The Puzzle of an Ancient Pulpit Bible
Eddie McIlwaine
Belfast Telegraph
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Belfast (UK):
Poet Paul Yates was all alone one day in Lichfield, of all places, feeling a wee bit homesick for Belfast when he found himself at an auction.
And there, on a stall, before his very eyes Yates (51) spied an ancient church Bible - with a curious connection to home.
For the flyleaf bore the following inscription: "This pulpit Bible was presented to the trustees of the Wesleyan Chapel, Frederick Street, Belfast, on the 25th of December 1850 by Gordon A Thomson."
So, wonders Yates, who was Gordon A Thomson? And whatever happened to that chapel in Frederick Street?
Yates bought the tattered old Bible for £20 and has made a present of it to close friends, retired farmer Jim Wilson and his wife Anna, of Killead in south Antrim.
And all three of them are now trying to solve the mystery of how a Bible that started out in the pulpit of a Methodist church in Belfast ended up in an auction in Lichfield 155 years later.
"Seeing it on the stall that afternoon made me feel quite close to home," recalls Yates. "I just had to buy it. Now I'd like to find out how it got across the Channel and how many preachers read the Sunday lesson out of it down the years in that chapel."
According to the message on the flyleaf the Bible was translated from the original Tongues by Royal command and "appointed to be read in churches."
It was published by George E Eyre & William Spottiswoode, Royal printers, and sold out of their warehouse in Fleet Street, London, in 1847.
Oct 15, 2005
Eddie McIlwaine
Belfast Telegraph
_____________
Belfast (UK):
Poet Paul Yates was all alone one day in Lichfield, of all places, feeling a wee bit homesick for Belfast when he found himself at an auction.
And there, on a stall, before his very eyes Yates (51) spied an ancient church Bible - with a curious connection to home.
For the flyleaf bore the following inscription: "This pulpit Bible was presented to the trustees of the Wesleyan Chapel, Frederick Street, Belfast, on the 25th of December 1850 by Gordon A Thomson."
So, wonders Yates, who was Gordon A Thomson? And whatever happened to that chapel in Frederick Street?
Yates bought the tattered old Bible for £20 and has made a present of it to close friends, retired farmer Jim Wilson and his wife Anna, of Killead in south Antrim.
And all three of them are now trying to solve the mystery of how a Bible that started out in the pulpit of a Methodist church in Belfast ended up in an auction in Lichfield 155 years later.
"Seeing it on the stall that afternoon made me feel quite close to home," recalls Yates. "I just had to buy it. Now I'd like to find out how it got across the Channel and how many preachers read the Sunday lesson out of it down the years in that chapel."
According to the message on the flyleaf the Bible was translated from the original Tongues by Royal command and "appointed to be read in churches."
It was published by George E Eyre & William Spottiswoode, Royal printers, and sold out of their warehouse in Fleet Street, London, in 1847.
Oct 15, 2005
