Alexander Kilham

Background

He was born at Epworth, Lincolnshire, possibly at a former farm, now known as Prospect House, on the 10th of July 1762.

Career

He was admitted by John Wesley in 1785 into the regular itinerant ministry. He became the leader and spokesman of the democratic party in the Connexion which claimed for the laity the free election of class-leaders and stewards, and equal representation with ministers at Conference. They also contended that the ministry should possess no official authority or pastoral prerogative, but should merely carry into effect the decisions of majorities in the different meetings.

In the violent controversy that ensued he wrote many pamphlets, often anonymous, and frequently not in the best of taste. For this he was arraigned before the Conference of 1796 and expelled, and he then founded the Methodist New Connexion (1798, merged since 1906 in the United Methodist Church). He died in 1798, and the success of the church he founded is a tribute to his personality and to the principles for which he strove.

Achievements

• He and William Thom founded a movement initially called ‘The New Itinerancy’, now part of the Methodist Church of Great Britain following the reunification of 1932. Methodist church governance now largely reflects Kilham's ideas.

Religion

Kilham advocated the complete separation of the Methodists from the Anglican Church.

Connections

Kilham's second wife (Hannah Spurr, 1774 - 1832), whom he married only a few months before his death, became a Quaker, and worked as a missionary in the Gambia and at Sierra Leone; she reduced to writing several West African vernaculars.

Father:

Simon Kilham

Mother:

Elizabeth Kilham

Spouse:

Hannah Spurr

employer:

John Wesley

References

• A short account of the life and death of Mrs. Sarah Kilham. To which is added three sermons, preached on the day she was interred. By Alexander Kilham, ...
• The progress of liberty, amongst the people called Methodists. To which is added, the out-lines of a constitution. ... By Alexander Kilham, ...
• A candid examination, of the London Methodistical Bull. By Alexander Kilham, ...