Edmondson, Jonathan
1767-1842; e.m. 1786
A native of Keighley and a nephew of the early Methodist preacher Jonathan Catlow, he graduated MA with a view to taking Anglican orders, but became a Methodist itinerant when John Wesley appointed him to the Epworth Circuit in 1786. He was secretary of the Missionary Committee 1814-1815, immediately after Coke's death, and was President of the Conference in 1818. He published a number of sermons, An Essay on the Christian Ministry 'for the use of young preachers' (1828) and Scripture Views of the Heavenly World (1835) which went into numerous American editions. He died on 7 July 1842.
A nephew, also Jonathan Edmondson (c.1798-1866; e.m. 1821), was a missionary in the West Indies; from 1822 to 1833 in the St. Vincent's and Demarara Districts and from 1834 to 1866 in Jamaica. He died at Kingston on 23 August 1866.
'Handsome features, - fair complexion, - middle size, - well made, -agreeable in his manners' - plain in his attire. - Good taste, - sound judgment, - excellent matter. Sententious. - Aims at plainness, force, and perspicuity in language… The mind well disciplined. - Good reading. - The author of several useful works.'
Wesleyan Takings (1840) p.331
[Jonathan Edmondson sen.:]
- Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, 1850, pp. 1-16, 113-23
[Jonathan Edmundson jun.:]
- William Moister, Missionary Worthies 1782-1885 (1885) p.125