Original, vintage,Missionary Rev Sturge 1816-1901 & wife Margaret Tait Stove 1818-1893 , living at Dartford Kent cdv x 2 portraits photographs , AMERICA see below.

Photograph by J H Kent New York US.

Condition is good for its age, (please see scans).

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Alfred Sturge (1816-1901) : Notable Baptist Minister in Dartford

Alfred Sturge was a Baptist missionary and minister who served in Devon, India and Kent. He founded the Baptist Church in Highfield Road and made a notable contribution to Dartford’s religious and civic life.

Alfred was born on May 5th 1816 in Bishopsgate, central London. His parents were Nathan and Jeanette Sturge. Nathan (an oil merchant) came from a prominent Quaker family. Jeanette was descended from a noble French family, her maiden name was Emeric de St Dalmas. Alfred was educated at a Quakers’ School1. He later moved to Plymouth and the 1841 census shows him living there, aged 25, a confectioner. Later that year, Alfred married Margaret Tait Stove in Bristol. She was aged 22 and came from Edinburgh. They went on to have twelve children, six girls and six boys. Their names were Esther Eliza (born 1842), Alfred Robert (b 1844), Margaret (b 1845), Thomas Stove (b 1847), Lydia (b 1849), Emily Jane (b 1850), Samuel George (b 1852), Herbert (b 1854), Maria Frances (b 1856), Henry Havelock (b 1858), Agnes Ellen (b 1860) and Ernest Brainerd (b 1862). All these births were in the Plymouth registration district.

In about 1841, Alfred joined a Baptist Church. Baptists are Christians who believe that baptism should be performed only for professing believers (as opposed to infant baptism) and that it must be done by complete immersion. Alfred began to preach and later accepted an invitation to become minister of the church at Modbury1, a village 12 miles east of Plymouth.

The 1851 census shows Alfred and his family living in Plymouth and his occupation as “town missionary”. By 1861 they had moved to a different address in Plymouth and Alfred is described as a baptist minister. Soon after this, Alfred was appointed as pastor of the Baptist Church at Madras in India, where he worked for four years1. He returned to Britain in 1865 and stayed with his uncle, Thomas Sturge, at Northfleet. In May 1865, Reverend William Hodsoll, the minister at the Congregational Church on West Hill, Dartford was unwell and so Alfred stood in for him. By January 1867, Reverend Hodsoll’s health was worse. Alfred would have replaced him on a permanent basis, except that the rules of the church said that a Baptist was not eligible for the pastorate2. Alfred therefore resigned in March 1867 and formed a Baptist Church, with a temporary home in High Street, Dartford. The foundation stone for a new church in Highfield Road, Dartford was laid in November 1867. It is inscribed
This stone was laid by the
Reverend Francis Tucker BA,
6th November 1867,
Rev Alfred Sturge, pastor.

The church was built by a local firm, James Sharp & Sons. It opened for worship on April 8th 1868. In 1872, James Sharp (1844-1900), the eldest son of James Sharp (1808-83) the founder of the building firm, married Alfred’s daughter Emily Jane Sturge.
Alfred moved into 4 Highfield Road, next to the church (the site of this house is now a car park). In 1871, the census shows Alfred Sturge (54, a baptist minister) living there with his wife Margaret (51) and children Lydia (22), Emily (20), Samuel (19), Henry (13) and Ernest (9) as well as a housemaid and a cook.  In 1881, the family at 4 Highfield Road was Alfred (64), Margaret, their daughter Agnes (21) and a general servant. Alfred’s youngest son Ernest died in 1882 aged 20. In 1885 Alfred, by then 68, retired from his ministry. The 1891 census shows him living at 29 Highfield Road, Dartford with his wife Margaret and son Herbert (36, a veterinary student). This house is about 50 yards south of the church, on the opposite side of the road.

The Elementary Education Act of 1870 required the formation of School Boards to establish and administer elementary schools free from Church of England doctrine. Members were directly elected. Alfred was involved with the formation of the Dartford School Board and was for many years its chairman. He also acted as guardian, charity trustee and governor of Dartford Grammar School. Alfred was a leading Liberal and made political speeches. He advocated temperance and was himself a total abstainer3


After Alfred’s retirement from the Dartford ministry “he was frequently occupied in lending his eloquence to platforms or pulpits elsewhere, travelling to distant parts of the country and earned the honorary and endearing designation of “The Bishop of the Baptists.””3 When he was aged 82, he went mountain climbing in Switzerland with his son Henry. However, Alfred’s health deteriorated after this and he died on January 25th 1901 aged 84 at his home.

A local newspaper3 described Alfred as “one of the most notable residents of the parish of his generation”. They referred to “the fearlessness, independent spirit and vigour which characterised the ministry and public life of the Rev. Alfred Sturge in Dartford. His intellectual ability and cheery, cordial manner will alike be long missed here.”

Alfred was buried in East Hill Cemetery. His gravestone is inscribed:

In loving memory / of / ERNEST BRAINERD STURGE / who fell asleep in Jesus / September 21st 1882 / in his 21st year. / 'As in Adam all die, even so in Christ / shall all be made alive.' 1.Cor. XV.22. / Also / in loving memory of / the Revd ALFRED STURGE, / for nearly 40 years a faithful minister of / Jesus Christ / in this town, / founder and first pastor of the Baptist church in Highfield Road / Entered into his rest Jan 25th 1901 / in his 85th year. / 'He was a good man, and full of the Holy / Ghost and of faith: and much people was / added unto the Lord.' Acts.XI.24. / Also in loving memory of / MARGARET TAIT STURGE, / wife of the Rev ALFRED STURGE, / a devoted wife & mother and an earnest Christian worker. / Entered into her rest on March 29th 1913, / in the 95th year of her age.
Probate on Alfred’s estate was granted to Henry Havelock Sturge (his son) and Thomas Sturge (a chartered accountant). He left £2,005 11s 9d, which is equivalent to about £790,000 now4.

The fortunes of Alfred’s sons were somewhat mixed. His eldest four sons all emigrated to North America. Alfred Robert was a newspaper writer, who died in Tennessee. Thomas Stove, Samuel George and Herbert lived in Rochester, New York where they ran boarding stables. Herbert later returned to England where he married Emily Curtis Bray in 1891. She divorced him in 1900 on the grounds of cruelty and adultery with Alberta Emily Sercombe (who had three children by Herbert). They don’t seem to have married. Henry Havelock Sturge became a surgeon who worked in South Africa and then England.