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HINCHCLIFF, David
1870 - 1962 (92 years) Has 11 ancestors and 8 descendants in this family tree.
1842 - 1880 (38 years)-
Name HINCHCLIFF, David Birth 21 Sep 1870 Sheffield, Yorkshire 
Gender Male Death 26 Nov 1962 Lytham St. Annes, Lancashire, England Person ID I1275 Edgoose Last Modified 27 Jan 2026
Father HINCHCLIFF, David, b. 5 Jun 1837, Holmfirth, Yorkshire, England d. 9 Feb 1904 (Age 66 years) Relationship natural Mother Alice EDGOOSE, b. 17 Mar 1842, Swineshead, Lincolnshire, England d. 12 Sep 1880, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA (Age 38 years) Relationship natural Marriage 29 Dec 1867 Church of St. Matthew, Sheffield, Yorkshire Family ID F446 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family PAYNE, Frances Mary, b. 1872, Fulwood, Preston, Lancashire, England d. 3 Jan 1930, York Registration District, Yorkshire (Age 58 years) Marriage 10 Oct 1900 Preston, Lancashire, England Children 1. HINCHCLIFF, David Gordon, b. 3 Mar 1903 d. 1986, Alderbury, Wiltshire, England (Age 82 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]2. HINCHCLIFF, Margaret Kathleen, b. 23 Apr 1905, Alton Registration District, Hampshire d. 1988, York, Yorkshire, England (Age 82 years)3. HINCHCLIFF, Frances Joyce, b. 26 Jul 1907, Alton Registration District, Hampshire d. 12 Apr 1996, Barrow In Furness, Cumbria, England (Age 88 years)4. HINCHCLIFF, Alice Christine, b. 1910, Melton Mowbray Registration District, Leicestershire d. 16 Oct 1985, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia (Age 75 years)5. HINCHCLIFF, John Douglas, b. 20 Jul 1914, Chester Registration District, Cheshire d. 1977, Southwark Registration District, Greater London (Age 62 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]Family ID F786 Group Sheet | Family Chart Last Modified 27 Jan 2026
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Event Map 
Birth - 21 Sep 1870 - Sheffield, Yorkshire 
= Link to Google Earth
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Notes
DAVID HINCHCLIFF 1870-1962
The family were living at 55 Cross Bedford Street, Sheffield, at the time of the 1871 census:
David HINCHCLIFF, head, married, aged 33, brewer's clerk, born at Cartworth, Yorkshire;
Alice HINCHCLIFF, wife, married, aged 29, (occupation illegible), born at Swineshead, Lincolnshire;
Alice HINCHCLIFF, daughter, aged 2, born in Sheffield, Yorkshire;
*David HINCHCLIFF, son, aged 7 months, born at Sheffield, Yorkshire.
The 1880 U.S. Federal Census lists the following in Cook County, Chicago:
David HINCHCLIFF, aged 43, labourer;
Alice HINCHCLIFF, aged 37, wife, keeping house, ill with chills and fever;
*David HINCHCLIFF, aged 9, son, at school;
Alfred HINCHCLIFF, aged 8, son, at school;
Mary E. HINCHCLIFF, aged 5, daughter;
John HINCHCLIFF, aged 3, son, born Illinois.
(www.ancestry.com)
His Aunt Harriet and her companion, a Miss SCHOFIELD, went to Aberdeen, South Dakota, in the summer of 1890 and returned to England on the City of New York, Inman Line, which sailed from the USA on Wednesday 17 September 1890. She brought two of her sister Alice's children back to live with her, Mamie and David HINCHCLIFF.
The 1891 census of Belleview, Outseats, Hathersage, Derbyshire:
Harriett (sic) COCKER, head, aged 32, widow, living on own means, born Algarkirk Fen, Lincolnshire;
William T. HEDGOOSE (sic), nephew, aged 11, scholar, born at Nottingham;
*David HINCHCLIFF, nephew, aged 20, theological student, born at Sheffield, Yorkshire;
Mary E. SCHOFIELD, companion, aged 39, single, amanuensis, born at Newington, Yorkshire;
Joseph POLLARD, visitor, aged 44, married, grocer's master, born at Chelsea, London;
Mary A. DARVILL, servant, aged 26, single, housemaid, born at Hathersage;
Emily MARSDEN, servant, aged 24, single, cook, born at Thornhill, Derbyshire.
(RG12/2777/29/1)
From the 1911 census of Long Clawson, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire:
*David HINCHCLIFF, head, aged 40, Wesleyan Methodist Minister, born at Sheffield, Yorkshire;
Frances Mary HINCHCLIFF, wife, sged 37, married 10 years, 4 children of whom 4 living, born at Fulwood, Preston, Lancashire;
David Gordon HINCHCLIFF, son, aged 8, born at St. Ives, Cornwall;
Margaret Kathleen HINCHCLIFF, daughter, aged 5, born at Alton, Hampshire;
Frances Joyce HINCHCLIFF, daughter, aged 3, born at Alton, Hampshire;
Alice Christine HINCHCLIFF, daughter, aged 1, born at Long Clauson, Leicestershire;
Laura BURKETT, visitor, aged 53, householder of private means, born at Langham, Lincolnshire;
Ethel Jane BAXTER, visitor, aged 33, dressmaker on own account at home, born at Highgate, London NW;
Lucy GOODBOURN, servant, aged 16, general servant (domestic), born at Nether Broughton, Leicester.
(RG14/19356)
From the 1939 Register of 24 Bourne House, Union Street, Pockington R.D., Yorkshire (East Riding):
*David HINCHCLIFF, born 21 September 1870, male, Minister of Religion (Methodist), widowed;
Margaret HINCHCLIFF (APPLEBY), born 23 April 1905, female, schoolteacher, single;
1 CLOSED REGORD
Dennis HAINSWORTH, born 29 November 1924, male, at school, single;
1 CLOSED RECORD
(RG101/3208H/010/10 JCOQ)
His daughter Margaret HINCHCLIFF wrote the following to her niece Wendy HELMS in a letter dated 23 November 1980:
"My father was hail-fellow-well-met with everyone in his day to day activities, but really he was a very "secret" person, and found communication at anything more than a superficial level, disturbing if not actually painful. So although we livved comfortably and happily together for many years, it was of the trivia of living of which we talked; never did father talk of family, growing up, childhood memories, or even, in fact, of his more mature years when he was a missionary. Perhaps this latter was my failing as much as his, in that I do not think I ever asked him directly about those years. Had I done so, he might have responded, but certainly would not have talked about his own early years.
He did in fact have a hard life, after being born the son of a woollen manufacturer who lived at Marble Hall, near Holmfirth, and whose mill was called "Hinchcliff Mill". I think it was after the Franco-Prussian war, about 1870 that there came a great slump in the woollen trade, after the busy money-producing years when woollen cloths were in great demand for soldiers uniforms, blankets, etc. I also think that alcohol was involved somewhere; at any rate, about the time when father was 4 years old, his father, having lost his first-born, Alice, with T.B., sold the business, the home and the mill for a song, and went out to America and settled in Chicago. Also about this time father's mother died, also of T.B., so that left father with his two brothers, one of whom was called John, and sister Mamie, to be brought up by their father. I must say here that father would never touch any sort of alcoholic drink, nor have any in the house, the reason being, I am pretty sure, that his own father tried to drown his many sorrows in drink!!!
Father started work in Printing and Book-binding at as early an age as was possible. He walked 5 miles to and from work, and in the evenings went to the Y.M.C.A. gymn where he would indulge in the most strenuous and healthful activities, so determined was he not to fall victim to the T.B. which had carried off his mother and sister. That must have been quite a day for a youngster.
Now I must refer to the copy of the letter written by Father's Auntie Harriet to her daughter, Doris, who incidentally still lives in Edinburgh.
When Auntie Harrie's first husband, John COCKER, died, Auntie Harrie, who was Father's mother's sister, went over to Chicago to persuade father to go back to Sheffield, and to be trained to run the wire mill which had been John COCKER's. Father, then aged about 20, and his sister, Mamie, came back to this country while the two other brothers stayed in the U.S. Father went to College in Sheffield and matriculated "cum laude". Meantime, Aunt Harriet met her second husband (to be) Marmaduke RIGGALL, a Wesleyan minister. You will have gathered from Aunt Harriet's letter that a personal faith and belief meant much to her. Combine this with the evangelical zeal of her newly wedded parson husband...Are you surprised that, the wire works by now having been sold, father caught a bad dose of religious fervour from his aunt and uncle, and in due course it was decided that he should seek to be ordained in the ministry, and he went to Richmond College.
In the 1890's - 1900's, while the British Empire was still expanding, I believe it was the usual thing for newly ordained ministers to spend their early service in overseas work. Whether it was for their good, or for the good of those they served I couldn't say, but I believe that it was a common practice among the many denominational churches.
Father had spent two terms of 15 months on the Gold Coast, and stood up to the rigours of conditions and climate very well. It was on his second leave home that he met and married Mother who returned to Africa with him. Unfortunately she suffered very badly from "fever", so after this next trip, they returned home and their first circuit was St. Ives in Cornwall, where they went in 1902."
"Flashback to Father again. He was a good tennis player, he enjoyed swimming and football in his earliest years, and he always gave us every encouragement in the pursuit of the physical activities which we enjoyed. One final glimpse of Father who loved a good joke or after-dinner story. I can see him now, head thrown back, roaring with joy, and at the same time rubbing away the tears of laughter which were rolling down his cheeks. If you could look at a photograph of him now, you would see the lines of laughter etched round his eyes. As I write this, I am looking at a picture which John took of him, showing a noble head and fine Roman profile, and there clearly too, the sense of fun and good humour"
(For a continuation of this letter, see Frances Mary HINCHCLIFF nee PAYNE circa 1873-1930).
From an unidentified newspaper cutting circa 1952:
"Imagine setting off by plane for Tasmania at the age of 82! And yet that is just what Mr. HINCHCLIFF, father of Fulford Open-Air School's headmistress, Miss M. K. HINCHCLIFFE, is doing.
Local Methodist circles will know him well, for he was in their ministry at Clifton for three years, Kirbymoorside for six and Pocklington for eight before retiring there in 1946 after about 50 years in Methodist service.
He is flying from London tomorrow night on the first stage of a journey which will take him to New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Honolulu, Sydney, Melbourne, and then Devonport, Tasmania.
Mr. Hinchcliff's final destination will be a place called Sheffield - not surprising, by the way, to find an English place name, for Tasmania is full of this kind of reminder of home.
Swim Ambition
It will not be Mr. HINCHCLIFF's first trip to Tasmania, for he went there by sea only three years ago, but met with a serious accident on the way out by ship.
Now, once again, he is on his way to live about 17 miles from Miss HINCHCLIFF's youngest sister, Mrs. W. A. WOOD, who is farming with her husband "Down Under."
The Chicago stop is for the chance of looking up old friends, for Mr. HINCHCLIFF spent his early years there after his family had emigrated from Bradford.
And Honolulu? That is on the scheduled flight, but this grand old man is looking forward to this stop chiefly for the chance of a swim in the blue and warm waters. He seems to have found the secret of eternal youth!"
From an unidentified newspaper cutting circa 1960:
"He was a gangster
A RETIRED Methodist minister who was once a young gangster in Chicago celebrated his 90th birthday at Starr Hills, the home for aged Methodists in Ansdell-road South, Ansdell, last Wednesday.
He is the Rev David HINCHCLIFF, who retired in 1938 after 50 years service as a minister.
Born in Sheffield, Mr. HINCHCLIFF left England as a boy with his parents to live in America. "I was a young gangster in Chicago, but I was converted by a Sunday school teacher and became a new person altogether," he told me.
After 10 years in America he returned to England, and in 1896 was ordained at Grove-street Church, Liverpool. He then undertook missionary work on the Gold Coast (now Ghana), West Africa.
"The country was a wild state in those days," he said. "I did a good deal of travelling, and had my headquarters in Accra. White men were not supposed to walk around. They had to be carried on hammocks."
Back to England
Six years later Mr. HINCHCLIFF returned to this country and began his ministry at St. Ives' Church, Cornwall. Later he served at the Surrey and Northants (sic) Mission, Melton Mowbray, Chester, Hebden Bridge, Sowerby Bridge, Barrow-in-Furness, New Mills, York, Kirby Moorside, and Pocklington (Yorks).
His main interest now is reading.
Mr. HINCHCLIFF's recipe for old age is, "Courage and faith in God."
His last words referred to the Methodist home. "It is a very delightful place, and the people are exceedingly good to me," he said."
He died on 26 November 1962 at the Methodist Home for the Aged, Lytham St. Annes, Lancashire, England, aged 92.
(GRO December Q 1962 Fylde 10c 253)
(revised 10.06.2020)