Jane Finley (abt. 1818 - 1841)

Ancestors

Died 14 Nov 1841 at about age 23 in Drumclamph, County Tyrone, Ireland

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Biography

FINLEY. At Drumclamph, on the 14th inst., after a fortnight's illness, medical skill being tried in vain, JANE, the eldest daughter of the REV. WILLIAM FINLEY, Wesleyan Minister, aged 23 years

Buried with her family in Old Ardstraw Cemetery, Newstewartown, County Tyrone

The magazine of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, volume 67 edited by John Wesley

Memoir of Miss Jane Finley of Drumclamph, Ireland

"Jane Finley, who was born at Drumclamph in the county of Tyrone, Ireland June 28th, 1817, was the oldest daughter of Rev. William Finley, Wesleyan Minister. The paternal grandfather, Mr William Finley was a class leader for 50 years; and for upwards of 20 faithfully served the Londonderry circuit as its Steward. For half a century the Wesleyan Ministers visited and preached in her house; and he esteemed it no little honour that Mr Wesley himself, and Dr Coke were among them.

The education of Miss Finley was Scriptural and her conduct always moral; but she did not, in her earliest days, exhibit that decision which makes the love and service of God the first choice of the heart. At Drumclamph in March 1838, a gracious revival of the work of God took place. In one of the religious services which were held, Jane was deeply convinced of sin. She was enabled to see the truly spiritual nature of the law of God; and thus she saw, not only the nature of sin but its exceeding sinfulness. Viewing her past privileges, and the neglected goodness of God, she felt a godly sorrow, and for several weeks was greatly distressed by her sense of guilt. Her mind was well furnished with spiritual knowledge; and she knew, therefore, that she must turn to God, and seek, by the power of his Spirit, to apprehend his mercy in Christ Jesus. She found, however that the mere knowledge of spiritual truth, although necessary and good in its place, was insufficient to bring comfort to her soul,. She wept and prayed; but for some time she found not the peace, which she desired. At a public religious meeting, those persons who are penitently seeking after God we invited to come forward and kneel together in the presence of the congregation, to pray, and to be prayed for. After some hesitation, she found that true earnestness removes false shame; and she ventured forwards, hoping that she might find pardon and peace. She was drawn out in earnest prayer, and her prayers were answered. The Holy Spirit “took of the things of Christ and showed them unto her” in a light so clear, that she saw that God was love, and that Christ had indeed died for her. Immediately she was enabled “with the heart to believe unto righteousness:” and her mental agony that had so long pressed her down, at once ceased: her soul was filled with light and love; and she “exulted in God through Christ Jesus by whom she had now received the reconciliation.” She could not refrain from clapping her hands in the joy of her heart; and called on all around her, who feared God, to harken what God had done for her soul.

Her father was then stationed in the Killesandra Circuit; and she without delay, communicated to him the pleasing intelligence. In the letter she described the revival of religion, which she had, both witnessed and experienced; and mentioned the name of thirty persons who had lately been brought to a saving knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. “But” she adds, “What is best for you to know is that myself, my dear sister Rosanna, and my brother Samuel have found peace with God.” Addressing her sister Eliza who was then residing with her parents she says “I wish you were here; but God is the same in Killesandra as he is here and if you give him your whole heart, he will give you to know ‘his sweet forgiving love’”.

Hitherto, her conduct had always been good; and as her morality was the effect of religious education, and the preventing and restraining grace of God, although the moralist was now happily transformed into the Christian believer, yet a great invisible change in her outward conduct was not to be looked for; but it became more even and dignified; and all who were capable of distinguishing between what resulted from habit and the sense of propriety on the one hand, and the working of Christian principle on the other, saw in her whole behaviour the evidence of the change that she had truly undergone. Not forgetting the rock whence she was hewn and nor the whole of the pit whence she had been digged, humility became a distinguishing feature in her character. She remembered the apostolic injunction, “Be not high minded but fear”; and not being forgetful of the tears of penitence, she watched and prayed that she might not enter into temptation, and again be entangled in the yoke of bondage. She gave all diligence to make her calling and election sure, by attending the means of grace and carefully perusing the word of God. She sought likewise to promote her religious establishment, by perusing those works which tended to illustrate Christian principal, and enforce Christian practice. Mr Wesley’s writing she found to be especially beneficial to her.

For many years the domestic concerns of the family had been committed to her care; and in this department she displayed the wisdom of age combined with the activity of use. This, however, now prevented her from being so extensively useful to others as, in different circumstances, she might have been; but it was her duty; and she felt that she was not to choose but to obey. Yet she found time to travel many miles as a Missionary Collector. Her disposition was retiring. Although she had frequently to enter into company, she was always most at home in her class and in her closet. Far from the bustle of the world, she was like one of those flowers which bloom in the shade. She adorned the Christian character in comparatively secluded life, and neither sought nor desired public notice. Nor did her conscience, now tender is the apple of an eye, allow her to waste that time in idle conversation which she knew could be more profitably spent in private prayer, reading or seeking to do good. Not that she was at all the recluse. She enjoyed the company of the people of God; and was glad both to visit, and to be received by, the poor that she might counsel and relieve them.

Miss Finley lived respected by all who knew her, and we have loved most by those who knew her best. But as she grew in grace she saw more and more plainly that they were yet before her heights and lengths and breadths and depths of religious experience, which was not less her interest and privilege, then her duty to seek. She longed to love God, indeed, with all her heart, and enter fully into the spirit of the divine command; “Be ye holy for I am holy.” And she lived in pursuing the even tenor of her way, and generally, it was believed in excellent health. But she little thought that her course was to be a very brief one. Scarcely more than a fortnight before her death, she appeared to be as well as usual. Mr Finley had now retired from the regular work of the ministry, and resided at Drumclamph. For days she had been explaining complaining of indisposition; and her medical attendant on being consulted said that she taken a slight cold. But, unexpectedly very alarming symptoms appeared and she is confined to bed. Even now, her however her, Her greatest anxiety was for more grace. She had for some time been praying that she might be sanctified wholly and her prayers became now more earnest than ever. She frequently said, “I am thinking about perfect love, and praying and looking for it.” Her attention was fixed on the blood of Christ which cleanseth from all sin and her prayers offered through Him in whom all the promises of God are young and “yea and amen.” On one occasion she appeared to sink into a state of such deep reflection is to be quite unmindful of all surrounding objects; but suddenly reviving, she exclaimed, “Glory, glory be to God! I have the victory through Jesus Christ. The Lord has revived me to declare. The great work he has wrought in my soul. If I should not be able to speak another word, I can now say ‘All is well!’ ” She appeared to be filled with the holy rapture. All was joy and peace. Her will seemed to be sweetly lost in the will of God. Her language was, that, if she lived, she should live for God; and if she died, she should die to be with God. “Yes,” she said, “I shall go to glory.”

She was very desirous that the happiness she enjoyed should be possessed by her brother and sisters, and exhorted them to seek all that the goodness of God waited to give them. At one time she requested that her brother William should be sent for, that she might exhort and encourage him, as she said, “To live to God, and to prepare to die.” She told him when he come into the room that the Lord had blessed her, and she was willing to bless him. “And now,” she added “Before God, and all who are this room, I beseech you to give your heart unreservedly to God, and so live as to be always be prepared to die.” She was, indeed, made a blessing to all who saw her during her short illness. Her exhortations received great force from her evident happiness. If she urged on her friends the necessity of serving God, she was example of the blessedness with which the service of God is connected, and especially of the triumphant hope, which God vouchsafes to his servants on the bed of death. With a heart overflowing with love, she prayed, likewise for her absent friends. She cherished a grateful sense of the pleasure in profit she derived from their society and spoke with them with great feeling. “But,” she said, “One hour’s experience of the love of God surpasses all. I never thought I should love the Lord as I know I now am enabled to do. And then this happy state she continued, until the silver cord was loose and the golden bowl broken.

While she was fast rapidly traversing the valley and shadow of death, her sister Rosanna, a few years younger than herself, was lying in another room, reduced almost to the lowest stage of bodily weakness, through a pulmonary affliction from which she had been suffering for more than 12 months. On the day before that on which she exchanged mortality for life, Jane expressed a strong wish to see her sister. “I have often taken sweet counsel with her,” she said; “and I should like to see her once more.” Some of the family were afraid that the sisters on account of the extreme weakness, would be unable to bear the excitement which an interview would occasion. But the desire to see each other was mutual and it was judged proper to accede to it. Wrapped in some of the bed-clothes, Rosanna was placed in a chair and conveyed to her sister’s apartment; and most affecting was the scene that followed. The members of the family were bathed in tears as they gazed on these youthful saints, both of them on the very verge of eternity, and bearing the unequivocal marks of mortality in the countenances. The sisters grasped each other’s hands; and it was for the last time. For some time they gazed on each other in silence, their feelings being too strong for immediate expression. At length the tongues were loosened in an outburst of joy and mutual congratulation. The same spirit had wrought their minds, by the instrumentality of the same holy truth, into the same blissful frame. So resigned, so happy so full of the love of God, so submissive to the divine will, were they both, and so victorious was their faith, that they met as on the eve of a brief separation, to be followed by union that should be unbroken forever. They encouraged each other, and glorified God, who had fulfilled in them all the good pleasure of his goodness, and was about to bring them into his own presence, and his eternal fullness of joy. No regret no fear, no desire to remain on earth was expressed. Eternity was before them; not as something vague and indistinct but containing a felicity, which by faith and hope, they already realised. So strong so commanding, was their faith, that they contained with an unbroken serenity. With sacred ardour of affection, was combined the utmost clearest of thought, and a perfect self-possession. To their friends they appeared more like angels in the garb of suffering humanity then dying mortals.

After this affecting interview, which Rosanna did not survive four weeks, Jane sank rapidly. For a little time, as might be expected from the excitements occasioned by this meeting with her beloved sister, she was feverish and somewhat restless; but it was only the body which was affected by this final struggle, - the peace of the soul was undisturbed. About three hours before she died, however she became altogether composed, patiently, and without suffering, awaiting her now speedily approaching dismissal. Very shortly before its arrival, she was heard to say,

“Not a wave of trouble rolls Across my peaceful breast.”

From this state of happy repose she entered the rest which remaineth as for the people of God, November 14, 1841, age 24."

Sources

Obituary https://books.google.com.au/books?id=qKJQAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA627&lpg=PA627&dq=Rev+samuel+Steele+drumclamph&source=bl&ots=hkABxKcVFS&sig=ACfU3U1bC1AZrfZ9ZG-Yj2UuGZpcHULUDw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjfp7eSks7hAhVLfH0KHeYdDOEQ6AEwDnoECAQQAQ#v=onepage&q=Jane%20Finley%20drumclamph&f=false

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~cotyroneireland/genealogy/burial/ardstraw4.html

https://www.cotyroneireland.com/graveyard/oldardstraw.html Old Ardstraw Cemetery grave inscription Sacred to the Memory of The Revd William FINLEY Wesleyan Minister Who departed this life April 29th 1855 aged 79 years Also his wife Jane Who died Oct4 28th 1859 aged 72 years Also Jane their daughter Died Nov 14th 1841 aged 24 years Rosanna Dec 10th 1841 aged 18 Eliza Sept 8th 1843 aged 21 William their son died July 27th 1854 aged 34? years

Ardstraw Parish Death Announcements 1840-49 Deaths recorded in Ardstraw parish, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland, extracted from personal notices inserted in the LONDONDERRY SENTINEL, LONDONDERRY STANDARD & LONDONDERRY JOURNAL