Rev James WAY

1804 - 1884  (80 years)

• Name	James WAY
  Title	Rev
  Born	17 Jun 1804	Morchard Bishop, Devon, UK
  	Or was he born in 1781 rather than 1804?
  Gender	Male
  Migration	To South Australia on the 'Anna Maria' on 18th November 1850.
  Notes for biography	* James's parents and older brothers had been members of the Church of England, but it does not appear that they took any practical interest in religion. "James lived in the village until in early manhood and he experienced a complete spiritual change and realization of the truth of the Christian religion, with a sense of vocation to devote his life to its practice and propagation. ... To the worldly among his friends and neighbours he must have seemed to have adopted a vagabond existence, and to have abandoned his prospects of material success in life, for his conversion and his itinerant preaching brought him no material advantage. Yet his decision to become a Bible Christian minister and later to emigrate to South Australia to serve as a missioner there, though inspired entirely by motives of religious duty and spiritual enthusiasm, ultimately turned out as beneficial to him and his children as if he acted upon a far-seeing policy of material self-interest. This will be apparent if we consider what James Way's situation would have been if he had remained a conventional Anglican, as his elder brothers did. They lived out their lives in Morchard Bishop in obscurity and comparative poverty, though they had had a better education than James and the benefit of a father's care until they grew to manhood. But for his conversion, James Way would no doubt have been an agricultural labourer, for he had not been taught trade in his youth." (ref : Hannan, p 2) * His father died in 1812, when James was about 8 years old. * James joined the Bible Christian Church. At first he was an itinerant lay preacher and afterwards, on 11th May 1826 he became a minister. (ref : Hannan, p2) * First marriage : Jane WILLIS about 1833, when she was about 22 years old and James was about 29 years. The wedding was on 6th August 1833 at St Nicholas Church Rochester. * Jane's details were obtained from Clive Challis. She was born in October 1811, the fifth child of Elizabeth and Edward Willis. * Early years of marriage : The places of birth of their children are indicative of how the family moved around in those years :- ** 1834 : Elizabeth was born in Chatham ** 1836 : Samuel in Portsea (or Portsmouth?) ** 1839 : Jane born in the Medway district ** 1840 : James's mother died when he was about 36 years old. ** 1941 : The family were living in Tenderden where James was a Minister. At that time Elizabeth was staying with her grandparents (ref Clive Challis) ** 1843 : Florence was born ** 1846 : Edward was born in Exeter ** 1847 : James was President of the Bible Christian Conference ** 1848 : James was Missionary Secretary. ** 1850 : The whole family (except Samuel) migrated to SA on the 'Anna Maria' which left London on 12th August and arrived in Adelaide on 15th November 1850. (ref : Clive Challs. James was 46 years old. Also on board was a Mis M Willis, however she does not appear to be any relation to Jane (ref : Clive Challis). ** Jabez, their sixth and last child was born in in Australia in 1852. He died when he was only about six months old. * Shebbear College : In the years before they migrated James established the school known as Shebbear College in North Devon - to provide primary education for boys intended for the Bible Christian ministry as well as the sons of ministers. The college is still carrying on as a leading Methodist boarding school in England. * One of the three houses at Shebbear is called Way * After they migrated in 1850, James established the first Bible Christian Society and and was the senior Bible Christian minister in South Australia, serving the Kooringa Circuit for many years. He was appointed General Superintendent of the Australian Church in 1856.(ref Clive Challis) * Jane died on 15th May 1878. * Second marriage : James married Catherine POWELL on 15th July 1880 in Avoca Cottage, North Adelaide. This was two years after Jane had died. Catherine was 64 years when she married James. They were married for four years before James died. * James died in Noalunga in 1884. * Way College in Greenhill Rd, Wayville, Adelaide was named after him. The college was opened about 1892 and closed around 1902 - it later became the Methodist Ladies College and now known as Annesley College.
  Notes for biography	Parents : There is contradictory information about James' parents. We have accepted it be John WAY and Elizabeth ROWDEN because the name Rowden appears in the name of one their grandsons (Samuel's illegitimate son, Alfred). Also it is John Way in Hannon (p2). And more authoritatively, Burke's Baronetage states that the father is John Way although it does not give Elizabeth's maiden name. There are other assertions of parentage which we do not accept as follows :- * Gillian Martin (GillianRhind33 of Mundia) has James's mother as Elizabeth DELVE 1804-1840, but with this birthdate, this Elizabeth could not have been James' mother. * ABRAHAM WAY : On the other hand, the lineage has been traced back further by rmarkday (mundia) as follows - but we do not accept Abraham as being James' father, so the rest this is ancestral tree is not valid :- * The parents of James were Abraham WAY (1739-1809) and Unknown. They had another son, George 1770 who married Mary. George and Mary had a son, James in 1797. * The parents of Abraham were Joseph WAY (1704-1775) and Elizabeth CHAPLE (1701-1774). They also had a daughter, Anne (1736-1750). * The parents of Joseph were George WAY 1677 and Mary LANE 1678. They also had Henry (1712-1793, Mary 1715-1715, Abraham 1718-1735, Jacob 1722-1722, Isaac 1722-1767, and David 1726. * The parents of Elizabeth were Edward CHAPLE (1667-1702) and Agnes HARVEY (1667-1709)
  Research required	* A map is needed to show the relative locations of Morchard Bishop, Rochester, Tenderden, Chatham, Portsmouth, Medway District, Exeter, Deon, Exeter & Sheabber College. * Also locations in Australia - Kooringa, Noalunga and Way College.
  Residence	The family lived in a small house at the rear of the little Bible Christian Chapel in Southsea Street, Portsmouth. (ref : AJ Hannan, p 2)
  Died	14 Aug 1884	Noalunga, SA   [1]
  Person ID	I4	Samuel WAY
  Last Modified	4 Sep 2016

  
  

  Father	John WAY,   b. 1769, Morchard Bishop, Devon, UK ,   d. 1812, Morchard Bishop, Devon, UK  (Age 43 years)
  Mother	Elizabeth ROWDEN,   b. 1768, Nymet Tracey, Devon, UK ,   d. Morchard Bishop, Devon, UK
  Married	22 Oct 1793	Morchard Bishop, Devon, UK
  Family ID	F4	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Jane WILLIS,   b. Oct 1811, Chatham, Kent, UK ,   d. 15/5/1878, North Adelaide, SA  (Age ~ 66 years)
  Married	6 Aug 1833	St Nicholas's Church, Rochester, UK   [2]
  Children	+ 1. Elizabeth B WAY,   b. Aug 1834, Chatham ,   d. 1903  (Age ~ 68 years) + 2. Samuel James WAY,   b. 11 Apr 1836, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, UK ,   d. 8 Jan 1916, North Adelaide  (Age 79 years)   3. Jane Amelia WAY,   b. 1839,   d. 1873  (Age 34 years) + 4. Florence Ann WAY,   b. 1843,   d. 1924  (Age 81 years) + 5. Edward Willis WAY,   b. Oct 1846, Exeter ,   d. 1901  (Age ~ 54 years)   6. Jabez William WAY,   b. 1852, Australia ,   d. 1853  (Age 1 years)
  Last Modified	27 Aug 2016
  Family ID	F3	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 2	Catherine POWELL,   b. 1816, Galway, Ireland ,   d. 27 Dec 1894  (Age 78 years)
  Married	15 Jul 1880	Avoca Cottage, North Adelaide, SA
  Wedding	Two years after Jane had died, James married Catherine. She was 64 years old and he was 76 years old. Catherine and James were married for four years before James died.
  Last Modified	4 Sep 2016
  Family ID	F102	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Sources

  [S3] Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 1915, p 2047. [S7] Clive Challis - UK - ID 351 on this website - more details are on his website on ancestry.com.