49 Facts About Samuel Budgett

Samuel Budgett was a devoted Wesleyan Methodist, who came close to offering himself as a missionary.

Samuel Budgett began each day's business with a short Christian service for all staff.

Samuel Budgett built a house and laid gardens and a farm.

Samuel Budgett was a watchful but gentle employer, seeking above all to help people to increase their own self-mastery and usefulness.

Samuel Budgett led efforts to build chapels and schools where ordinary people could gain knowledge and learn the art of citizenship.

Samuel Budgett gave much of his money to these causes and to individuals in trouble.

Robert Louis Stevenson, in his book Virginibus Puerisque, mentions Samuel Budgett in passing, apparently confident that he requires no introduction.

However it is an account of how Samuel Budgett thought and acted, written by the man with the best access to those who knew and it is the only account we have.

Samuel Budgett had to choose whether to be a missionary or a trader.

Samuel Budgett gave this all to his mother before leaving to become an apprentice.

At the age of thirteen, Samuel Budgett learned a very useful lesson from an adult salesman.

Samuel Budgett realised that this was because the man ran through his whole range, never producing any special bargains.

Samuel Budgett saw that if the man had first offered one or two genuine bargains, this would have got his mother's attention and "hooked" her for other sales, This became one of his principles of business.

Samuel Budgett worked as a Sunday School teacher at the local chapel.

Samuel Budgett spent only essential money on himself and managed to save 100 pounds in the three years and give money to friends and family as well.

Samuel Budgett gave his 100 pounds to his brother to help him out.

Samuel Budgett took a small cottage near the shop and married Ann Smith from Midsomer Norton.

Samuel Budgett worked long and hard to get better organisation and enough staff to shorten these hours.

Samuel Budgett took Christ's command, "Love your neighbour as yourself" very seriously and he truly loved his employees and his very ordinary neighbours in Kingswood.

When Henry Samuel Budgett began to trade in Kingswood, it was a lawless place with a labyrinth of lanes impossible to navigate without a guide and unsafe to pass alone even in daylight.

On first arriving in Kingswood, Samuel Budgett joined in the work.

Samuel Budgett used a pony to cover the ground and often went without Sunday lunch.

Samuel Budgett continued to work for the school and other schools in the area for the rest of his life.

One Sunday evening after preaching, Samuel Budgett passed a group of youths, wild, rough and ignorant and he persuaded them to come to tea next day at Kingswood chapel.

Samuel Budgett asked them if their friends might come to a bigger meeting at his own house.

Samuel Budgett led funding for many chapels and schools in and near Kingswood and gave generously himself.

Samuel Budgett had noticed that one of his men seemed very sad.

Samuel Budgett called the man into his office and he said he was overwhelmed by debt and hard-put not to kill himself.

Samuel Budgett made close enquiries and learned that the main cause was bills in connection with his wife's illness.

Samuel Budgett told the man that he thought the creditors could be induced to take half and that he had a friend who had given him the means to pay the other half.

Samuel Budgett then spent most of the day personally visiting the creditors and persuading them to accept half, reminding them that God had forgiven them their own debts to Him.

Samuel Budgett believed that happiness and virtue were more important than anything else and that both could be found at the same time through a constant, open dialogue with God but not otherwise.

Samuel Budgett was more fortunate in this as a young man than later, when his responsibilities and temptations were greater.

Samuel Budgett constantly examined his own inner life and noted his many failures to reach the standards set and followed by Christ.

Samuel Budgett struggled to reconcile the pressures of business with the demands of virtue and shared his struggles with the Lord and with his friends.

Samuel Budgett spent time warning and guiding others away from sin and towards virtue.

Samuel Budgett was not afraid to walk into a group of wild men and gently lead them back towards virtue.

Samuel Budgett's business was prospering and generally accepted as sound.

Samuel Budgett walked up one of the Bristol hills and found it hard work.

Samuel Budgett was in heart failure and his life was at serious risk.

Samuel Budgett had many visits from friends and family and received and gave much encouragement and prayer.

Samuel Budgett died on 29 April 1851 at his home The Park, Tabernacle Road, Kingswood.

Samuel Budgett spoke to many individuals and heard stories of Samuel's acts of kindness to them.

James Smith Samuel Budgett who married Mary Bolton Farmer on 18 October 1849.

William Henry Samuel Budgett who married Ann J Lidgett on 1 October 1862.

Samuel Budgett was a healthy young man who died suddenly of Cholera.

Samuel Budgett who married Sarah Hannah Brogden, daughter of John Brogden who was a railway contractor, iron master and coal master.

Sarah Ann Samuel Budgett who married Edward Ebenezer Meakin on 29 November 1864, Calcutta.

Samuel Budgett married, returned to England, became a psychoanalyst and had 4 children.