William Barton
William Barton [1]
an English Wesleyan minister, was born at St. Ives, Huntingdonshire, March 27, 1803. He united with the Methodist society at the age of twelve, studied law at Baldock, Herts; was received on trial for the ministry in 1826; labored in some of the principal circuits (Cambridge, Leeds, Birmingham, London, Bradford, etc.); was assistant secretary of the Conference, and secretary of the Southern Branch of the Theological Institution; discharged his duties at the Conference of 1856; went home never to preach again; and died at Bradford, Yorkshire, on the fifty-fourth anniversary of his birthday. Barton stood high in the estimation of his brother-ministers, and many encomiums on his character are on record. He was an eminent Christian, a faithful servant of the Church and Conference, and a thoughtful and powerful preacher. He published a Memorial of James Fison of Thefford (1845, 12mo), and a Discourse on Public Worship (1841, 18mo). See Minutes of the British Conference, 1857, p. 410; Wesleyan Meth. Magazine, Dec. 1865, art. i.
