Peter Walkden (16 October 1684 – 5 November 1769) was an English Presbyterian minister and diarist.

Life

Walkden, born in Flixton, near Urmston,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, on 16 October 1684, was educated at a village school, then at the academy of James Coningham, minister of the Presbyterian chapel at Manchester, and finally at some Scottish university, where he graduated M.A. He entered his first ministerial charge on 1 May 1709 at

Garsdale Garsdale is a dale or valley in the south east of Cumbria, England, historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. It is now within the South Lakeland local government district, but is still a "Yorkshire Dale" for planning purposes. In t ...

, Yorkshire, which he quit at the end of 1711 to become minister of two small congregations at Newton-in-Bowland and Hesketh Lane, near Chipping, in a poor and sparsely inhabited agricultural part of Lancashire. There he remained until 1738, when he removed to Holcombe, near Bury in the same county. In 1744 he was appointed to the pastorate of the tabernacle, Stockport, Cheshire, and remained there until his death on 5 November 1769. He was buried in his own chapel, and his son Henry wrote a Latin epitaph for his gravestone.

Works

His diary for the years 1725, 1729, and 1730, the only portion which has survived, was published in 1866 by William Dobson of Preston. It presents a picture of the hard life of a poor country minister of the period, and suggested to Hall Caine some features of the character of Parson Christian in ''A Son of Hagar''. Passages from his correspondence and commonplace books were also printed by James Bromley in the ''Transactions'' of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire (vols. xxxii. xxxvi. xxxvii.)

Family

He was twice married: first, to Margaret Woodworth, who died in December 1715; his second wife's name is not known. He had eight children, of whom one, Henry, was a minister at Clitheroe, and died there on 2 April 1795.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walkden, Peter 1684 births 1769 deaths English Christian religious leaders 18th-century English non-fiction writers 18th-century English male writers English diarists English Presbyterian ministers People from Flixton, Greater Manchester 18th-century Presbyterian ministers English male non-fiction writers