Finley, Robert W

Finley, Robert W.

a distinguished Methodist Episcopal minister, was born in Bucks County, Pa., June 9,1750. He was converted at seventeen. Soon after he entered Princeton College, N. J., where he spent seven years in general and theological studies. In 1774 he was licensed to preach in the Presbyterian Church, and was sent as a missionary to Georgia and the Carolinas. Here he was a patriot as well as a preacher, and was often with general Marion in his expeditions, and incurred much enmity and risk of life from the Tories. In 1784 he went to Hampshire County, then in New Virginia, where he preached two years. In 1788 he emigrated to Kentucky, and eventually opened a school for students in divinity, and a number of his pupils were distinguished in subsequent life. In 1795 he went with general Massie to explore the Scioto country, then in the Northwest Territory and in May, 1796, he settled on the Scioto, below Chillicothe. In 1808 he connected himself with the Methodist Church, and in 1811 or 1812 joined the Ohio Conference as a travelling preacher. For many years he labored with great success, and received hundreds into the Church., When almost eighty and superannuated, he mounted his horse, with his books and clothes, and set off as a missionary to Sault St. Mari, and there formed a circuit and appointed a camp-meeting. He died at Germantown, Ohio, Dec. 8, 1840.-Minutes of Conferences, iii, 239. ,