History of King William County Virginia United States of America

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William McKendree, M.E. bishop, was born in King William county, Va., July 6, 1757, son of John and Mary McKendree. His father was a planter and shortly after the commencement of the Revolutionary war William joined the American army as a private, was advancod to the office of adjutant, and later placed in the commissary department, and was present at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. He engaged as a school teacher and was received into the Virginia conference of the Methodist church on trial in 1787. He was appointed to the Mecklenburg circuit by Bishop Asbury in 1788, and to the Cumberland circuit as an assistant to John Barker in 1789. He was ordained a deacon in 1790, and served on the Portsmouth and Amelia circuits until the close of 1791, when he was ordained an older and appointed to the Greenville circuit, where he labored until November, 1792. He served on various circuits in Virginia and on the Union circuit in South Carolina until 1796. He was then appointed presiding eider of the Richmond district, and in 1799, of the Baltimore district, returning to the Richmond district in 1800. In September, 1800, he was appointed presiding eider of the Kentucky district, and in 1804 presided over the conference at Mt. Garretson, Ky., in the alysence of the Bishops Asbury and Whatcoat. He was transferred to the Cumberland district in Illinois in 1805, and in 1807 preached in Ohio, Kentucky and Missouri. He was a delegate to the General conference in Baltheore, Md., in May, 1808, and was there elected bishop to take the place of Bishop Whatcoat, who died in 1806. He was consecrated in the Light Street church, Baltimore, Md., May 17, 1808, by Bishop Asbury assisted by Elders Garretson, Bruce, Lee and Ware. In 1808-09 he travelled with Bishop Asbury, visiting nearly all the states and a part of Canada. He also drew up the bylaws which were adopted by all the conferences in 1810-11. After the death of Bishop Asbury in 1816, and on the election of Enoch George and Robert R. Roberts as bishops, the districts of the bishops were defined. In 1818 he visited the extreme western conferences and Indian mission. His health failing he was released from active labor in the conferences in 1820, and continued to travel in the west among the Indians. He also attended important conferences in the different states, and presided at the general conference at Baltimore, Md., in 1824, and Pittsburg, Pa., in 1828. In 1829 he retired from his labors and resided with his father's family who had removed to Sumner county, Tenn., in 1810. He resumed his duties in 1830, in New Orleans, La., and in October, 1830, attended the Kentucky conference at Russellville. He attended the General conference in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1832, where he consecrated Bishops Andrews and Emery, and in 1834 He made a southern tour, returning to Nashville, Tenn. He attended the Tennessee conference at Lebanon in 1834, and then returned to the residence of his brother, Dr. James McKendree, in Tennessee. Bishop Robert Paine wrote Life and times of Bishop McKendree (2 vols., 1859). He died in Sumner county, Tenn., March 5, 1835.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of King William County Virginia

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