Barton, William

Barton, William 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.