{{Short description|English Primitive Methodist preacher}} {{Infobox person | name = Sarah Bembridge | image = Sarah Bembridge born Sarah Kirkland later named Sarah Harrison died 1880.jpg | image_size = | caption = she lost fingers as a child<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ella |first=Raymond E. O. |title=Talk o'th Hill Primitive (Talke) Methodist chapel |url=https://www.myprimitivemethodists.org.uk/content/chapels/staffordshire/t-z-staffordshire/talk-oth-hill-primitive-methodist-chapel |access-date=2023-03-28 |website=My Primitive Methodists |language=en}}</ref> | birth_name = Sarah Kirkland | birth_date = 12 August 1793 | birth_place = [[Mercaston]] | death_date = {{death date and age text|4 March 1880|12 August 1793}} | death_place = [[Alfreton]] | other_names = Sarah Harrison | known_for = evanglising for the [[Primitive Methodists]] | education = | employer = | occupation = itinerant preacher | spouse = {{plainlist| * John Harrison * William Bembridge }} | website = | footnotes = }} '''Sarah Bembridge''', born '''Sarah Kirkland'''; also named '''Sarah Harrison''' (12 August 1793 – 4 March 1880) was an English [[Primitive Methodist Church|Primitive Methodist]] itinerant preacher who established a reputation before the church was formally founded. She established the church in Nottingham and extended its reach in Derby. She made a significant impact in Hull, but she decided to establish herself back in her home village of [[Mercaston]] in Derbyshire.
==Life== Bembridge was born in 1793 in [[Mercaston]] in Derbyshire. Her Wesleyan Methodist parents were Sarah (born Daykin) and Rowland Kirkland who hosted services in their house.<ref name=orb/> William Bramwell was one of the leading preachers of the Wesleyan's<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bramwell |url=https://www.wesley-fellowship.org.uk/Bramwell.html |access-date=2023-03-28 |website=www.wesley-fellowship.org.uk }}{{Dead link|date=September 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> and he had a strong effect on Sarah.<ref name=orb>{{Citation |last=Graham |first=E. Dorothy |title=Bembridge [née Kirkland; other married name Harrison], Sarah (c. 1793–1880), Primitive Methodist travelling preacher |date=2004-09-23 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-47030 |work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |access-date=2023-03-28 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/47030 |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The Wesleyan's became less active in Mercaston but they were replaced by the Primitive Methodists. In 1811 Bembridge met co-founder [[Hugh Bourne]] in 1811 and two years later she met [[William Clowes (Primitive Methodist)|William Clowes]] who was the other. 1813 was an eventful year as she lost two brothers and her father to smallpox and she formally joined the Primitive Methodists.<ref name=orb/> [[File:Sarah Kirkland poster Talk o hill 17 May 1838.jpg|left|thumb|Sarah Kirkland to preach in 1817 at [[Talke]] in Staffoldshire]] She took her first service at [[Sutton on the Hill]] and was soon preaching across Staffordshire and Derbyshire. At Christmas 1815 she was chosen to be the first Primitive Methodist to preach in Nottingham by Robert Winfield.<ref name=orb/> Winfield was a farmer in the small south Derbyshire village of Ambaston and he was known for evangelising new areas. She had run a "[[lovefeast]]" in Ambaston for Winfield where she was persuaded to go on to preach in [[Chaddesden]] - soon there was another preaching circuit in Derby.<ref name=mpmeth>{{Cite web |title=Derby: The Methodist Church in Derby |url=https://www.myprimitivemethodists.org.uk/content/place-2/derbyshire-2/the_methodist_church_in_derby |access-date=2023-03-28 |website=My Primitive Methodists |language=en}}</ref>
In 1818 she married John Harrison who had been a Primitive Methodist since 1811 and he was credited with establishing that church in Leicestershire. In 1819 they both went to Hull to work with William Clowes until John's health gave way. She was pregnant when they returned to Derbyshire in May 1820. John died in 1821 and she remarried another preacher William Bembridge in 1825. She would continue to preach in [[Mugginton]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=DMBI: A Dictionary of Methodism in Britain and Ireland |url=https://dmbi.online/index.php?do=app.entry&id=1618 |access-date=2023-03-28 |website=dmbi.online}}</ref> although there were requests for her to return to Hull. Bembridge died in 1880 in [[Alfreton]] in Derbyshire.<ref name=orb/>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bembridge, Sarah}} [[Category:1793 births]] [[Category:1880 deaths]] [[Category:People from Derbyshire]] [[Category:Religious leaders in the United Kingdom]] [[Category:Women Christian religious leaders]]