The above poorly produced postcard simply names William Doughty as having been jailed for preaching the gospel on 9 June 1823. There is no further biographical detail given, nor information regarding denomination or place. The background information is all assumed.
In fact William Doughty was a Lincolnshire man born in Leadenham in 1798, and he had become a Primitive Methodist preacher called to ‘break up new ground.’ He was sent by the Tunstall circuit into Shropshire and it was on his third visit to Oswestry that he was arrested for preaching in the open air, without a licence. This led to his imprisonment for a month. The imprisonment which was intended to suppress the movement had the opposite effect, in encouraging it by highlighting his stand with associated publicity.
The accounts given of his later life tell of how his name became a household name in Oswestry, and how on the Jubilee of his imprisonment special celebration services were held in the town.
David Leese