The Muncasters' Story - Joseph

Joseph Muncaster was born on 22nd October, 1822, in the village of Cleator in Cumberland. He was the youngest of at least five children as far as can be established, the son of John Muncaster, a grocer, and his wife Elizabeth. For at least the previous three hundred years, the Muncaster forebears had lived on the Cumberland coast, mostly making a living from farming and only moving short distances as the fortunes of the local economy rose and fell.

All John's children were born in Cleator, and all but Joseph baptised there, but it seems that sometime before Joseph's birth, his parents adopted the Methodist faith, and Joseph was baptised at Michael Street Methodist Chapel, Whitehaven, on 3rd December 1822. Whitehaven was at this time an important mining and shipbuilding centre, and business was booming. The chapel had been rebuilt only 4 years earlier, having been in existence since 1751 when the major local landowner, Sir James Lowther, had given the Methodist society a plot of land. Support for Methodism, and for the other independent churches, was growing at an immense speed all over England, but particularly in the industrial towns.

Joseph was educated in Whitehaven at a school called Mr Grive's Academy, where he won a medal for his skill in calculation. It seems that his original ambition was for medicine, since on census night in 1841 he was living in the household of a local surgeon, Isaac Burns, as an "articled student", but at some stage during the following five years Joseph made the life-changing decision to enter the independent ministry. He must have known that this would mean breaking with his traditional way of life and taking a huge step into unknown territory.

Joseph may well have trained for the ministry at Manchester Academy (now Harris Manchester College, Oxford) - it was a well-known academic institution specifically aimed at nonconformist students. Certainly by the time of his marriage in 1848, he had qualified as a independent minister and was living in Chorlton, south of Manchester. He married a young woman called Margaret Elizabeth Ellison, the eldest daughter of a commercial traveller or "commission agent" from North Shields in Tyneside who had also deserted his birthplace in pursuance of his career.

Shortly after his marriage, a new chapter in Joseph's life opened when he accepted the offer to become the minister of Caskgate Street Congregational chapel in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. The young couple moved to Gainsborough where in 1849 their first child, a girl, was born. They named her Margaret Elizabeth after her mother, and by 1851 the little family was settled in Trinity Street, Gainsborough. They seem to have been comfortably off - on census night in 1851 the household consists of Joseph, Margaret, little Margaret Elizabeth and a servant, a local girl called Mary Carlham. Margaret's younger sister Elizabeth Ellison is also with them as a visitor.

Joseph and his family were not settled in Gainsborough for long. Sometime in the next three years, he accepted the post of minister at Broughton Congregational Chapel in Salford, and the major part of his working life was to be spent in this setting. Victorian Salford was a rapidly changing place, and some of the worst excesses of over-industrialisation were to be found there, with booming trade being accompanied by exploitation, overcrowding and appalling working conditions. Joseph's ministry must have been much needed, and over the following two decades he worked tirelessly on behalf of the people of the area. The chapel seems to have prospered; the Victorian building is still there, now converted into apartments, a testament to the dedication of the nonconformists' ministry in Salford.

His family was also growing. His eldest son, William Henry, was born in 1855, followed by Alfred in 1858 and Grace in 1860. On census night in 1861 his in-laws John and Margaret Ellison were also in residence, whether permanantly or as visitors is unclear. Two years later the tragedy of so many Victorian families struck when little Grace died at the age of only 18 months, and her parents must have felt it keenly. They buried their daughter in Harpurhey Cemetery, Manchester, on 16th April 1862. Their last child, Herbert, was born in 1864, but they never forgot Grace. The burial and purchase of the grave cost them £3 10s 6d and they kept the receipt for the rest of their lives, regarding it as the title deed to the last resting-place of their little girl.

Joseph's time at Broughton Chapel finally ended sometime in the 1870s, and by 1881 he had taken up the care of the Hall Chapel in Somerleyton, Suffolk. A world away from the industrial north, this quiet backwater was to be his final place of ministry until his death in 1888. His daughter Margaret Elizabeth continued to care for her ageing parents, and after her mother Margaret died in 1882, stayed with Joseph until his death. He is buried alongside Margaret in Somerleyton churchyard, where his gravestone inscription bears witness to a life entirely dedicated to the service of others.

Looking back on his life, Joseph must have realised what an immense distance he had travelled from small beginnings in Cleator. The break with past traditions was to be permanent - two of Joseph's sons were to finish their lives not just elsewhere in Britain, but three thousand miles away in Canada, and the story of William Henry Muncaster in particular warrants another chapter of the story to itself.

© V Elleson 2006