John Brooks & The Baptismal Font

Here’s an interesting Blantyre story I’ve been researching recently, which you may not have heard of.

Mr John Brooks was the donor of the Baptismal Font at The Livingstone Memorial Church in 1884.

He was a man of colour, born in 1821 a free man from Barbados, Caribbean. He came to Scotland around 1837 when he was a lad about 16 years of age and took up the trades off ‘block maker’ and ‘wood-turner’, becoming accomplished at both. He was self educated and encountered racism and obstruction in Victorian Central Scotland. Despite this, he started his own business on the South side of Glasgow. 

When he was a lad before coming to Scotland, he had seen enough of slavery to make him a strong advocate of emancipation of the slaves. Barbados dominated the Caribbean Sugar Industry and the British Empire didn’t stop taking slaves from the island until 1834. It extremely likely he witnessed these horrific events as a child and only came to Scotland after the Act was passed, feeling safer. As an adult, he had many acquaintances in Scotland who would help him with that cause and rightly believed all men are equal and deserved the same opportunities. 

Mr Brooks interest in freedom for all was also evident even in the names he gave his children, in particular two of his daughters. One was named after Abraham Lincoln (Catherine Lincoln Brooks) and the other after David Livingstone (Agnes Livingstone Brooks). He had 3 sons and 6 daughters with Elizabeth McNaught Kincaid between 1864 and 1880.  

To get away from the industry of the Glasgow South side, from time to time he and his family often came to Blantyre on holiday, staying at Malcolmwood Farm. He would have been familiar with walking through the Calder near Milheugh and Loanend. In 1882, on one such holiday, out of curiosity and interest in Livingstone, he attended the brand new Livingstone Memorial Church, which opened that year on Glasgow Road. The Church would have looked slightly different then, before the clock  or Livingstone statue was installed, facing on to the fields of Wheatlandhead. The Church was still in debt from its construction and donations and subscriptions were short, in a mining community still recovering from the terrible Pit Disaster a few years earlier.

He witnessed the need for a Baptismal Font, seeing the minister ‘make do’ with something else and openly offered his assistance. By the end of his visit, after the sermon he had announced to the congregation he would be making and donating one of his own, which is the beautiful font still there today. Knowing the visit was in 1882 and the font donated in 1884, it provides good dating of the manufacture. It is very interesting that a gentleman of his heritage and history, with little connection to Blantyre presented the Font to the church which bears the name Livingstone and demonstrated clearly his strong feelings on human rights. It was also a clear display of gratitude to Livingstone for all he did in that cause. Incredibly, a photo exists taken in the early 1890’s of John Brooks and wife Elizabeth. He died on 3rd November 1895 in Glasgow at the age of 74.

On another note, the font has recently been renovated in 2023 through the kind, generous efforts of Blantyre men, one man in particular being accomplished in the preservation and renovation work, giving up their time and effort to ensure the baptismal bowl remains in best condition. His efforts are graciously appreciated and noted here, as are the endeavours of his fellow wood turner, John Brooks in the first place all those years ago.

John Brooks and his wife Elizabeth are pictured in the early 1890’s, along with his mapped out ancestry and of course a picture of the bowl itself. I wonder how many people out there are related to John?