Robert Richford Roberts

Robert Richford Roberts (August 2, 1778 – March 26, 1843) distinguished himself as an American Methodist Circuit Rider, Pastor, Presiding Elder, and Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected in 1816. He was the first married man in America to serve as Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Roberts was born in Frederick County, Maryland. His father was of Welsh and his mother of Irish ancestry. They were communicants of The Church of England. In 1785 the family moved to the Ligonier Valley, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Roberts united with the M.E. Church when he was fourteen years old. Until he was twenty-one his was a thoroughly frontier existence, with few books and quite simple habits. Yet early on he commenced with study, all the while being drawn gradually toward the Ministry.

After much hesitation, owing to great timidity, Robert preached his first sermon in 1801. He was licensed as a local preacher at the Holmes Meeting-house near Cadiz, Ohio.

In the Spring of 1802 he was received on trial in the Baltimore Annual Conference, and appointed to a circuit including Carlisle, Pennsylvania and twenty-nine other preaching appointments in Western Pennsylvania, Maryland and Ohio. He was ordained, both Deacon and Elder, by Bishop Francis Asbury. It took as long as a month to visit the entire circuit. Roberts studied constantly. In 1804 a senior colleague reported that "his moral character was perfect and his head a complete magazine."

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