Page 13 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 13
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
They are both buried in the churchyard at Hope near Castleton, and a joint tombstone commemorates
both them and two of their daughters, Mary and Hannah who died in 1837 and 1842 respectively.
When Abraham Andrew was a boy and should have learned the first rudiments of education, there
were very few day schools and Sabbath Schools were things unknown, particularly in Hope Dale.
Ignorance was then esteemed essential to health, business, success, morality and holiness, and
under such circumstances, an ignorant miller was no anomaly, but just what the force of
circumstances would be most likely to develop. Yet to the honour of Abraham, amid all these
disadvantages and disabilities, he could read and write.
Abraham had his own system of book-keeping. The modern science of single and double entry he
neither knew nor cared to understand. His weekly accounts were kept on one of the mill doors from
which they were transposed and transferred by Mr. Ken Kirk into their proper ledgers on Saturday
afternoon. Abraham's mill door was geometrically divided from top to bottom into two columns. At
the top of each would be the avoirdupois signs of cwt., qr. and lbs., under which he would place his
hieroglyphic figures that no scholar nor traveller but himself and his young master could interpret.
Abraham's modus operandi of adding up his figures was his own. He had never been taught simple
addition, and if you had offered him Chatsworth Estate for the secret of his success in adding
hundred-weights, quarters and pounds, he could not teach it to you, yet he was always as correct as if
he had been the author of Professor Morgan's Arithmetic. So authoritative was Abraham Andrew in
sums of weight and measure, that to either doubt or question his correctness was equal to high
treason. Should an error be discovered that he had made between buyer and seller in weight or
measure, the patrons of Brough Corn Mill would sooner believe that the solar system was out of order,
and that the laws of falling bodies were interrupted, and the conditions of space, namely length,
breadth and depth had changed and were either of greater or lesser volume than hitherto, than call
into question the journeyman miller's mathematical accuracy, such was the character of the miller of
Brough Corn Mill.
In Abraham Andrew's time there was no religious sanctum in the village of Brough; men, women and
children as a rule, embraced religion by accident: it was not considered essential to either life or death.
There was a percentage of the respectables who went to Hope Church to sing psalms and go to
sleep; Another portion would go to Bradwell where Methodism was a staple commodity: another
class would remain at Brough as though they had neither "part or lot" in religious matters on the
Sabbath day.
Abraham was a Wesleyan Methodist, one of the old school, and of course was a strict Sabbatarian; he
was no bigot, quite tolerant, yet he was a rigorous observer of the rites and ceremonies of
Wesleyanism. He taught his son and daughters to sing hymns, pray and make confession at class-
meetings, of which he was recognised leader at Brough. Such was Abraham Andrew, the miller,
whom we must rank as one of the worthies of Hope Dale, for, take him 'all in all, we ne'er shall look
upon his like again'."
Copied from an old, un-named, undated newspaper by G. Findlay Andrew 14.9.20.
Abraham Andrew (1778 - 1841) and his wife Elizabeth (1786 - 1827) had nine children. The eldest
child was a boy whom they named Isaac, after which four girls were born to them, Nancy, Hannah,
Elizabeth and Mary. They then had a second son Abraham followed by two more girls, Martha and
Sarah, and their youngest child was also a boy named John. They were all born in Hope Dale,
13
Amy Moore
They are both buried in the churchyard at Hope near Castleton, and a joint tombstone commemorates
both them and two of their daughters, Mary and Hannah who died in 1837 and 1842 respectively.
When Abraham Andrew was a boy and should have learned the first rudiments of education, there
were very few day schools and Sabbath Schools were things unknown, particularly in Hope Dale.
Ignorance was then esteemed essential to health, business, success, morality and holiness, and
under such circumstances, an ignorant miller was no anomaly, but just what the force of
circumstances would be most likely to develop. Yet to the honour of Abraham, amid all these
disadvantages and disabilities, he could read and write.
Abraham had his own system of book-keeping. The modern science of single and double entry he
neither knew nor cared to understand. His weekly accounts were kept on one of the mill doors from
which they were transposed and transferred by Mr. Ken Kirk into their proper ledgers on Saturday
afternoon. Abraham's mill door was geometrically divided from top to bottom into two columns. At
the top of each would be the avoirdupois signs of cwt., qr. and lbs., under which he would place his
hieroglyphic figures that no scholar nor traveller but himself and his young master could interpret.
Abraham's modus operandi of adding up his figures was his own. He had never been taught simple
addition, and if you had offered him Chatsworth Estate for the secret of his success in adding
hundred-weights, quarters and pounds, he could not teach it to you, yet he was always as correct as if
he had been the author of Professor Morgan's Arithmetic. So authoritative was Abraham Andrew in
sums of weight and measure, that to either doubt or question his correctness was equal to high
treason. Should an error be discovered that he had made between buyer and seller in weight or
measure, the patrons of Brough Corn Mill would sooner believe that the solar system was out of order,
and that the laws of falling bodies were interrupted, and the conditions of space, namely length,
breadth and depth had changed and were either of greater or lesser volume than hitherto, than call
into question the journeyman miller's mathematical accuracy, such was the character of the miller of
Brough Corn Mill.
In Abraham Andrew's time there was no religious sanctum in the village of Brough; men, women and
children as a rule, embraced religion by accident: it was not considered essential to either life or death.
There was a percentage of the respectables who went to Hope Church to sing psalms and go to
sleep; Another portion would go to Bradwell where Methodism was a staple commodity: another
class would remain at Brough as though they had neither "part or lot" in religious matters on the
Sabbath day.
Abraham was a Wesleyan Methodist, one of the old school, and of course was a strict Sabbatarian; he
was no bigot, quite tolerant, yet he was a rigorous observer of the rites and ceremonies of
Wesleyanism. He taught his son and daughters to sing hymns, pray and make confession at class-
meetings, of which he was recognised leader at Brough. Such was Abraham Andrew, the miller,
whom we must rank as one of the worthies of Hope Dale, for, take him 'all in all, we ne'er shall look
upon his like again'."
Copied from an old, un-named, undated newspaper by G. Findlay Andrew 14.9.20.
Abraham Andrew (1778 - 1841) and his wife Elizabeth (1786 - 1827) had nine children. The eldest
child was a boy whom they named Isaac, after which four girls were born to them, Nancy, Hannah,
Elizabeth and Mary. They then had a second son Abraham followed by two more girls, Martha and
Sarah, and their youngest child was also a boy named John. They were all born in Hope Dale,
13
