Hay Aitken

William Hay Macdowall Hunter Aitken was born on September 21, 1841 to Robert Aitken and Robert's second wife, Wilhelmina Day Macdowall (Grant) Aitken. His parents were both born in Scotland. His father was a minister of Zion Chapel of Liverpool.

The family moved to Cornwall (his father’s hometown) when he was young. His father maintained an evangelistic atmosphere there. His father, Rev. Robert Aitken, was a clergyman, but had been influenced by some Methodist preaches. His father found it refreshing to leave the church building and hold “special missions” for non-church members. He soon became known as the “High Church Methodist!” The “mission” meetings were services that were held with after-meetings that were to coax people to make immediate decisions to follow Christ.

In 1851, his family was living in the parsonage of St. Jude, Penwith, Cornwall, England. His father was the minister there. He had two older sisters (Robina Ann Aliva Aitken, age 22, and Mary Fletcher Aitken, age 16), an older brother (Robert Wesley Aitken, age 15), and a younger sister (Ethildreda, age 7). Hay was 9 years old and busy with school work. His dad was 51 and his mother 45. They had two household servants.

As a young man of seventeen, he had a unique opportunity that set the course of his life. His uncle, the evangelist Hay Macdowall Grant, was leaving for Scotland, when his partner suddenly was unable to leave at the last moment. Hay took his place and took part in the evangelistic ministry in north Scotland in 1859. Their work was very successful and had lasting results.

In 1861, William was living at home with his parents and family in the parsonage of St. Jude. His father was 61 and his mother 56. He had one older sister living there (Mary Fletcher Aitken who was 26), and a younger sister (Etheldreda Aitken, who was 18). Hay was now 19 and going to College at Oxford.

He was educated at Wadham College, Oxford, and graduated with a B.A. in 1865 (and ordained), and an M.A. in 1867. While there he was able to do a great deal of evangelistic work in a little room that a lady let him use. It was so successful, he had 18 job offers to be a clergyman!

After consulting with his father, he took the clergyman job offer with Mr. Pennefather, and was given charge of a large iron hall, where he held evangelistic and after meetings constantly. There he had a large number of working men in attendance.

He was married also in 1867 to Eleanor Marian Barnes. Together they had two sons and four daughters.

Rev. Aitken's Mission Meetings

In 1865, and in 1869 (this time with his employer, Mr. Pennefather) he attended the Mildmay Conferences. At the second visit, the first Twelve Days’ London Mission took place. Aitkens took a major roll at these meetings, and later that year started doing similar meetings on his own in other towns.

When he was 29, in 1871, he became the Vicar of Christ Church of Liverpool and remained there for five years. Here, his work grew rapidly. He soon had 13,000 people packed into 36 acres of ground all in his mission work. This required substantial financial backing, which he had, and a large building program. All the while he continued to be flooded with requests to do his mission work from all over.

In 1875, Moody visited him while in England, and when he saw the work, encouraged him to leave his ministry and become a full time evangelist. Later that year, his wife’s health became serious, and he was advised to get her out of Liverpool. He did so, and took a house that was offered to him in Homeside, Hazelwood, Derbyshire and travelled the country holding “evangelistic missions.” His work is credited with leading over 100,000 people to Christ.

He was very energetic, tall, big and broad shouldered. He had a musical voice that rang loud. He had dark eyes, a flowing beard. He loved to preach in the open air, and his preaching was earnest and practical calls to the heart and mind; rather than theological treatises or critical essays. In the summer he loved to play tennis with his older boys.

His approach at these meetings begins at least two months before a scheduled meeting. Before the meetings there are special meetings for prayer, special messages from the pulpit, and special house to house visits, and the distribution of meeting invitations. Everyone involved must understand it is their mission in life to invite others, and they must throw themselves into the work.

The meetings always start with the need for repentance. The opening sermons talk about sin in very specific terms, and the importance of forsaking it to receive spiritual benefit. The after meeting is also pushed so that the Devil can be intercepted. The Parable of the Sower shows that the Devil comes immediately to snatch the effects of the gospel away. The message is soon forgotten or neutralized before the listening men reach home; and so the after meeting is designed to push for decisions, while the mind is receptive. At these meetings, the names and contact information is gathered on each person who makes a decision.

The work continues afterwards in recruiting and working with the new converts and in reaching out for more. Monthly meetings are held with those that made decisions and a roll call is taken to help keep the group together. Bible studies and readings are arranged, and people of different educational levels are grouped together.

The purpose of the “missions” is to stir things up, since people easily fall into ruts in their lives and become stagnant. The whole process gets people moving again spiritually, and breathes life into the church and town.

His study, located under the nursery!

In 1891, William was 48 and living in Bedford. His wife, Eleanor was 47. Their children at home included: Robert, age 20, an undergraduate student at Oxford; Wilhelmina, age 8, a student; Eleanor, age 6, a student; Marion, age 5, a student; and Evelyn, age 3. His wife’s widowed mother (76 year old Eleanor Barnes) lived with them as well as three household servants.

In 1896, he returned to North America for a second time (his first being in 1886) he carried out a six month evangelistic campaign in Canada in towns including Montreal, Halifax, Ottawa, Toronto and Woodstock, Ontario. He then went to the United States and did an 18 day mission in New York; then went on to Philadelphia and Coatesville, Pennsylvania, and ended up in Washington, D.C.

In 1900, he became the canon of Norwich Cathedral.

In 1902, he became a member of the Fulham Conference.

He died on October 28, 1927.

Sources

The New York Times, March 20, 1896, page 9, “His Work Is Successful”

G.R. Green. Liverpool Revivals: An account of some of the moves of God during the period 1840-1940. (Birkenhead, Merseyside, UK: G.R. Green) as found in Nov. 2009 at: http://www.liverpoolrevival.org.uk/others.htm

Philip Schaff. New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1951) Vol. 1. Accessed in Nov. 2009: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc01.html?term=Aitken,%20William%20Hay%20Macdowall%20Hunter

Artwork and details from The Quiver: An Illustrated Magazine (London: Cassell & Company, 1888) pp. 389-393.

Ancestry.com’s various databases and images accessed in November 2009.

Henry Robert Addison, Charles Henry Oakes, William John Lawson, Douglas Brooke Wheelton Sladen. Who's Who 1906 (London: A.& C. Black, 1906), 1906, Part IX, p. 24.