The Story of Mark Raffles

This book was presented to William Randell by the Primitive Methodist Sabbath School in Sydney Street, Wellington, in 1875. (Sydney Street is now called Kate Sheppard Place).

William (Bill) was the eldest son of William Harding and Sarah Randell. William senior was a devout and serious-minded member of the Plymouth Brethren; an evangelical assembly which taught that biblical study and prayer, rather than the intervention of ordained clergy, would lead the faithful to God. His children grew up with the language of the Bible and the older children attended three Brethren meetings each Sunday.

When William died in 1880 Sarah and her children left the Brethren with relief, and while some subsequently avoided religion altogether, others attended Anglican or Methodist services.

References
Randell, Beverley. 1992. A Crowded Thorndon Cottage: The story of William and Sarah Randell and their ten children. Wellington: Gondwanaland Press.
Randell, Beverley, and Susan Price. 2021. Unpublished research notes provided to curator.