Alice Cambridge
None
Alice Cambridge
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Born |
(
1762-01-01
)
1 January 1762
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Died |
1 January 1829
(1829-01-01)
(aged
67)
|
Nationality | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland |
Known for | Preaching |
Alice Cambridge (1 January 1762 – 1 January 1829) was an early Irish Methodist preacher.
Life
Cambridge was born in Bandon in County Cork on New Years Day 1762. Her mother was a Presbyterian and her father was a member of the Church of Ireland. Cambridge was taken to her mother's church but resolved as she became older to join the Methodists in Bandon. She wanted to be a preacher and she abandoned a boyfriend to concentrate on evangelism. It was a novelty to hear a woman preaching, [1] although Agnes Smyth had already done some Methodist preaching in Ireland. [2] Cambridge still attracted interest as she visited towns in the county of Munster. [3] Some thought women preaching was against scripture and in 1791 she wrote to John Wesley . Wesley reassured her that she should follow her heart if she was inclined to preach, but she should not preach near a male preacher as she may take some of his audience. [1]
After Wesley died, the Methodist church decided that it did not support women preaching. In July 1802 the Methodist conference passed a resolution that any women preaching or merely exhort should be ejected from the church. [4] Her supporters suggested that she found her own church but she kept faith with the Methodists despite being excluded from any Methodist building. [3] In 1811 the conference decided to readmit her to the Methodists even though she had never ceased preaching. [4] She had worked in shops in Dublin and Cork, but in 1813 she decided to preach full-time. She toured the country and occasionally spoke to thousands as in Lurgan in 1816. [3]
By 1827 she was exhausted by preaching and stopped travelling. She died on her birthday in Nenagh and was buried there in 1829. [3]
References
- 1 2 Graham, Dorothy (1998). "METHODIST WOMEN LOCAL PREACHERS" (PDF) . Retrieved 2 May 2018 .
- ↑ Hill, Myrtle (2004). "Smyth, Edward (fl. 1764–1790), Methodist preacher". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi : 10.1093/ref:odnb/67131 . (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- 1 2 3 4 Raughter, Rosemary (2004). "Cambridge, Alice (1762–1829), preacher". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi : 10.1093/ref:odnb/59930 .
- 1 2 Paul W. Chilcote (15 June 2001). She Offered Them Christ: The Legacy of Women Preachers in Early Methodism . Wipf and Stock Publishers. pp. 117–. ISBN 978-1-57910-668-3 .
Authority control
: People
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