Betney, Adelaide (nee Burley) (1831-1901)

Transcription of Obituary in the Primitive Methodist Magazine by C. Tinn

Mrs. Adelaide Betney, for several years a member of the Hartley Road Church, Nottingham, passed into the rest of the Father’s Home on the 16th December, 1901, in her 71st year, and was interred in the Old Basford Cemetery.

Mrs. Betney was the daughter; of William Jackson Burley, local preacher, Lincoln, who was known in that city as Bishop Burley, through his prominence in our Church and his assiduous and most successful labours. His daughter Adelaide, the subject of this Memoir, was the first Sunday-School scholar registered in connection with the Portland Place Chapel, Lincoln, erected in 1839, and when old enough became a teacher in the same school. Her many gifts and conspicuous devotion to the Saviour marked her out as a suitable class leader of young people and even merited the call to the wider service which placed her upon the plan as a local preacher.

She was married to William Betney in 1856, in Portland Place Chapel, by Rev. Robert Parks, then stationed at Nottingham, and an old friend of the family. Her husband, sharing her religious enthusiasm, prayer meeting and other religious services where held in their house at Lincoln, and also at Bracebridge Heath, leading at the latter place to the erection of a Primitive Methodist chapel. Our deceased sister was well known to such ministers as William Jefferson, John Brownson, J.T. Neale, and John Wenn.

She was a gentle and lovable; as well as an honest, generous soul. Full of liberality, she taught her children that all gifts for God would be recognised and rewarded. Abounding in hospitality and kindness, she never turned the beggar from the door without assistance of some kind.

The family removed to Nottingham in 1883 and joined the Hartley Road Church, in the Third Circuit. Only delicate health hindered the deceased from continuing her active service and usefulness.

In the last months of her affliction, when visited by the writer, she manifested a deep interest in religious subjects, and conversed as one who was joyously familiar with spiritual realities. Every visit to the sickroom was turned into a real means of grace. Notwithstanding her protracted sickness, the end of our beloved Sister came unexpectedly, and as a severe shock to the whole of the family, for she had been tending and nursing her grand-child on the morning of the day when she gradually and peacefully fell on sleep. “Her children rise up and call her blessed.”

Family

Adelaide was baptised on 2 October 1831 at St Martins, Lincoln. Her parents were William Jackson Burley, a cordwainer, and Elizabeth.

Married William Betney (1834-1917) in the summer of 1856 at Portland Place Chapel, Lincoln. Census returns identify the following occupations for William.

  • 1851 a footman
  • 1861 flour salesman
  • 1871 labourer
  • 1881 boots
  • 1891 basket maker
  • 1901 basket maker
  • 1911 caretaker, Primitive Methodist Chapel

Census returns identify seven children.

  • William Burley (1857-1861)
  • Lucy Adelaide (abt1862-1925) – a basket maker (1891)
  • Eliza Gertrude (abt1864-1941) – a basket maker (1891)
  • Caroline Jackson (1866-1945) – a lace finisher (1891)
  • Betsy Ann (abt1868-1935) – a lace finisher (1891); married George Richmond, a basket maker, in 1893
  • Mary Louisa (b1870) – a lace finisher (1891)
  • William Edward (1872-1940) – a piano tuner (1901)

References

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1903/328

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers

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