Pickering, Robert

Pickering, Robert a noted Wesleyan preacher, was born at Sancton, Yorkshire, in 1786; was early converted to God, and called to the duties of the Christian ministry. Having for some time labored as a local preacher in the Hull Circuit, he offered to accompany Dr. Coke as a missionary to the East. But as Coke had obtained his complement of young men, Pickering regarded this as a providential indication that he was not intended for the mission field. Soon after he passed the required examinations, and at the Conference of 1811 was placed on the president's list of reserves. In November of the same year he was sent as temporary supply to Partington Circuit, and in the following January to Spilsby. At the Conference of 1812 he was appointed to Horncastle; and in 1813 to the Spilsby mission. His next appointment was to Louth, where he spent two years. Subsequently he travelled at Todmorden, Barnsley, and Doncaster, and in 1822 was appointed to Colne, where he remained three years. Here his exertions, both of mind and body, in the erection of a new chapel and two preachers' houses, seriously impaired his health. In 1827 he was stationed at Kettering; next at Norwich; in 1831 at West Bromwich, and there he labored faithfully, although rapidly declining in health. While at Conference in London in 1834 he was taken very ill, and he died August 18. Pickering was a man of genuine piety. As a preacher he was a workman who needed not to be ashamed. He was well and extensively read in theology and general literature. As a man he was fearless and honorable. What he considered to be his duty he unhesitatingly discharged. See Wesleyan Meth. Mag. 1836, pages 889-895; 1835, page 719. (J.H.W.)