Weaste Cemetery

Biographies of people buried between 1880 & 89

Rev. Thomas Gardner Lee (1801 - 1881)


 

Reverend T G Lee was the Pastor at New Windsor Congregational Chapel from 1843 to 1877 and was known for his stand on the Abolition of Slavery, Temperance, Anti Corn Laws, the Co-operative movement and advocacy for the working class.

 

He was born in 1801 in Worthen, near Shrewsbury, Shropshire and baptised there on 14th June 1891. His parents were Gardner and Mary Lee. Not a lot is known about his early life, but on 3rd August 1823 he married Sarah Bullen (born 1799 at Lancaster), at Our Lady and St Nicholas Church, Liverpool. The OPC records his occupation as Plasterer. They had a daughter Mary Ann, (born 1825 in Liverpool) who married Henry James Lovatt on 31st March 1859 at the New Windsor Chapel, Broad Street, Pendleton. The ceremony was performed by her father, Reverend T G Lee. Their son Thomas (born 1826 in Liverpool) married Mary Hilton on 22nd July 1850 at St Mary's Parsonage Church, Manchester. Thomas became a Journalist and Advertising Agent.

 

In 1851 Thomas and Sarah lived at Ford Lane, Pendleton, Thomas was aged 49 and his occupation was Independent Minister at Windsor, and Sarah was aged 52. In 1857 they lived at Cheshire View, Pendleton. In January 1861 Sarah died at New Windsor, aged 73, and was buried at Weaste Cemetery, grave A5/DISS/190 on 2nd February 1861. The 1861 census shows the address was 2 New Windsor, Pendleton where Thomas was a widower aged 59 and Minister of New Windsor Chapel. Also in the house was daughter Mary Ann and husband Henry Lovatt, who was a Grocer Journeyman. The 1871 census shows Thomas aged 69, at Broad Street, Pendleton. Daughter Mary Ann was aged 46 and a Music Teacher. In 1881 they lived at 2 Milton Place, Pendleton.

 

Reverend T G Lee was involved with many progressive organisations and action as shown in newspaper reports. For example: 1851, The Movement Against the Bread Tax by Ministers of Religion in Manchester, the Pendleton Mechanics Institute, the Co-operative Movement, the Band of Hope Temperance Society and the Whit Lane Weaving Company (this was formed during the strike at Elkanah Armitage's Mill so that Mill Hands could work at their trade and feed their families). 1863, (during the Cotton Famine created by the Civil War in USA): the Distress in Lancashire - Salford Committee, the Union and Emancipation Society, the Pendleton and Salford Unemployed Operatives Emigration Society, the Manchester and Salford Refuge for Females, Pendleton Ragged School and Salford Working Men's Christian Institute. Also in January 1863, Rev Lee rejoiced at the USA Slave Emancipation Proclamation and sent a resolution to President Abraham Lincoln.

 

On 25th September 1881, Reverend Thomas Gardner Lee died at home in Pendleton aged 80. The funeral service at the New Windsor Chapel on 29th September was conducted by Rev. R W Selbie, Minister of Hope Congregational Chapel and at the graveside by Rev W C Flint and the Rev Canon Stowell. The latter, in a brief address, referred to the many good works, particularly in the promotion of temperance in which during his long and active life, the late Mr Lee had been engaged, and in a large portion of which, both he and his father had had the privilege of co-operating.