Toase, William
1782-1863; e.m. 1804
WM minister, born at Kilton, near Guisborough. Because of his knowledge of French he was appointed to the Channel Islands, first in Jersey in 1807 and later, from 1815, in Guernsey. As Superintendent from 1819 he found Methodism lacking in discipline and had a difficult time, despite finding himself a wife there. In the meantime, from 1811 to 1813 he had served as a missionary to French prisoners of war on the Medway. The later years of his ministry were spent superintending the work in France, notably in Boulogne (1836-7) and Paris (1837-48). Following his retirement, in 1850 he was sent to assess the situation in Alderney, resulting from an Admiralty scheme to develop a naval base there. He then left retirement in Guernsey to take charge of the work in Boulogne and died there suddenly on 20 September 1863.
- Memorials by a Friend (1874)
- William Moister, Missionary Worthies, 1782-1885 (1885) pp. 87-88
- David M. Chapman, Chapel and Swastika: Methodism in the Channel Islands during the German Occupation 1940-1945 (2009), pp.16, 22