UMFC minister (formerly PM and WMA), born on 30 January 1812 at Alston, the son of an agricultural labourer, John Baxter, who in the 1851 Census is listed as a pauper. Converted through John Flesher, he entered the PM ministry in. 1830 and spent a year at Scarborough (then a branch of the far-reaching Hull circuit) where he married. He left the Primitive Methodists in 1831 to become a leading figure among a group calling themselves ??? in Scarborough (with no known connection with the group of that name in Nottingham), and then joined the WMA with them in 1836. In 1842 he went to Kingston, Jamaica for nine years.

Back home, he served as WMA Editor and Book Steward 1854-1859 and was elected President of the Assembly in 1856. In 1868 he went out to superintend the work of the UMFC in New Zealand. He was pastor of the St Asaph Street church in Christchurch 1869-1873, then superannuated at Fendalton and Oxford, north of Christchurch. His most important publication was Memorials of Free Methodism (1856) and with James Everett he edited the UMFC hymn-book (1860). He died on 1 May 1893, leaving a son John in Christchurch and two daughters in England, both married to WMA/UMFC ministers.

Entry written by: OAB
Category: Person
Comment on this entry