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The life of Joseph Haley who has left the following in writing I was born at Little Town in the Parish of
Birstall in Yorkshire June 25th 1727.

 

My Parents were very poor & belonged to the Church of England, but before I was 11 years old, I was
bound apprentice for the space of 10 Years to a Broad Clothier, which I faithfully served in Hardshead Parish. In the middle of my time, Mr. Ingham & Delamotte began to preach at Smith House & Rawhead,
where I often went to hear them & got a lively Impression of the Friend of Sinners. But my Master being a Cross old Man, he would not let one go to hear the Brethren, and as my time was almost out, I begged our Saviour to keep me near his Person. My time being out I hired myself with another Master, who was a Methodist, when I became more Religious than before but could never get any Satisfaction & my heart grew very dead & cold. At the end of my Year, I went to live at Halifax to be a Hostler, there I plunged myself into all manner of wickedness. Soon after I went to live at Leeds where I was a Gentleman’s
Servant. Here I became still more wicked & miserable being though I was always accused in my Mind & knowing at the same time my Course was hurtful to body & Soul, so that my Life become burdensome to me.

My Mother, being a good old Methodist & knowing of my going on, She was much dissatisfied with me, & often desired me to come home & settle to my own Business, but I found it very difficult to leave my old wicked Companions, thinking I was fit for no other Company. Now my Confliction was broke & I was befallen with a sore Sickness, which reduced me to great poverty & being hardly fit for anything, I then
began to wish, that I could have called back the Time I had lost & Spend without our Saviour.

Having served in this place 4 Years and 5 Months I left my Master & went to live with my Parents at High Town but

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did not know what Course to take, for I was like a Spotted Bird even amongst the worldly People. I went again to hear the Methodists, however here I could find no comfort & my poor Heart felt always dissatisfied which made me resolved to go & hear the Brethren, but I always found Something to hinder
me. Soon after it happened that I went to live with William Taylor a Single Man of Cleckheaton who belongs to the Brn. Hearing that there was a very pious Minister at White Chaple I went to hear his Sermons, but as he preached only the Law, I soon got a Dislike & in the beginning of the Year 1757 I went to hear Br. Pyrlaeus who preached on these Words: “Lord, save us, we perish.” There my heart was laid so hold of that I shall never forget it. Having great uneasiness of Mind, I wished for an opportunity to speak with a Br which happened soon after to my great Satisfaction. I also got leave to come to the Classes of the Single Men & in March the same Year 1759 I was received into the Society, at which I felt our Savr very near to me. I beg’d He might keep me close to Him, I being so exposed to the world made me think I should never come thro’.

I often came to Fulneck & saw the Brethren lived so happy together as I never saw People live before, I thought I could never be rightly happy unless I was there. Yet I could never offer to ask for it, feeling my own Misery & wickedness. I thought they would never allow in to come there. In this way I continued like Standing Water till March 1760 when my Master Wm. Taylor got leave to move into the Choir House which caused me many Tears thinking our Saviour had left me alone to myself on account of my unfaithfulness, what would become of me I did not know. As I was very uneasy & being resolved to become our Saviour’s. I desired  leave to live in the Congregation at Fulneck which I also obtained & moved thither October 20th, 1760 very glad & thankful.
March 23d, 1761 I was received into the Congregation which was a great Blessing to me. In July I
had a hard Sickness, during which our Saviour gave me a new Seal of my Grace Election & comforted me about all past things.

December 20th 1761 I was made a partaker of my Lord’s Corpse & Blood in the holy Sacrament which was an unspeakable Grace to me, & I esteemed this Year a Year of Blessings bestowed upon me, which I shall never be able to express, & I wish that I may always have that Impression of it till our Saviour calls me home to himself. Oh! Could I but always prize my Call & Election sufficiently & thank our Saviour that he has granted me a nest amongst his People. I cannot but be ashamed that my heart does not burn more in Love towards Him. Thus far his own words.

In the Year 1763 he got a Call to go to Bedford, of which he accepted in a Childlike manner & served the Brethren in Bedford as Cook for several Years & then went to Duckenfield. On March 26th 1767 he came again to live here & went on in a happy Course. In the beginning of June 1770 he went to live in the Oeconomy at Mirfield. He was Naturally a peevish Temper, but his plain Honest & upright way of acting made him beloved amongst his Brethren. He was free & open-hearted with his Labourer nor did he speak better of himself than it was. He often felt the oppression of his Sickly Tabernacle, especially in the Spring and Autumn, but this last Spring it soon appeared that his Sickness was a Consumption & that he would not recover again, on which account he wished to come to Fulneck & go home in the Choir house last here, which was also granted him, last July the 11th for which he was very thankful. He spent his time in the Sick Room in a true Concession with our Saviour, waiting with resignation for the happy Hour of his
Dissolution which came to pass the 10th instant, when our Savr took him happily to himself as a Sinner who had found Grace in His Death and Sufferings.