Samuel & Henrietta Barnett, Social Reformers
17 June -- Commemoration
If celebrated as a Lesser Festival,
Common of any Saint, page 527
Samuel Augustus Barnett was born in Bristol in 1844 and
educated at Wadham
College Oxford. Two years after his ordination, he
founded the Charity Organisation Society. From 1873 to
1894, he was vicar of St Jude's Whitechapel, where his
unorthodox methods, including evening schools and
entertainments, aroused much criticism. However, he soon
became recognised as a loyal priest, devoted to the
religious and cultural improvement of the East End of
London. In all his work, he was ably assisted by Henrietta
his wife. Henrietta Octavia Weston Rowland was born in
Clapham in 1851 and, before her marriage to Samuel in 1873,
had been a co-worker with Octavia Hill. Samuel's spiritual
gifts, combined with Henrietta's robust energy and assertive
personality, made for a dynamic expression of Christian
faith. Samuel died on this day at Hove in 1913; Henrietta
died at Hampstead on 10 June 1936.