Mark Guy Pearse


Mark Guy Pearse was a Cornish Methodist preacher, lecturer and author who, during the last quarter of the 19th century and the first of the 20th, was a household name throughout Britain and beyond. Born at Camborne, Cornwall, from childhood he "drank in the traditions of Methodism", as his daughter put it.

Ministerial career

Pearse was born in Camborne, Cornwall on 3 January 1842.
After a false start in medicine, he studied theology, and in 1863 entered the Wesleyan ministry. His first post on leaving Didsbury College was in Leeds and over the next twenty or so years, he was appointed by the Methodist Conference to ministries in Brixton Hill, Ipswich, Bedford, Highbury, Westminster, Launceston, and Bristol.
It was during a two-year ministry at Ipswich that he began to think of writing and from 1870 until his death, he published upwards of forty books and at least an equal number of booklets, tracts and articles, most of which had a worldwide circulation.
The best-selling Daniel Quorm and his Religious Notions was read by all levels of society. His decision in 1886 not to retire to his beloved Cornwall, but to accept the invitation of Hugh Price Hughes to join him in the West London Mission resulted in extensive tours abroad to publicise its aims and achievements, and to raise money. These tours brought him into contact with Cornish communities in North America, Australasia and South Africa.
After retiring from the Mission in 1903, he continued to preach, lecture and write, spending more and more time in Cornwall towards the end of his days. Four months before his death in London on New Year's Day, 1930, he was made a bard of Gorseth Kernow, at Carn Brea, taking the name Pyscajor a Dus.
Pearse married Mary Jane Cooper and they had four daughters and two sons.

Devotional writings and tales

His writings include devotional works and semi-religious tales, especially of Cornish life. Some of the best known are:
, the women's rights campaigner, was to describe him as "the strongest influence upon the first half of my life".