Reverend '''George Thomas Perks''' (29 August 1819–29 May 1877) was an English methodist minister. He co-founded the ''Methodist Recorder'' in 1861, and was President of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference in 1873.
== Career == He was one of the founders of the ''Methodist Recorder'' (first published 4 April 1861), with five other Wesleyan Methodist ministers: James Pond Dunn, Charles Garrett, William Morley Punshon, Gervase Smith and Luke Hoult Wiseman.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Forsaith |first=Peter |last2=Wellings |first2=Martin |date=2020-10-22 |title=The Methodist Recorder, 1861-1919: Collection Guide |url=https://britishonlinearchives.com/collections/91/contextual-essays/382/the-methodist-recorder-1861-1919-collection-guide |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=British Online Archives |language=en}}</ref>
Perks was awarded an honorary A.M. degree by the Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, in 1866.<ref>Alumni Record of Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., Third Edition, 1881-3. (Hartford, Conn.; Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company, 1883).</ref> He studied at the Wesleyan Theological Institution (then at Abney House, Stoke Newington) from 1839 to 1842.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Garlick |first=Kenneth B. |date=1974 |title=The Wesleyan Theological Institution: Hoxton and Abney House, 1834-42. |journal=Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society. |volume=39 |issue=February |pages=104-112}}</ref> At the Wesleyan Methodist Conference of 1841, he was recorded as having entered the Wesleyan Ministry in 1840.<ref>The Leeds Mercury, 14 August 1841, p.6.</ref> He was appointed to the Brunswick circuit in Leeds in 1842. After one year there he was appointed to Dalkeith in Scotland.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hayes |first=Alan J. |date=1978 |title="The Extinct Societies of South-East Scotland: 4 Dalkeith" |journal=Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society |volume=41 |issue=February |pages=104-116}}</ref> He was ordained at the W.M. Conference at Birmingham in 1844.<ref>The London City Press, 22 December 1866, p.5.</ref>
He was appointed as one of the secretaries of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society in 1867 (taking over from George Osborn D.D.). He held that position until his death.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Findlay |first=G.G. |title=The History of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society: Volume I |last2=Holdsworth |first2=W.W. |publisher=The Epworth Press |year=1921 |location=London |publication-date=1921 |pages=108}}</ref> He was elected Secretary of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference in 1872, and President of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference in 1873.<ref>The Illustrated London News, 16 August 1873, p.149.</ref>
== Personal life == Reverend Perks was born in Madeley, England,<ref>The Methodist Recorder, 3 August 1877, p.468.</ref> as the second-oldest child of William Perks (1781–1831) and Elizabeth née Pearce (c.1795-1828). George Thomas Perks married Mary Dodds in Edinburgh in August 1845. The couple had six daughters and two sons. Their eldest son was Robert William Perks (1849–1934).
== Death == Perks died in Rotherham on 29 May 1877.<ref>The Methodist Recorder, 1 June 1877, p.331.</ref> He was buried in Abney Park Cemetery.<ref>The Methodist Recorder, 8 June 1877, p.341.</ref>
A collection of his sermons was published by the Wesleyan-Methodist Book-Room in 1882 under the title: "Sermons on Standard Questions". This collection was compiled by his son Robert William Perks, whose preface to the volume`s 469 pages is dated July 1882.
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Perks, George}} Category:1819 births Category:1877 deaths Category:People from Madeley, Shropshire Category:Presidents of the Methodist Conference Category:19th-century English Methodist ministers Category:Methodist Church of Great Britain people Category:Burials at Abney Park Cemetery Category:English sermon writers