“Nonsense!” Edwards Rabbits said again. “No one can live decently on less than twenty shillings a week.”
“Have it your way,” William said. “It makes little difference to me because I have neither twelve nor twenty shillings a week to live on.”
“But you will have,” Mr. Rabbits said. “I believe you have a gift, and I want you to use it. Leave the pawnbroking business, and I will supply you with twenty shillings a week, for the first three months at least.”
William hardly knew what to say. He had longed for a way to become a full-time preacher, and now that opportunity was being offered to him. It seemed an enormous step, but William was willing to try. “Thank you, Mr. Rabbits. I…I think I will avail myself of your kind offer.”
“Good!” Edward Rabbits said, clapping him on the back. “What is to stop your giving notice to your employer tomorrow?”
“Nothing,” William replied. “Absolutely nothing.”
Chapter 5
An Extraordinary Person
Good Friday, April 10, 1852, was William Booth’s twenty-third birthday. When he awoke that morning William was sure it was going to be a day he would never forget. It was the day he quit working for Filmer Pawnbroker’s Shop and became a full-time preacher. As William packed his clothes and books into a bag, he had no idea there would be another important reason for him to remember the day.
William took one last look at the pawnshop and carried his belongings to Camberwell Street, where he had found cheap lodgings with a widow who made bonnets. The room he had rented was unfurnished, and William had already bought a bedstead and a table from the pawnshop to make it comfortable. Once he deposited his clothes and blankets in his new room, William decided to visit his sister Ann. He wanted to tell her the good news about his new position, even though he doubted she would be happy for him. Still, on a special day like Good Friday, William wanted to be with family.
William had just passed the end of City Road when he saw Edward Rabbits climbing out of a carriage. When Mr. Rabbits saw William, he called to him. “Ah, Mr. Booth, come. How are things with you?”
William crossed the street and took off his hat. “Fine, thank you, sir. In fact, things could not be better. Today is the first day of my freedom. I have left the pawnshop forever and embarked on my new life as a preacher.”
“Glad to hear it!” Mr. Rabbits replied. “Come and see me on Monday morning, and I will arrange for you to draw the money off my account.”
“Thank you, sir,” William said. “I am eager to begin.”
“Of course you are. Now, how about coming with me to Cooper Street School over there. We are having a tea meeting, and I would like to introduce you to some people who might be very useful to you one day.”
William thought for a moment. He did want to see Ann, but this was too good an opportunity to miss. “I would be delighted,” he said. “Lead the way.”
Soon Edward Rabbits and William Booth were climbing the stone steps of the school. Inside a small group of Methodists were preparing a simple meal.
Mr. Rabbits guided William over to a petite woman with dark hair tied back into a bun, a dimple in her chin, and searching brown eyes. “William Booth,” he said, “I would like you to meet a particular friend of mine, Miss Catherine Mumford.”
Catherine smiled and offered William her hand. “Actually we have met before,” she said. “About a year ago, I believe. We were engaged in a lively discussion on prohibition.”
William scrambled to recall the occasion, but he could not. He had never paid much attention to the conversations he had with young women. “Oh,” he replied vaguely. “And I hope we follow it up with another lively discussion tonight.”
Suddenly William felt acutely self-conscious next to this well-dressed young woman. He wondered how he looked to her, with his mop of unruly black hair, beaked nose, and gaunt six-foot frame. He took small comfort in the fact that although his clothes were old and shapeless, at least they weren’t patched!
Thankfully Catherine Mumford appeared to be able to overlook William’s physical appearance, and the two of them spent much of the evening together talking. William learned that she was the only daughter of a coach builder and that she’d had four brothers. Three of them had died from various childhood illnesses, and the fourth, John, had emigrated to America when he was sixteen and had lost touch with her parents.
Catherine was a few months older than William, who changed the subject when she told him that she loved to read. He did not want to be quizzed on how many books he had read lately.
By the end of the evening, William noticed that Catherine was looking pale. “Are you ill?” he asked.
Catherine lowered her eyes. “I am feeling a little tired,” she admitted. “I’ve had a problem with my back since I was a child, and sometimes sitting for long periods is difficult.”
Just then Edward Rabbits interrupted the two of them. “Miss Mumford,” he said, “I have taken the liberty of ordering a cab to take you home. Perhaps, Mr. Booth, you would accompany her and make sure she arrives safely.”
William stood up. “Of course. I would be glad to do that. Come, Miss Mumford, let me get your coat for you.”
William and Catherine talked all the way back to her home in Brixton. By the time they arrived at Catherine’s door, William knew he was in the company of an extraordinary person. She was unlike any other woman he knew. She had opinions and knew how to argue them. She also had a firm conviction that men and women were equally capable of achieving great things.
Catherine’s ideas both startled and impressed William. As he thought about them over the next few days, he found himself thinking more and more about marriage being a partnership between two equals—a partnership where two people could achieve more than either one could individually. As he thought about this, William came to the conclusion that he wanted Catherine Mumford to become his life’s partner.
Falling in love, however, created a dilemma for William. He had met Catherine on the very day he had given up his profession and embarked upon a calling that paid him twenty shillings a week, and that was guaranteed for only three months. It was hardly the kind of credentials with which to court a young woman.
Still, William and Catherine were drawn to each other at a deep level, and despite William’s lack of material prospects, they continued to see each other. A month later they were engaged, although no wedding date could be set until William had found a way to continue his preaching as well as support a wife.
Later in 1852 the opportunity to be recognized and supported by a church presented itself. The Reformed Methodists offered William the job of pastor of the Spalding circuit, a group of small churches in Lincolnshire, a hundred miles north of London. While it was a long way from London and Catherine, it was the best offer William had received now that Edward Rabbits was no longer financially supporting him. Mr. Rabbits had withdrawn his support of William over a theological disagreement.
William accepted the position, but as he traveled north to Lincolnshire, he was concerned about the new job. He was used to preaching in the open air. How would he get on confining his messages to the same people sitting in the same pews week after week? As it happened, William need not have been concerned. From the start his preaching attracted new people to the services, and often eighteen or twenty new converts were added to the various churches in his circuit each week. Sometimes when a cottage meeting was announced, so many people would show up that the meeting had to be moved into the street outside. William was happiest of all when this happened.
Meanwhile Catherine wrote to him each day. Sometimes her letters were filled with practical advice about keeping his feet warm at all times and the benefits of eating raw eggs for breakfast. At other times she encouraged William to rise at 6 A.M. to study Greek and to preach on the usefulness of women in all areas of church life. She also wrote that some of her father’s business deals had gone badly, leaving the family with little money, and that her neighbor had died in a cholera epidemic that had swept through London.
The more letters William received, the more he became convinced of two things. First, Catherine was an unusually strong and opinionated woman, and second, that is just what he needed in a life partner. The problem was that although he was a pastor in Spalding, William was not getting any closer to being able to marry Catherine. Although he made enough money for him to live on, his salary was hardly enough for a wife and the children who would inevitably follow. Besides, young circuit preachers were seldom given permission to marry by their overseers.
After eighteen months in Spalding, William was not sure what to do next. The answer came when he invited a guest evangelist, the Reverend Richard Poole, to ride his circuit with him. Listening to Richard Poole was eye-opening for William. The preacher was every bit as direct as William was, but his biblical scholarship came shining through as well. For the first time William saw his own need to study more, and so he wrote to Catherine explaining that he was coming back to London to study theology.
The theological college William chose to attend was associated with a group of Methodists who called themselves the New Connexion and was situated on Albany Road in South London. From the outset William found his studies difficult. His day started at 5 A.M., at least two hours earlier than he liked to get out of bed, and his days were filled with Greek and Latin study. Still, he was near Catherine, and with her help he managed to complete his study assignments.
It was William’s passionate preaching that caught the attention of Dr. William Cooke, principal of the college. The first night William preached at the local Brunswick Chapel, fifteen people were converted, and it soon became widely known that if a chapel wanted a good, stirring service, it should invite William Booth to preach.
Soon William’s reputation led Dr. Cooke to make William an unprecedented offer. He proposed that William become the superintendent of the New Connexion’s London circuit. This was a huge step and one that William did not feel ready to take on, though he did agree to be the deputy superintendent. Dr. Cooke accepted the compromise and even offered to allow William to marry right away.
William and Catherine were of course overjoyed with this development, and they immediately set their wedding date for June 16, 1855. They had been engaged for almost three years. They were married in a small ceremony at Stockwell New Chapel, near William’s school. William’s mother and sister Mary could not afford to make the trip to London from Nottingham, but they pooled their money and sent his sister Emma along to represent the family. Sadly, his sister Ann and her husband were not there either. While William had been in Spalding, they had both died. William suspected they had drunk themselves to death.
The wedding was followed by William’s first-ever vacation, a one-week honeymoon in Ryde, on the Isle of Wight. This was followed by a series of evangelistic preaching services on the nearby island of Guernsey. Much to William’s alarm, Catherine became sick, and by the time they had returned to London, she had learned she was pregnant. Being too ill to travel any farther, she went to stay with her parents.
It was not an easy beginning to their marriage, but William had to go on with his work as deputy superintendent. Catherine encouraged him to also hold a series of revival meetings across England. She insisted that the pregnancy must not stand in the way of William’s mission to preach.
So William set out alone, first to Lincoln, then Bristol, Manchester, and Sheffield, preaching in New Connexion chapels. Along the way he developed a system for dealing with the many people who were converted by his preaching. He invited those who were interested in becoming Christians to the communion rail at the front of the church. William always made sure that two church deacons were waiting there to escort them into a side room. There the new converts were asked their names and addresses and paired up with someone in the congregation who promised to make sure the new convert got a Bible and came to church regularly. All of this follow-up was new and revolutionary, but William felt it was essential. What was the use, he argued, of saving a soul unless one also made sure it was nurtured and fed?
