James Botfield was a circuit rider in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Botfield was born in Shropshire, England, where he converted to Methodism and worked as a local preacher. In 1803, he married. In 1817, they emigrated to the Canadas. After settling in Montreal, the Lower Canada district's presiding elder Henry Ryan met him, and convinced him to take up circuit riding.[1]
In 1820, he was assigned to the Ottawa circuit.[1] By 1821, Ryan had changed his view of Botfield, and opposed his being accepted on trial as a circuit rider by the 1821 Genesee conference. As a result, Botfield was not accepted by the conference.[2]
Notes
editReferences
edit- 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.