Anderson, John
c.1791-1840; e.m. 1812

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WM minister, born in Gibraltar and converted at the age of 18. Entering the ministry in 1812, he was soon recognised as an outstanding preacher of the gospel, of whom Benjamin Gregory claimed that 'Next to Theophilus Lessey he was the most irresistibly eloquent Methodist preacher of the time.' As secretary of the Manchester District Meeting in 1834, he was foremost among the opponents of WM's dissidents such as J.R. Stephens and Samuel Warren and Warren dubbed him 'the attorney-general'. He took his place among the leading WM figures on such occasions as the opening of Oxford Place chapel,Leeds, and only his early death, while he was Superintendent of the Liverpool North Circuit and Chairman of the Liverpool District, prevented his being elected to the presidential chair. His two published sermons were The faithful minister of Christ (1832 , on the death of Adam Clarke and The spirit of a great people (1839) on the centenary of Wesleyan Methodism. He died at Liverpool on 11 April 1840.

Sources
  • WM Magazine, 1840 pp.430-31
  • Robert A. West, Sketches of Wesleyan Preachers (1849) pp.322-35