Dart, Elizabeth (Mrs. Eynon)
1792-1857

One of the earliest BC female itinerants (1817-1832), born in Cornwall on 8 April 1792. She was from an Anglican background, but joined the Wesleyan society at Pounstock in 1812. She felt a call to preach and encouraged by William O'Bryan became a BC itinerant in 1817. She became a supernumerary in 1832 on marrying John Hicks Eynon (1801-1888; e.m., 1826), a BC itinerant born in Gloucester on 6 May 1801, who had been converted under her preaching. In 1832 they were the first ministerial couple to go to Canada, where they developed an extensive circuit in Upper Canada, 200 miles in length. Elizabeth continued as itinerant and class leader and was a source of strength and encouragement to her husband. They revisited England in 1848, preaching extensively in Devon and Cornwall. She died in 1857 and her husband on 22 March 1888.

Sources
  • Zechariah Taft, Biographical Sketches of ... Various Holy Women, vol. 2 (1828) pp.201-9
  • F.W. Bourne, The Bible Christians (1905)
  • R. Pyke, The Golden Chain (1907?), pp.44, 86-7
  • Eayres, George, Our Founders and their Story (1907, p.40
  • E.G. Muir, Petticoats in the Pulpit: the story of early ninetweenth-century Methodist women preachers in Upper Canada (Toronto, 1991)

Occupations

Entry written by: EDG
Category: Person
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