Updated 13 Oct 2013

John Henry Jowett was the son of Josiah Jowett and Hannah Marshall. Hannah was the daughter of Ann Marshall, nee Sykes and the grand-daughter of James Sykes, who is a direct ancestor of the McDanielson family.

John Henry was born on August 25th 1863, in what is now known as the Boothtown/Horley Green area of Halifax. As a young man he followed a vocation in the church, saying in his later years that he had the ‘blessing of being raised in a Christian household’.

By the age of 26 he was living in Jesmond, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, working as a Congregational Minister and was married to Lizzie Ann Winpenny of Barnard Castle, Northumberland. They never had children, but did adopt a child, Monica, around the turn of the 20th Century.

He graduated from Edinburgh University in 1887 and attended Mansfield College at Oxford in 1889, becoming ordained to the Ministry of the Congregational Church that same year. He served as Pastor of St James’ Congregational Church, Newcastle-upon-Tyne from 1889 to 1895, then became Pastor at Carr’s Lane Congregational Church in Birmingham until 1911. That year he moved to New York where he had been invited to be the Pastor of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, becoming one of its most popular and influential preachers. His work is still held in the highest regard at that church, which celebrated its bicentenary in November 2008.

In 1918 he was personally requested by the Prime Minister, Lloyd George, to return to England and take up the position of Pastor at Westminster Chapel and in 1922 Lloyd George conferred upon Rev Jowett the Order of Companion of Honour.  The London Gazette (issue 32766) of 10th November 1922, records that Reverend Jowett was awarded this honour by the King at the same time as Winston Churchill. 

Rev Jowett remained Pastor at Westminster Chapel until his death in 1923, which was widely reported in both the UK and US, including an obituary in Time Magazine.