John Early was a Methodist bishop and one of the founders of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Background
John Early was born on January 1, 1786 in Bedford County, Virginia, United States. He was the thirteenth child of Joshua and Mary (Leftwich) Early. The ancestors of both his father and mother came to Virginia from England about the middle of the seventeenth century. His parents were Baptists, but in 1804 he joined the Methodist Church.
Education
He had little formal education.
Career
In 1813 he became a presiding elder; and in 1832 - but for his owning slaves - he would most likely have been made a bishop.
The welfare of negroes was one of his chief interests throughout his life. His first work as a minister was among the slaves of Thomas Jefferson, and in 1825 he became president of the Colonization Society which existed in his home, Lynchburg, for the purpose of transporting negroes back to Africa.
He was repeatedly nominated for Congress, was offered the governorship of the territories of Illinois and of Arkansas, and was invited by John Tyler to be his comptroller of the treasury. But he kept himself to his ministry.
At one campmeeting which he conducted a thousand people were converted within a week, and it was “generally conceded that he traveled more, had more souls converted under his ministry, and received more persons into the church than any of his contemporaries”.
His primacy in these matters was not based on laxness of method. He refused even to pray for a penitent who would not first go down into the dust, literally, to show his anxiety for salvation. It is probable that he more than any one else should be considered the founder of the Methodist Randolph-Macon College. He was a member of its first board of trustees (1830), and afterward president of the board for about forty years.
In 1844 he took an active part in the General Conference of the Methodist Church which resulted in the formation of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He was for a while president of the first conference of this new organization, and became one of its first book agents.
In 1834 he was made a bishop, but was superannuated in 1866, having suffered a railway accident which permanently injured his health.
He died in Lynchburg after a long illness.
Achievements
Membership
He was a member of its first board of trustees (1830), and afterward president of the board for about forty years.
Connections
Early was married twice: first, to Anne Jones, and again in 1822 to Elizabeth Browne Rives, daughter of Anthony Rives.