Jeremiah LEDSAM

LEDSAM, JEREMIAH (b. Ireland; d. NSW, 1888). Methodist local preacher.

Jeremiah Ledsam numbered among his friends the great Irish Methodist evangelist, Gideon Ousely. He arrived in Sydney in 1837 and, after a few months there, went on the advice of the Rev John McKenny, chairman of the NSW Methodist District, to Maitland to establish a coach building business. He also worked sometimes as an auctioneer.

On his first Sunday in the town, Ledsam preached the first Methodist service in Maitland in his own home. By the following Sunday, he had rented for services, at £20 a year for four years, the billiard room at the back of the Albion Inn. This was surely good Methodist territory! There, he and a friend, Vincent G Williams, a cabinet-maker, regularly read the Anglican service on Sunday morning and followed-up with Methodist preaching, conducted Sunday school followed by a class meeting in the afternoon and held a further Methodist service in the evening. During the week there were prayer meetings on Tuesday and Friday evenings.

Not satisfied with these efforts, Ledsam extended his preaching to Patrick's Plains (now Singleton), East Maitland, Morpeth (with William Galloway) and Newcastle. He was also a moving spirit in the purchase of land and the building of a chapel which was virtually completed before the arrival of the first Methodist missionary, Jonathan Innes (q.v.), in the district in 1840.

Ledsam continued to be prominent in the Wesleyan cause until the 1860s when he disappeared from the record. By this time he had become a leading man in the community and had extensive business and other interests which, according to his obituaryist, intervened between him and God for several years. He later rediscovered his original faith and again took up the work of a local evangelist continuing in it with enthusiasm and considerable ability until his death late in 1888.

Maitland Methodism undoubtedly received a considerable impetus from his involvement in its commencement in the district.

James Colwell, The Illustrated History of Methodism (Sydney, 1904); Eric G Clancy, 'Twelve Lay Apostles of NSW Country Methodism', Church Heritage, vol 2, no 1; Weekly Advocate, 10 May 1879, 46, 15 Dec 1888, 384, 27 Apr 1889, 48; Methodist, 6 Jan 1912

DON WRIGHT