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

Life

Walkden, born in Flixton, near

Urmston Urmston is a town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, which had a population of 41,731 at the 2021 Census. Historically in Lancashire, it is 5 miles (8.04672 km) southwest of Manchester city centre. The southern boundary is the River M ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, 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 in the south-east of Cumbria, England. It lies within the Westmorland and Furness local government district and in the Yorkshire Dales National Park for planning purposes; it was historically a part of the West Riding of ...

, 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 William Dobson (4 March 1611 (baptised); 28 October 1646 (buried)) was a portraitist and one of the first significant English painters, praised by his contemporary John Aubrey as "''the most excellent painter that England has yet bred''". He ...

of Preston. A new edition, along with his baptism register, was published by the Lancashire Family History & Heraldry Society in 1996. It presents a picture of the hard life of a poor country minister of the period, and suggested to

Hall Caine Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine (14 May 1853 – 31 August 1931), usually known as Hall Caine, was a British novelist, dramatist, short story writer, poet and critic of the late 19th and early 20th century. Caine's popularity during his lifetim ...

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 18th-century English diarists 18th-century English male writers 18th-century English Presbyterian ministers English Christian religious leaders People from Flixton, Greater Manchester English male non-fiction writers Writers from Lancashire