238 History of the 



views undergoing a change, he leaned to Calvinism, and became 

 an eminent Baptist preacher. He was the author of a Concordance 

 to the Holy Scriptures, which is held in high estimation. After 

 his death, which occurred on the 24th April, 1803, in the seventy- 

 sixth year of his age, this work was edited by Dr. Adam Clarke, 

 and republished under his superintendence. His son, Joseph 

 Butterworth, married a sister-in-law of the latter-named distinguished 

 divine, and for a lengthened period represented the boroughs of 

 Coventry and Dover in Parliament. 



His father, Henry Butterworth, blacksmith at Goodshaw, was a 

 deacon of the Baptist Church at Cloughfold, and intimately 

 associated with Messrs. Crossley and Mitchel in their evangelical 

 labours. Besides his more celebrated son, John, above mentioned, 

 Henry Butterworth had four other sons — viz., Lawrence, 

 Henry, James, and Thomas. The three former also became 

 Baptist ministers, being settled at Evesham, Bridgenorth, and 

 Broomsgrove, respectively ; and the latter an occasional preacher ; 

 each of the brothers displaying abilities of no ordinary kind. 



James Hargreaves, the author of the " Life of the Rev. John 

 Hirst," and other works, was a man sufficiently remarkable to 

 claim a brief notice. We learn from his unpublished Autobio- 

 graphy that he was the third of five children, and was born on 

 Sunday, November 13th, 1768, at a small farmhouse called 

 Deanhead, two miles from Bacup on the Burnley Road. After 

 his mother's death, which took place when he was only two years 

 and a half old, his father married a second time, and James was 

 sent to live with his uncle George, his father's brother, who had no 

 family. At seven years of age he was put to work to assist at 

 weaving woollen. In 1781 his uncle took a pubHc-house, and 

 finding that James would be useful to him in keeping his accounts, 

 if he had a little education, he sent him to school daily for a few 

 months. This, and some instruction he received in attending an 

 evening class for a short time, was the extent of the schooling he 

 received. His improvement in after life was due to his own 

 assiduous perseverance. From his thirteenth to his eighteenth 



