Robert Jeffers was a Methodist circuit rider.
Jeffers was born in Ireland.[1]
Jeffers was received on trial as a circuit rider in 1817. In 1818, he was assigned to the Augusta circuit, where he rode alongside Wyatt Chamberlayne. Membership in the Methodist church increased by 33 people that year, to 855.[2] In 1819 he was given his deacon's orders.[3] He remained on the Augusta circuit in 1819, where he rode alongside Renaldo Evartts and C. N. Flint.[4] In 1820, he was assigned to the Bay of Quinte circuit, where he rode alongside David Spore. Church membership remained unchanged that year.[5] In 1821, he was assigned to the Belleville circuit.[6] Either shortly before he arrived, or shortly after, a dispute about a horse with the district's presiding elder lead to him not riding the circuit. Jeffers reported that he withdrew from the ministry, and the district's next meeting expelled him. He began preaching to the remnants of the Methodist Church of Great Britain's societies in Upper Canada, along with his son Robert.[7]
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.