Mary Hinchcliffe (1718-1770)

Name:: Mary Hinchcliffe

First name:: Mary

Last name:: Hinchcliffe (married, #memoir)

Last name:: Hinchliff (married, #Yorkshire_Families)

Birth date:: 1718-07-31
Birth place:: Wibsey
Death date:: 1770-08-28
Death place:: Dudley Hill

Gender:: Female
ML ID:: mlper000574

Relations (family):

James Greening, spouse
Mary Hinchliff, child

Memoir:

Archive: Fulneck Archives
Shelfmark: Ful/3/27

Mary Hinchcliffe was born in August 1718 at Wibsey in the parish of Bradford, Yorkshire, raised Presbyterian before being drawn to the Brethren through her uncle and aunt, and received into the Fulneck congregation in 1758. Described by those who knew her as bearing the quiet, humble character of the mother of our Lord, she served faithfully as a member of the Helpers' Conference and was beloved by her neighbors, her in-laws, and the poor whom she made it her pleasure to assist. She died suddenly and peacefully on August 29, 1770, in her fifty-second year, collapsing quietly at home within minutes of complaining of a headache, her countenance afterward described as that of a reconciled sinner placidly sleeping in the Lord.

View Transcription of Memoir

The Course of Life of the
Married Sister Mary Hinchcliff
who went happily to our Savr:: on the 29th Augst 1770
She was born at Wibsey in the Parish of
Bradford Yorkshire in August 1718,
and was brought up in the Presbyterian
Religion and in her Youth behaved order
-ly, and living with her Uncle and aunt
love the Brn Pollard when they began to
She also came among them & was reciev’d
into Society in 1745: but afterwards
absented herself for a while till after she
had married BrJohn Hinchcliff in 1749,
after a whilewhen she came again with her
Husband to the Meetings of the Brethren
and since has gone on as a loving Sinner-
-Heart. She was reciev’d into the Pudsey Congregn
(at Fullneck) in 1758 and partook the
1st Time of the Holy Sacrament with the
Congregn in September 1763. Our Savr
blessd her Marriage with one Son who is
yet with his Father and a Member of our
Society, and one Daughr who is already
gone home to the Lord. Br & Sisr
Greening say: that since they have known Sisr

Hinchcliff they observd in her something
of the character which the Holy Scriptures
give us of the Mother of our Lord: that is
she was poor in her own Eyes, quiet and
yet hearty. When at the late settling of the
Helpers Conference in this Congregn our
Savr directed that she should be a Member
thereof, it had a very blessed Effect on her
Heart, she expressd herself about it with Love
Shames & counted herself very poor & unfit.
The Sunday before her Departure having
been at the Meetings with her Husband she
afterwards was overheard comforting a dejected Sisr very
heartily & lovingly on the Tuesday Br Green
-ing providentially calld at her House and
Br Hinchcliff being out on his Business, she
sat down and convers’d awhile very heartily
about her own inward poverty, expressing at the same
time (tho indirectly) her Love towards our
dear Savr, & more directly her Love to her Husband, her
care & concern that her Sons Soul might
prosper, and that he might be preserved for
the Lord. She then appeard pretty well in
Health as she was also the next Day till
afternoon, when she complain’d of her Head
& soon after sitting down was gone to her
Lord in a minute or two in a quiet and

easy Manner (with scarce any Struggle
of the Body) in the 52d Year of her Age.
Her Corpse had afterwards a lovely aspect
as the Countenance of a reconciled com-
forted Sinner which had placidly slept
in the Lord. She was also a most loving
Daughter in Law to Br Hinchcliffs Father
& Mother who are both very ancient & could
not enough express how kind & affectionate
she had been to them, and who have therefore
a real Loss in her Departure, as well as
other necessitous People, whom she made
it her Pleasure to help. For the Lord had
given her a loving compassionate Heart.