Beverly Waugh

Background

Beverly Waugh, a son of Capt. James and Henrietta (Turley) Waugh, was born in Fairfax County, Va. His father was a veteran of the American Revolution.

Education

Waugh received the typical secondary education of the period.

Career

His excellent penmanship aided him when very young in securing a position as copyist in a government office in Washington. He early showed business ability and in 1807 became manager of a store in Middleburg, Va. At the age of fifteen he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, and while at Middleburg became convinced of a call to preach. Abandoning his business career, he was admitted on trial to the Baltimore Conference in 1809 and was ordained deacon in 1811 and elder in 1813. Until 1828 he served as an itinerant in that conference, eleven years being spent in or near the cities of Washington and Baltimore. Waugh was soon recognized as a preacher of more than ordinary ability, and was sent as a delegate to the General Conferences of 1816 and 1820. The question of reform in Methodist polity was then being agitated and Waugh aligned himself with the group desiring to make the Church more democratic by having the presiding elders elected by the annual Conferences rather than appointed by the bishops, as was then the rule. The Baltimore Conference, however, favored the appointive method, and as a result Waugh was not elected to the General Conference of 1824. Ultimately he lost interest in the movement for reform, chiefly because of what he considered the radical and unfair attitude of some of its leaders, and by 1828 he was championing the status quo. At the General Conference of 1828, as a member of the committee on the Book Concern, he showed such a knowledge of business affairs that he was elected assistant book agent of the Church. In 1832 he was made the principal book agent. Under his supervision the Book Concern made progress; the indebtedness was cancelled, the output of literature was increased, and a new building was erected. Waugh was already preparing an optimistic quadrennial report for the General Conference of 1836 when, on Feburary 18 of that year, the headquarters of the Book Concern in New York were destroyed by fire, with a loss of over $200, 000. Undaunted by this disaster Waugh and others at once began to raise funds for rebuilding. In this work he was engaged when at the General Conference he was elected bishop on the first ballot. He began his episcopal labors by presiding over the Troy Conference at Pawlet, Vt. , on June 22, 1836, and until his death twenty-two years later he never missed holding a Conference assigned to him. After 1852 he was the senior bishop. He died in Baltimore as a result of exposure at a revival meeting in Carlisle, Pa. , and was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery.

Achievements

• Beverly Waugh has been listed as a noteworthy clergyman by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodis...)

  • The Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodis...)

Politics

Having as a young preacher opposed what he thought to be the autocracy of the episcopacy, he took extra precautions to ensure justice in making appointments. He refused to be influenced in the conduct of his duties by either the pro-slavery or the anti-slavery groups in the Church. Although he was opposed to slavery, he refused to allow the abolitionist leaders at the New England Conference of 1837 to present anti-slavery petitions. He declared that consideration of the slavery issue was not a part of the business of an annual Conference and held that continued agitation on the subject would only lead to the division of the Church. He was "one of the few Southern men who could oppose New England abolitionists and still command their love, though he could not control their sentiments or action". At the General Conference of 1844 he endeavored to prevent a division of the Church by proposing with Bishops Soule, Hedding, and Morris the postponement of further consideration of the case of Bishop J. O. Andrew until the next General Conference. Although a Southerner by birth, Waugh remained with the Methodist Episcopal Church after the schism.

Connections

On April 21, 1812, he married Catharine B. Bushby of Washington.

Father:

Capt. James Waugh

Mother:

Henrietta (Turley) Waugh

Spouse:

Catharine B. Bushby