Booth, Catherine (Mumford)

BOOTH, CATHERINE (MUMFORD): "Mother of the Salvation Army"; b. at Ashbourne (13 m. n.w. of Derby), Derbyshire, England, Jan. 17, 1829; d. at Clacton-on-Sea (13 m. s.e. of Colchester), Essex, Oct. 4, 1890. She was educated chiefly at home, and in 1844 removed with her parents to London. In the same year she joined the Wesleyan congregation at Brixton, but four years later was debarred from that organization, together with others. These "Reformers," as they called themselves, then formed a separate congregation, and in 1851 she became acquainted with her future husband, William Booth, likewise an excommunicated "Reformer." Four years later they were married, and in 1858 she first took public part in her husband's pastoral work at Gateshead, Durham, where he was then located. Two years later, after the publication of a pamphlet defending the right of women to preach, she delivered her first sermon in her husband's pulpit, and within the next three years began to conduct independent religious meetings, leading successful missions at Margate in 1867 and at Portsmouth in 1873. Meanwhile the plan which resulted in the formation of the Salvation Army was maturing, and the new organization was definitely formulated in 1877. Mrs. Booth herself took an active part in the work, especially among women and children. Her greatest work as a revivalist was done in 1886–87, but in the following year she was stricken with cancer, which ultimately caused her death. She wrote Papers on Practical Religion (London, 1879); Papers on Aggressive Christianity (1881); Papers on Godliness (1882); Life and Death (1883); The Salvation Army in Relation to the Church and State (1883); and Popular Christianity (1887).

Bibliography: F. St. G. de L. Booth Tucker, The Life of Catherine Booth, 2 vols., London and Chicago, 1892; T. Chappell, Four Noble Women and their Work, ib. 1898.