Early life

John Adey Pratt was born in Painswick Gloucestershire in 1811 and was the eldest of four children. His mother was  Lucy Pratt (ne Adey),  who was a member of a well established non-conformist family. His father was William Pratt a local baker.

Temperance and charity

As a young man, Adey Pratt moved to Kingston Upon Thames where he joined a Sunday school as a teacher even setting one up specifically for chimney sweeps. He then moved to Southwark in London and set up a business as a tailor, and joined his cousin John Adey's ministry. It is there he gained the name 'the children's preacher' and established a Sunday School which eventually had over 500 members. When in London he married Ruth Nicholls in 1839 and by 1841 they had a son names James Colway Pratt. Later three other children came along - Kate, Thomas, and Lucy.

He had a deep dislike for alcohol and hated its negative affects, he became a strong advocate of temperance and joined the Temperance movement. He went all over London and the surrounds preaching temperance and filling in for other non-conformist ministers when required.

Bristol bound

In 1850 he accepted the post of pastor at the Kingsland Independent Chapel in St Philips which was in an area called the Dings which was in a poor and very populated part of Bristol.  He unsurprisingly set up a Sunday school which taught children in the morning and afternoon, recruiting young people from his congregation to help with the children's education. He was a popular local pastor and respected as an excellent preacher. He worked hard for his congregation, often giving his services for free when money was tight.

Death

His died at the age of just 55 on 4th January 1867. It was very sudden as he was believed to be fit and well.  His death cast a gloom on his congregation and there were a range of tributes from the many chapels and preachers in Bristol.

 

A reporter, writing in The Bristol Mercury on 5 January 1867 said:
'...To the school children of nearly every chapel in connexion with the Independent body in Bristol he was especially well-known and beloved; and for a long number of years, on the occasion of any school gathering the deceased has been the particular favourite of the children. No minister that we know was more happy in his addresses to the young than was Mr Pratt, and his appearance at any tea meeting or social gathering was sure to elicit a most hearty and cordial welcome.'

J.B. Taylor in his poem Arno’s Vale, of c.1880, describes a tour of Arnos vale and outlines the lives of a number of its most famous residents. Included in the poem is a meditation on the life of John Adey Pratt, whom he singles out for his gifted children’s ministry:
…. a man of stirling worth,
Who ranked among the the purest sons of earth.
A pastor he, who, while he taught the truth
To crowds adult, took special care of youth.
And here close clustered at the pastor’s knee,
A listening group of children we may see,
His hand upraised towards heaven’s azure dome….
though long years since then have passed away,
Thy place remains unoccupied to-day;
For though good men we have and true, who preach
With consecrated fire, and children teach,
Yet none, like thee, are fluent to unfold
The Gospel truths thy lips so often told
With winning words of anecdote and grace
To please and fascinate the rising race.