Description:An abridged biography from the Handsworth Magazine. The full version is available as a download. His address in 1896 was given as the Wesleyan Theological College in Friary Road.
The Rev. Robert Newton Young, D.D., whose demise on the 1st inst. At his residence in Rookery Road has occasioned deep and widespread regret both in the Wesleyan Church, which he has done so much to adorn and the larger church outside.
Robert Newton Young was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on June 17th, 1829. His father, the Rev. Robert Young, was an honoured missionary and eminently successful evangelist, who enjoyed the confidence of his brethren in a high degree and was raised to the presidency of the Conference in 1857, shortly after the birth of the subject of our sketch, whom he named after the well-known and greatly beloved Dr Robert Newton. In 1830 the father returned to England and the boy was sent to Woodhouse Grove School, Leeds, and subsequently to St Saviour’s Grammar School, Southwark, where he finished his education.
After a period of training and tutorial work at Richmond College, he was appointed to his first pastoral charge in the town of Hastings and for twenty-four years he remained a circuit minister. He removed from Hastings to Nottingham after a two years’ residence and his subsequent circuits were – Bradford 1858; Leeds 1861; Birmingham 1864; Bolton 1867; London (Highbury) 1870; Blackheath 1873; and Clapton 1876.
The next twenty years of his life were devoted to teaching. He was appointed classical tutor at Headingly College in 1977 and held this appointment with great ability till 1881, when he was transferred to the then new Wesleyan Ministerial College at Handsworth, where he laboured first as classical professor and latterly as principal. In 1892 he became tutor in pastoral theology and house governor at the college and held this position till the Conference of 1897, when owing to failing health he retired from active service.
In 1882 he was the Fernley lecturer, choosing as his topic “The Witness of the Spirit” and on various occasions the pages of the Quarterly Review and the Wesleyan Magazine were enriched by his pen. He took a keen interest in the psalmody of the Methodist Church and when the hymn book was enlarged twenty-four years ago he shared in the work and received the thanks of the Conference. He also condensed Dr A Clarke’s Commentary into three volumes.
1884 he went to America as the senior representative of the British Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church and in the following year the University of Middletown, Connecticut – one of the oldest Methodist Universities in the United States – conferred upon him the degree of doctor of divinity, as a tribute of respect to his scholarship to his established position as a Professor of Theology and to British Methodism, as whose representative he had made a great impression in the land of the dollar.
Dr Young’s services to that Conference will be long remembered. Probably no minister had had a better conferential training or possessed a better knowledge of the usages and polity of Wesleyan Methodism. He was elected to the Legal Hundred in 1873 and for eleven years prior to 1881 he was assistant-secretary to the Conference - a class of work for which he developed rare aptitude. In that year, on the retirement of the Rev. M L Osborn he was chosen secretary, a position to which he was annually re-elected by a practically unanimous vote till 1886, when the highest mark of Connexional honour was conferred upon him by his election to the office of President – an honour which came very fitly after his long service to the Conference and to the church. The duties attaching to the office are onerous and exacting involving many long journeys, attendance at innumerable meetings, preaching and speaking at all sorts of gatherings, to say nothing of Connexional committees and official work. All these duties Dr Young well and willingly performed, displaying tact, judgement and grace and it may not be inappropriate to quote the tribute of the Methodist Times on his retirement. “The Rev. Dr Young” that journal said “has discharged the duties of his office with the courtesy and dignity which were expected of him. He has also during the year maintained with conspicuous success the impartiality of the chair. His public addresses have been characterised by great discretion and that rare felicity of style which has always distinguished him. Best of all, many of his sermons have been marked by high spiritual teaching and timely practical advice.”
To quote from a memorial sermon preached in Aston Villa Church on Sunday the 7tyh inst., by the Rev Enoch Salt (superintendent minister of the Wesley circuit) “It pleased God that a distressing affliction should mark the close of a long and brilliant career, but while He chastened His servant He did not forsake him. Robert Newton Young died in the faith in which he lived and the memory of his reverent spirit and humble trust in his adorable Saviour will be long and tenderly cherished by all who truly knew him.”
Dr Young who died in the 70th year of his age and the 47th year of his ministry is survived by four daughters and one son. One of the daughters is married to the Rector of Roddington, near Shrewsbury.