author
M. H. (Matthew Henry) Habershon
b. 1821
A Victorian writer with deep roots in South Yorkshire industry and local history, he is best remembered for preserving the stories of Chapeltown and Thorncliffe while also writing Christian apologetic works. His books blend firsthand knowledge, historical curiosity, and a strong sense of place.
1 Audiobook
The Wave of Scepticism and the Rock of Truth
by M. H. (Matthew Henry) Habershon
About the author
Born in 1821, Matthew Henry Habershon was an English writer associated with Chapeltown near Sheffield and with the Newton, Chambers circle in South Yorkshire. Surviving records about him are limited, but library and archive sources confirm him as the author of Chapeltown Researches, Archaeological and Historical; Including Old-Time Memories of Thorncliffe, Its Ironworks and Collieries, and Their Antecedents and The Wave of Scepticism and the Rock of Truth.
Those titles show the two sides of his writing. One was local and historical: he recorded the people, industries, and memories of Chapeltown and nearby Thorncliffe, leaving behind a valuable picture of a changing industrial community. The other was religious and argumentative: The Wave of Scepticism and the Rock of Truth, published in 1875, was written as a defense of Christian belief in reply to skeptical writing of the period.
Habershon died in 1910. Even where biographical detail is sparse, his work still stands out for its mixture of eyewitness memory, regional history, and earnest Victorian debate.