William Brown was a Methodist circuit rider
Brown was born August 21st, 1769 in Duchess County, New York.[1] In 1795, Brown moved to Upper Canada, settling near the border between Augusta Township and Edwardsburgh Township. Here, Brown soon converted to Methodism due to the influence of itinerant preachers. Soon after, he moved farther north, to Wolford township, where he built a log cabin that operated as a hotel.[2] At about the same time, Brown was licensed as a local preacher.[3] Brown was married not long after, widowed, married a second time and widowed a second time. After losing his second wife, Brown decided to take up the itinerant preacher life, and was accepted on trial as a circuit rider in 1814, by the improvised Canadian Conference. In 1815, Brown was assigned to the Montreal Circuit after another preacher was assigned there but was rejected by the local population. The first preacher was an American, and in the aftermath of the War of 1812, anti-American sentiment ran high.[4]
At the annual conference of the Genesee District, on June 29th, 1815, Brown was ordained a deacon, ending his trial period.[5] He was assigned to the Niagara Circuit in 1815, and saw an increase of 52 members in the church that year.[6] At the 1817 conference in Elizabethtown, Upper Canada, Brown retired due to ill health. Nonetheless, his health recovered, and he rode the Cornwall Circuit later in 1817.[7] After that, he still served the church when his health permitted, he was recorded as a circuit rider in 1819, and in 1829 as the presiding Elder of a district in the Rideau circuit.[8]
Notes
editReferences
edit- Carroll, John (1867). Case and his cotemporaries, or, The Canadian itinerants' memorial constituting a biographical history of Methodism in Canada, from its introduction into the Province, till the death of the Rev. Wm. Case in 1855. Vol. I. Toronto: Wesleyan Conference Office.
- Carroll, John (1869). Case and his cotemporaries, or, The Canadian itinerants' memorial constituting a biographical history of Methodism in Canada, from its introduction into the Province, till the death of the Rev. Wm. Case in 1855. Vol. II. Toronto: Wesleyan Conference Office.