Mary Randall Vickers: Faith and Methodism in Leeds

Wesleyan Methodist Class Ticket Issued to Mary Randall Vickers, 1820

The Randall family were devout Christians and had been “awakened” by the Wesley brothers’ campaign across the country in the mid years of the eighteenth century: it is said that they had been among the earliest members of the first Methodist meeting place in Leeds, “Old Boggart House”, on Quarry Hill.  

Methodism was very strong in Leeds.  Ryley’s “The Leeds Guide”, published in 1806, states that “[Methodists] are now become as numerous here as in any part of the Kingdom” and describes the Methodist Meeting House (the “Old Boggart House”) as an “exceedingly large and extensive building, situated near St Peter’s Square”.  Mary lived close to this site, and worshipped at that chapel, for much of her life. 

Mary had been converted in early life. According to her grandson, Benjamin Threlfall Vickers, “In the early days of Leeds Methodism there was preaching in the ‘Old Boggart House’ at six and at nine o’clock in the morning, at half past one in the afternoon and at half past five in the evening. Robert and Rebekah Randall used to take all their children to all these services and after these to a prayer-meeting held in the house of Mr Rhodes, a tanner, near Timble Bridge (Timble Bridge spanned the merged Lady Beck and Sheepscar Beck by Kirkgate / Marsh Lane). So the family took their faith seriously. 

Mary’s faith was lifelong.  It bore her up through the grieving of multiple deaths (two husbands, one infant son, her parents, six of her siblings and a daughter-in-law), commercial hardships, untrustworthy business partners as well as the astonishing pace and extent of change around her as Leeds grew and industrialized. 

But whilst her faith was lifelong, its expression varied.  On marrying Revd. Samuel Philipps, a “Dissenting Minister”, she joined his church (it’s not clear which it was) and remained part of it even after his death.  Her son, Benjamin Randall Vickers in his “Sketch of the life of Mary Vickers” writes that this reluctance to return to Methodism caused her some difficulties, and states that she rejoined the Wesleyan Methodist Society only after the death of her second husband, Joseph Vickers; later she became a Class Leader at the Old Boggart House. (Some evidence of the Methodist nexus in Leeds is shown by the fact that Zebulun Stirk, with whom Mary co-invested in a steam engine, was himself a Methodist Sunday School teacher and took Benjamin along to help teach his classes.) 

Towards the end of her life, Mary moved into new housing on Trafalgar Street, north of Lowerhead Row, and later to Grove Terrace.  There she worshipped at the new Brunswick Methodist Chapel on Wade Lane, which was both large and controversial: the installation of an organ caused one of many splits in the Methodist movement.  

Papers Relating To Mary Randall Vickers, 1808-1826

Mary’s faith was the bulwark of her life.  Her private journals reveal the depth of her reliance on the God in whom she believed, especially through the many griefs she suffered.  This continued to the very end of her life.  Benjamin’s “Sketch of the Life of Mary Vickers”, held within the Mary Randall Vickers Archive, includes a detailed description of her last days, during which it seems that she sought to encourage her children and other visitors in their own journeys of faith: 

In the afternoon several of her children called to see her & were gathered around her bed. She on that occasion unusually aroused & exerted herself to give them her dying charge, having addressed herself to two or three of them personally and then concluded with: 

“Oh, get Religion, nothing will do short of a personal interest in Christ by the forgiveness of sins.  You must have personal religion. I shall soon be gone from you, but I die in peace.  Oh, what a comfort it is to me to see my children around me, a comfort none but myself can tell.  

“All breaches are healed up, therefore live as brethren, live in peace, may you be a threefold cord that cannot be broken. 

“Families should be like commonwealths: the interest of one should be the interest of the whole. 

“One thing I would say to you: let there be no chasms in your friendships; let no shyness creep in amongst you; never listen to second-hand reports concerning each other; let little misunderstandings be immediately explained away.  The Lord in heaven bless you my children – I charge you to meet me at the right hand of God.”  

Fixing her eyes on one of them she emphatically said “I shall soon be gone, but I go to Glory, I know l go to Glory.  When this earthly house of my Tabernacle shall be dissolved. I have a building of God, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, and this is worth living for.” 

Sketch of the Life of Mary Vickers

Mary’s funeral was held at the Brunswick Chapel and her body was interred, on 9th June 1826, in the Leeds Parish Church graveyard (close to St Peter’s Square).  Sadly, her grave was lost during the later redevelopments of the area.  

However there is an intriguing rider to the story.   

Two facts point to the possibility that Joseph Vickers may have been an Anglican, not a Methodist.  

The first is that, in Mary’s Deposition stating Joseph’s assets, a “freehold seat at St Paul’s Church” is listed.  St Paul’s Church, on the southeast corner of Park Square, was an Anglican (Church of England) church, built in 1793 and able to accommodate more than 1,000 people.  The fact that Joseph had bought a freehold seat suggests that he was a loyal member there.   

The second fact is that, on Christmas Day 1811, more than three years after Joseph’s death, Mary took their three sons (who had been baptised at birth, as was the custom) to be re-baptised at St Peter’s Church, the Anglican parish church of Leeds, “at the particular wish of my dear Husband”.  One explanation might be that Joseph specifically wanted them to be members of the established national church; members of other denominations could then still suffer some legal discrimination. 

However Joseph and Mary’s eldest son, Benjamin Randall Vickers (BRV) would in practice be lifelong a dedicated, tireless, Methodist; already at the age of thirteen he was taking a Sunday School class and by 18 was a regular Local Preacher – in his own words “at that time we were all full of zeal, full of life and full of anxiety to save souls”.  He remained a very active Methodist, helping to found at least two chapels in Leeds over the course of the next 70 years.  

In due time BRV’s own eldest son, Benjamin Threlfall Vickers (BTV), would be just as committed to Methodism and just as much its servant, as indeed later would be each and every one of his own children – Agnes, Rene, Helen, Farrar and Randall. 

© Peter Vickers, 2026

Peter Vickers studied History at Oxford University before joining the family business, “Vickers Oils” where he spent his entire working career. Having retired from the operating business in 2025, he is researching and writing the stories of the family and business ahead of its bicentenary in 2028.