important feature, especially the two instituted by Christ: Holy Communion (also called in other traditions: the Lord’s Supper, Eucharist or Mass), and Baptism. The Methodist Church is well organised with detailed procedural regulations, and today there are no barriers on gender for anyone, and there have been women presidents.

A scheme for the unification of the Methodist Church with the Anglican Church was proposed in 1972 and accepted by the Methodist Church but failed to reach a majority of 75% in the Anglican Church. Since then in 2003 an Anglican-Methodist Covenant has been signed by both churches. In 2018 both churches are exploring a scheme where they can recognise each other’s ministries.

So much of the distinctive Wesleyan theology can be found in the hymns of Charles Wesley. The first time I heard And can it be sung in a Methodist church I found it breathtaking with everyone singing in the congregation and also knowing the parts they have to sing according to their voice.

This is the wording of hymn no. 371 in the Methodist Hymn Book of 1933:

And can it be that I should gain

An interest in the Saviour’s blood?

Died He for me, who caused His pain?

For me, who Him to death pursued?

Amazing love! How can it be

That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me!

‘Tis mystery all! The Immortal dies:

Who can explore His strange design?

In vain the first-born seraph tries

To sound the depths of love divine.

‘Tis mercy all! let earth adore,

Let angel minds inquire no more.

He left His Father’s throne above-

So free, so infinite His grace-

Emptied Himself of all but love,

And bled for Adam’s helpless race.

‘Tis mercy all, immense and free;

For O my God, it found out me!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay

Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray –

I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;

My chains fell off, my heart was free,

I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

No condemnation now I dread;

Jesus, and all in Him, is mine!

Alive in Him, my living Head,

And clothed in righteousness divine,

Bold I approach the eternal throne,

And claim the crown, through

Christ, my own.

Charles Wesley, 1707–88

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John Shaftoe 1810–1877

In 1810 George and Hannah Shaftoe were living in Petergate, York, and on 8th May they took their one-day-old son to their parish church of St Michael le Belfrey to be baptised and named John. At his baptism John became a Christian, and in his life he would become a committed Wesleyan Methodist. The Church of St Michael’s is next to York Minster.

The church is the largest of the old York city