John Emory was an American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected in 1832.
Background
John Emory was born in Spaniard’s Neck, Queen Annes County, Maryland, the son of Robert Emory, and the grandson of John Register Emory. His mother was Frances, daughter of Tristam and Ann Thomas of Wye Neck, Maryland. Both his parents were ardent Methodists, and their home was a rendezvous for preachers. Although not a lawyer by profession, Robert Emory was associate to Judge James Tilghman of the county bench, and later judge of the orphans’ court.
Education
He determined that John should be a lawyer, when the latter was but ten years old, and proceeded to educate him for that calling. The boy received a good classical education chiefly under Robert Elliott of Easton, Maryland, and later of Strasburg, Pennsylvania, whither Emory followed him, and at Washington College, Maryland. He then studied law in the office of Richard Tilghman Earle of Centerville, Maryland. After serving on several circuits, he was appointed to Academy charge (Union), Philadelphia.
Career
He determined that John should be a lawyer, when the latter was but ten years old, and proceeded to educate him for that calling.
An earnest, industrious youth, never relaxing or taking exercise, he undermined his health and thereafter always suffered more or less from physical debility.
He was admitted to the bar at the age of nineteen, and opened an office in Centerville.
Having been converted, and being of intensely religious nature, he acted as class leader and local preacher.
A man of sincere devotion, dignity, and discretion, with a clear, well-trained mind, and superior in scholarship to most Methodist ministers of the day, he soon became a highly respected leader of his denomination.
A member of the General Conference of 1816, when he was but twenty-seven years old, he was elected to each succeeding session of that body until he was made a bishop, except that of 1824, and at this he acted as secretary.
He was a natural controversialist and skilful debater.
In 1817 he championed the doctrines of his church in two pamphlets, A Reply, and A Further Reply, answering an essay in the Christian Register (January 1817) by William White, Episcopal bishop, entitled “Some Objections Against the Position of a Personal Assurance of the Pardon of Sin by a Direct Communication of the Holy Spirit. ”
The next year, articles in the National Messenger of Georgetown, I).
At the General Conference of 1820, he was appointed delegate to the British Conference, to further closer relations between the two bodies, and to adjust difficulties which had arisen in Canada, owing to the existence of both British and American Methodist activities there.
He spent some weeks in England and performed his mission with tact and success.
In the controversy which led to the establishment of the Methodist Protestant Church, while supporting the election of presiding elders by the annual Conference in preference to their appointment by the bishops, he opposed the “reformers” in their effort to secure lay representation in the Conferences, and published his classic work, a Defence of "Our Fathers, ” and of the Original Organisation of the Methodist Episcopal Church Against the Rev. Alexander M’Caine and Others (1827).
As agent of the Book Concern he displayed originality and administrative ability.
He converted the Methodist Magazine into the Methodist Magazine and Quarterly Review, and conducted it from 1830 to 1832, writing its principal original articles.
Achievements
Religion
He was pastor of important churches in the Philadelphia and Baltimore Conferences until 1824, when he was elected assistant agent of the Methodist Book Concern, and in 1828 he succeeded Nathan Bangs as agent.
Membership
admitted to the bar at the age of nineteen
Personality
An earnest, industrious youth, never relaxing or taking exercise, he undermined his health and thereafter always suffered more or less from physical debility. A man of sincere devotion, dignity, and discretion, with a clear, well-trained mind, and superior in scholarship to most Methodist ministers of the day, he soon became a highly respected leader of his denomination.
He was a natural controversialist and skilful debater.
Connections
On October12, 1813, he married Caroline Sellers of Hillsboro, Maryland, who died in 1815, and on May 12, 1818, Ann Wright of Queen Annes County, Maryland.