Alexander Kilham

2025-05-19T18:53:51Z

2A00:23C8:A2DD:9701:AD8D:1524:D51A:6036: /* Ministry */

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2019}}

[[File:Alexander Kilham (1).jpg|thumb|Alexander Kilham (aged 36)]]
'''Alexander Kilham''' (20 July 1762{{snd}}20 December 1798<ref>{{cite book |url=http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3163619 |title=An elegy, on the death of Mr. Alexander Kilham |year=1799 |publisher=National Library of Australia|accessdate=11 October 2016}}</ref>) was an English [[Methodist]] minister.

==Early life==
He was born to parents Simon and Elizabeth Kilham at [[Epworth, Lincolnshire]], possibly at a former farm, now known as Prospect House, otherwise 79 High Street.<ref>John Dunstan, 'Alexander's Daughter, Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, May 2008 https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/whs/56-5.pdf</ref>

==Ministry==
He was admitted by [[John Wesley]] in 1785 into the regular itinerant Methodist ministry. He became minister of a [[Methodist circuit|circuit]] in [[Sheffield]]; and also the leader and spokesman of the democratic party in the [[Connexionalism|Connexion]] which claimed for the laity the free election of class-leaders and stewards, and equal representation with ministers at [[Annual conferences within Methodism|Conference]]. They also contended that the ministry should possess no official authority or pastoral prerogative, but should merely carry into effect the decisions of majorities in the different meetings.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Kilham, Alexander|volume=15|pages=791-792}}</ref>

Kilham further advocated the complete separation of the Methodists from the [[Anglican Church]]. In the controversy that ensued he wrote many pamphlets, often anonymous, and frequently provocative. For this he was arraigned before the Conference of 1796 and expelled, and he and [[William Thom (preacher)|William Thom]] then founded a movement initially called ‘The New Itinerancy’, then the [[Methodist New Connexion]] (1798, merged since 1907 in the [[United Methodist Church (Great Britain)|United Methodist Church]]),<ref name="EB1911"/> and now part of the [[Methodist Church of Great Britain]] following the [[Methodist Union]] of 1932. Methodist church governance now largely reflects Kilham's ideas.<ref>{{cite web |title=Old Ilkeston The Methodist New Connexion |url=https://www.oldilkeston.co.uk/the-methodist-new-connexion/ |website=oldilkeston.co.uk |access-date=6 July 2021}}</ref>

Kilham and Thom jointly wrote the ''Out-lines of a constitution; proposed for the examination, amendment and acceptance, of the members of the Methodist New Itinerancy'', which was published in 1797.<ref>Republished by Gale ECCO, Print Editions (29 May 2010), {{ISBN|978-1170504789}}</ref>

He died in 1798, and the success of the church he founded is a tribute to his personality and to the principles for which he strove. Kilham's second wife, [[Hannah Kilham]] née Spurr (1774–1832), whom he married only a few months before his death, became a [[Quaker]], and worked as a missionary in [[the Gambia]] and [[Sierra Leone]]; she transcribed to writing several [[West Africa]]n languages.<ref name="EB1911"/>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*{{cite web |url=https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/whs/56-5.pdf |title=Alexander's Daughter, Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society |last=Dunstan |first=John |date=May 2008 |website=Biblical Studies.org.uk |publisher=Rob Bradshaw |access-date=10 February 2017}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kilham, Alexander}}
[[Category:1762 births]]
[[Category:1798 deaths]]
[[Category:English Methodists]]
[[Category:Christianity in Sheffield]]
[[Category:People from Epworth, Lincolnshire]]

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Alexander Kilham