WMConference preacher, born at Moss Bank, St. Helens, Lancs. Despite a mystical experience in his early years, he became an agnostic through reading Voltaire and Rousseau. He moved to Liverpool in 1776, was attracted to Methodism and became a local preacher in 1786 and an itinerant in 1789. During his circuit ministry he was District Chairman in Newcastle upon TyneNewcastle and York. In 1816 he became Governor of Woodhouse Grove School. In his early years he had taught himself French, Latin and Greek and at the school pioneered the teaching of English. He published an elegy on the death of John Wesley (1791) and a Dictionary of the Holy Bible (1810). He died of cholera at Leeds on 6 August 1824, while attending the Conference. Of his three daughters, Sophia married John Farrar, Margaret married James Brownell (1804-1868; e.m. 1831) and Maria became matron of Wesley College, Sheffield.

Category: Person
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