A P Riley: A Voice in the Wilderness

Guest post by Philip

(Some of this material first appeared in an article in the Hucknall Torkard Times in March 2013.)

This is the story of a prominent Hucknall Torkard man who experienced a religious conversion and his struggle to spread his new-found faith in his home town.

Aaron Powell Riley was born in early 1856 at Clay Cross, Derbyshire. His father, James Riley, was a coal miner. Aaron had two younger brothers, George Dawes (born 1858) and Frederick (1864).

Aaron excelled at a Derbyshire School for Miners’ Children and was rewarded with prizes when he was aged eleven and thirteen.  In 1871, he was a pupil teacher at Clay Cross.

Meanwhile, Hucknall Torkard was booming because of the rapid expansion of local coal mining. The influx of young families and the demands of the 1870 Education Act resulted in the building of two new Board Schools which included Butlers Hill School. This opened on 6 February 1877 and Aaron was appointed as Headmaster – a testament to his character and ability.

In 1881, he was living with his parents in school buildings on Bestwood Road, Hucknall and probably supporting them as his father was now unemployed. 

News reports indicate that Aaron was involved with the Methodist New Connexion Trinity Church at Hucknall. His brother, Frederick, was also a Methodist.

Aaron’s musical abilities received more and more publicity. In 1878, during an entertainment called, ‘Uncle Tom’, a ‘choir led by Aaron sang the choruses and solos in first- rate style’. The next year, he conducted an entertainment featuring children from Butlers Hill School. For three years from 1880, he was involved in the annual gypsy festival at Hucknall Public Hall, leading a choir of sixty voices and training performers. Also in 1880, at a Wesleyan soiree supporting a fund for a new chapel, Aaron took part in the musical part of the programme. Then, at the Methodist New Connexion Chapel at Bethesda Road, Hucknall during the annual Harvest Thanksgiving Service, selections from ‘Ministry of Flowers’, were given by a number of children under Aaron’s leadership in 1885.

The location of the last performance confirms Aaron’s religious leanings at that time. The Methodist New Connexion was a Protestant nonconformist church formed in 1797 by withdrawing from Wesleyan Methodists after a dispute over the position and rights of the laity. Based in Sheffield, England, it thrived and spread across Britain. The ‘Uncle Tom’ show noted earlier was held in the Methodist New Connexion Trinity Church at Hucknall (shown below from 1873).

Aaron was not alone in his Methodist beliefs. In 1881, his brother, George, was a student of theology at the New Connexion College, Upper Hallam, Sheffield. He was admitted to the college in June 1880 and on 29 December 1881 he was described as “Rev G Riley of Sheffield”. Later that year, the Nottingham Guardian reported ‘a conversazione (sic) at Hucknall Torkard on behalf of Bethesda Chapel (shown below) trust fund. The magic lantern was manipulated by Mr A P Riley. A short address was delivered by Rev G Riley.

We now turn our attention to certain events on the other side of the Atlantic. In 1879, Charles Taze Russell launched a new monthly religious magazine, ‘Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence’ (ZWT). Its pages included letters from readers. A letter from Aaron was published in September, 1885 – and Russell noted ‘Hucknall Torkard’ as its source.

This epistle of 1885 was not the first time Aaron had written to Russell. He mentioned in passing that he was ‘forwarding another small sum towards whatever fund most needs help’. He also referred to when he ‘last wrote’. Aaron may well have sent CTR letters in 1882 and possibly 1883 which were also published in ZWT (see later). Were his frequent letters the reason that Aaron was named by CTR? Certainly, a pen-friendship was building between the two men.

So, when was Aaron first exposed to Russell’s teachings? The answer may be gleaned from his comment in 1885 that, ‘I was only a nominal Christian until after 1881’. In that year, Russell arranged for 300,000 copies of the 162-page book, Food for Thinking Christians (FfTC) to be distributed in the principal cities of Britain. A letter in ZWT dated 8 November 1881 related that ‘thousands of copies of your book’ were distributed in Nottingham. Perhaps Aaron read one of these copies. A letter to CTR from a correspondent in Nottingham dated 1882 was possibly written by Aaron and mentions the impact of FfTC on the writer – “I have read with much pleasure the little book, Food for thinking Christians….I may say that I fully endorse a great deal of the new teaching and shall adopt it for the future”.

However, by 1885, he was experiencing considerable inner turmoil as he came to terms with his new religious experience. Firstly, Aaron was concerned about his personal contribution to the spreading of Russell’s views. He wrote that he longed ‘to be able to preach the glad tidings, but it seems sometimes as though I had to keep all the good things to myself’. He restricted himself to ‘a word here, a word there’ and added, ‘it seems very slow work’.

Secondly, Aaron was confused and uneasy about his own position as a Christian according to Russell’s teachings – ‘I don’t know what member I am’. Was his, a higher calling to life in heaven or was he ‘a meek inheritor of the earth’?

A man alone, Aaron had no-one with whom he could discuss his dilemmas. He plaintively voiced this feeling of isolation when he exclaimed ‘I do long for the fellowship, face to face with another who holds Zion’s Watchtower’s teachings as fully as myself.’ Aaron was a religious Robinson Crusoe – with no ‘Man Friday’ with whom to share his feelings and spiritual thoughts. Despite this, he had some encouraging news to report: ‘Since I last wrote to you, my brother (George) who was in the Methodist ministry has ‘come out of her’ (i.e. left Methodism)’ and while not accepting ‘all my views’ he was ‘very much more in favour of Zion’s Watch Tower....teachings than he was some time ago’.

Aaron described his personal position as ‘a most peculiar one’. As Russell encouraged his followers to leave their Churches,  Aaron reported, ‘I have had my name taken off the books and refuse to subscribe towards the (Methodist) connectional funds, but the people with whom I have laboured so long are not willing that I should leave them.’  

Not only was Aaron experiencing a radical change in his spiritual life, but his personal circumstances had also altered. In the summer of 1883, he married Pledwell Celia Bailey at Leeds. In around 1877, Pledwell, a tailor’s daughter, had begun teaching at Butlers Hill Girls School.  Aaron and Pledwell’s first daughter, Florence Anne was born in the summer of 1884.

Aaron spent a week in a convalescence home in December 1885. He confessed, ‘I have not had it all smooth since resigning all membership and office in the old church’ but he was delighted to find a companion, an old gentleman, with whom he could ‘correspond on points dealt with in ZWT’.

In the spring of the following year, Aaron’s second daughter, Dora Nellie, was born. He also took delivery of the first volume of Russell’s ‘Millennial Dawn’ which he greeted with ‘unspeakable satisfaction’.

Now, consider Aaron’s life-style. He had been married for three years and had two daughters. His work burden at school was increasing. He was engrossed in study of Russell’s literature and was still ‘quietly doing what we can’ but there was ‘no marked improvement in the work here’.

In February 1887, he wrote that he had received six copies of ‘Millennial Dawn’ which had been ‘loaned out at work’ and requested another seven to send to friends in different parts of the country. He felt ‘this is just the sort of work I can do’. A gap of five years follows in Aaron’s published correspondence with Russell. During this time, a third and last daughter was born in 1888, Gladys May Riley.

Russell visited England in September 1891and held a meeting at London. His audience included Aaron and Pledwell. Not only did Aaron strike up a correspondence with “Sister Horne” as a result of this excursion but he and his wife met and spoke personally with Russell. In a letter published on 15 March 1892, the fervent follower, Aaron, poured out his appreciation for Russell’s ‘ever-to-be-remembered visit’. However, he also expressed a tinge of regret.  Russell had suggested that he take up ‘the Colporteur work’. This was a special ministry when individuals broadcast Russell’s teachings full time. It would involve Aaron resigning as the School Headmaster. He had to weigh his responsibilities of caring for his wife and three young daughters against his heartfelt religious inclinations. He needed time to think – ‘this I felt I could not undertake without further consideration. I would have been so glad to say ‘Yes’ to you but something held me back’. 

Perhaps Aaron was trying to justify his decision when he continued to write that he held ‘a class of twenty to thirty men every Sunday morning for a Bible lesson’. He was also ‘always on the lookout for the sheep and lambs’ and believed for the present that his ‘influence is greatest and best exerted where I am’. For the first time, his letter was signed, Aaron and P C Riley – evidently Pledwell supported his choice.

Aaron continued to write to Russell. In 1892, meetings were being held in his home at Butlers Hill School House and his ‘little band’ was making ‘its influence felt’. However, he was concerned about the negative effects of warnings in ZWT of members being led astray by false teachers.

He returned to this theme in February 1894: ‘We are finding it a very trying time...instead of increasing, our numbers are getting rather less’. For promising disciples the novelty wore off, “trials come and they stumble”. At least, Aaron and Pedwell were able to recharge their spiritual batteries when they met like-minded friends during a visit to London over the Christmas holiday.

Then came Aaron’s last published letter to Russell, appearing in ZWT on 15 January 1895. He was still ‘tempted to mourn over the small outward fruitage of our work’ but he was supplying local libraries with sets of ‘Millennial Dawn’. Ominously, Aaron added, ‘I have just been laid aside a little through sickness’.

The Butlers Hill School logbook for 1896 takes up the story:

19 November: Messrs. Goodall & Houldsworth visited the school and placed me in charge during Mr. Riley's illness.

23 November: Ordered bell to be rung on account of serious illness of Headmaster

26 November: Mr. Rowe visited the school and left word for the school to be closed on Friday, 27 November on account of the funeral of the Headmaster

After an illness lasting six days, on 24 November 1896, Aaron died of pneumonia aggravated by pleurisy and cardiac failure.  He was forty years old.

He left a problem in his wake: How should he be buried? The simple solution would have been for his will to contain instructions about his internment. But Aaron died intestate. How would his widow arrange to bury him? Indeed, did she even fully accept and follow her husband’s religious leanings  – sometimes Aaron appended her name to his letters to CTR; sometimes he didn’t – and she later worshipped as a Congregationalist and was a Congregationalist Sunday School teacher? Were there even any local followers of Russell who were in a position to conduct his burial service?

In the event, Aaron was buried at Broomhill Road, Cemetery, Hucknall. The service was conducted by Frederick Goodall, a local Methodist preacher. Perhaps this poignant occasion emphasized more than anything else how isolated Aaron had been. Almost the whole School, including eighty boys, attended the funeral. As a further mark of the respect with which he was held, seven years later a portrait of Aaron was unveiled at Hucknall Free Library by Mr F Wyatt JP.

Aaron’s estate was valued at £339. Pledwell Riley continued to live in Hucknall. In 1911, she was at 91 Derbyshire Lane. For many years until her retirement she was Head Teacher of Spring Street Infants School, Hucknall. She was reported to be a member of the Congregational Church and conducted a class in the Hucknall Congregational Sunday School. Pledwell died in 1934 and her ashes were buried with her husband.

George Riley became a bookseller (evidently not of Russell’s writings as I fancifully hoped) and master stationer at Loughborough, Leicestershire. He predeceased Aaron, dying of diabetes and tuberculosis on 7 November 1893. Aaron’s youngest brother, Frederick, was also a school teacher, he also died young, aged fifty, at Loughborough on 2 March 1915. His religious persuasion is indicated as his estate of £263 was administered by a Baptist minister.

Epilogue: As a young man Aaron adopted the teachings of Russell, the leader of a new religion, writing to him on nine known (and several unknown) occasions, receiving responses and meeting him. Despite disappointments and local indifference to his views, he had courageously soldiered on. Aaron was a husband, a father, a Hucknall Headmaster and a religious pioneer – ‘a voice in the wilderness’. 

Postscript

The reference to a portrait of Aaron triggered a quest to find a photograph/portrait of APR. I wrote a flurry of emails to three schools, Hucknall Library, Notts Archives and the local newspaper (providing a contact ‘phone number). After a fortnight there had been no response. Then, one lunch time I answered a ‘phone call. A slow, quavering voice asked if I was still interested in Mr Riley’s photo as her sister’s father was at Butlers School from 1874 and had a class photo which included APR. Sure enough, a letter arrived with the photo – a classic case of the potential rewards of ‘casting one’s bread on the waters.....’.

Sources: England censuses, 1851 – 1911; Nottingham Guardian and Evening Post; Sheffield Daily Telegraph; Rushcliffe Advertiser; ZWT 1879 -1895; Butlers Hill School Logbook 1896; GRO death certificates. See also: http://truthhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2009/06/updates-to-this-chapter.html

Acknowledgements: I am grateful for the help and additional material supplied by Mark Stevenson, Mark Davies and Maureen Newton (Hucknall Torkard historian and editor of the Hucknall Torkard Times).