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Obryan, William

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the founder of the Bible Christian Societies, was born at Gunwen, in the parish of Luxulion, Cornwall, England, February 6, 1778. At the age of seventeen he obtained a clear manifestation of God's pardoning mercy, and almost immediately began to preach. In 1809 he was engaged as a supply in the place of a Wesleyan minister. In 1810 he was formally excluded from the Wesleyan Methodist Society for preaching in an irregular way, and in 1814 he relinquished business in order to devote himself wholly to the work of the ministry. Hearing that there were fourteen parishes in the east of Cornwall and the west of Devon in which there was no evangelical preaching, he visited them. His labors were successful, souls were converted. He organized the first class, or society, which afterwards received the appellation of Bible Christians, at Shebbear, in the county of Devon, October 9, 1815. Twenty-two persons gave their names. At the session of the first conference held at Baddash, Launceston, August 17, 1819, he was elected president. He filled this office each succeeding year until 1828. Unpleasant circumstances arising between himself and the brethren, in 1829 he left the conference. At the conference in 1830 William O'Bryan sought reconciliation with his brethren, and a satisfactory union was effected. Afterwards he left the denomination of his own free will. He came to the United States, crossed the Atlantic between New York and England several times, and died at a good old age, in New York city. His remains are interred in Greenwood Cemetery Brooklyn. See Jubilee Volume of Bible Christians (1865); BIBLE CHRISTIANS.