Wigham, John, 1749-1839

John Wigham was a British Quaker minister. He was born to William Wigham (-1777) and his wife Rachel Teasdale Wigham (about 1722-1813) at Hargill House in Cornwood, Northumberland, on the 3rd of May, 1749 (new style). At the age of 16 he began associating with the family's servants, and his father, seeing their merriment as a threat to Wigham's spiritual life, encouraged him to find a wife in the hopes that a good marriage would put him on a better path. Around 1769 he married Elizabeth Donwiddy (about 1748-1827), and this separated him from the company his family saw as so undesirable.

Wigham first appeared in the ministry around the age of 24. As a minister he visited meetings in various parts of England. About the year 1783 he felt a divine leading to leave his home and live in Scotland, so in 1784 he and his family moved to a small dairy farm outside of Edinburgh. Two years later, again under the impression of a religious duty, he moved to Aberdeen, where he opened a small grocery store. After two more years, in 1788, he left Aberdeen and took a small farm in Kinmuck, and this was his home for a number of years when he was not absent on relgious journeys. Wigham and his wife (also a minister) found that the Society of Friends in Scotland did not meet their standards for Quaker practice and worked to put it on what they saw as surer footing.

In 1794 Wigham left on a religious visit to North America, where he spent about three years traveling in both the U.S. and some of the British settlements. After his return home in 1797 he continued his journeys in Great Britain and in the years 1798, 1799 and 1800 he was often away from home, visiting many of the counties of England as far afield as Land's End in Cornwall and going to South Wales and Guernsey. During this period he lived when at home occasionally at Kinmuck, but was principally in Edinburgh until in 1807 he went to live permanently in Aberdeen. After this removal he set off on hie travels again, visiting Friends in and about London; in 1812 and 1813 he paid visits to Friends in Ireland, Cumberland and some parts of Lancashire and Westmorland, which he completed with considerable bodily suffering and which proved the last of his engagements out of Sootland.

Wigham's wife of 57 years died in 1827, and he felt the loss deeply. His own health was failing, and he was confined to his house for long stretches. However, Wigham continued to take a lively interest in the affairs of the Society of Friends, and for several years meetings of ministers and elders were held in his home.

Wigham died at Aberdeen on 17 April 1839, having been a minister for about 67 years. He was buried at Kinmuck.

Adapted from the Dictionary of Quaker Biography, Haverford College Quaker and Special Collections.