Beverly Waugh

Beverly Waugh (1789 - 1858) was an American who distinguished himself as a Methodist Pastor, Book Agent, and Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected in 1836.

Birth and Early Years

He was born on 28 October, 1789 in Fairfax County, Virginia, U.S.A., the son of a veteran of the American Revolutionary War. At the age of fifteen, he was converted to the Christian faith and became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Alexandria, Virginia. It is believed that he was employed as a clerk in a government office or in business for three or four years, given the excellent penmanship and accuracy of his accounts throughout his life. From the time he was eighteen until shortly before his death, he kept a journal which, in the end, amounted to several manuscript volumes.

Ordained Ministry

In his twentieth year, in 1809, Beverly entered the itinerant ministry of the Baltimore Annual Conference. After three years he was stationed in the city of Washington. Indeed, for eighteen years he filled a number of the most prominent appointments in the Baltimore Conference.

The Rev. Beverly Waugh was elected by his peers a delegate to the General Conferences of 1816 and 1820, representing the Baltimore Conference. For the 1824 General Conference, because he was in favor of an elected Presiding Eldership (which the majority of his conference did not approve), he was not elected a delegate.

In 1828, he was again elected a member of General Conference, and was, at that time, chosen Assistant Editor and Agent of the Book Concern of the M.E. Church, resulting in his restationing to New York City. This also necessitated his transfer to the New York Annual Conference, as the rule in force at that time constituted the Assistant Book Agent a member of that body. In his work with the Book Concern, the Rev. Waugh was closely associated with John Emory, later Bishop. In 1832, Beverly was made the principal agent, through not a member of the General Conference that year. He was again a member of the 1836 General Conference, at which he also was elected a Bishop.

Episcopal Ministry

The Rev. Beverly Waugh was elected to the Episcopacy of the Methodist Episcopal Church by the 1836 General Conference. He filled this highest office in the ordained ministry for nearly twenty-two years. After the death of Bishop Hedding in 1852, Bishop Waugh was the Senior Bishop of his denomination.

Bishop Waugh traveled almost constantly. He was never absent from one of his conferences. He organized the Rock River, Texas Annual Conference, with only nine members, as well as other Annual Conferences. Long before the time of railroads, Bishop Waugh's routes ranged from Michigan to Georgia, and Maine to Texas. He shared with his colleagues the responsibility of presiding over five sessions of the General Conference, some of which were the most laborious and difficult known in the history of the M.E. Church. It is supposed that the average number of preachers appointed by him per annum was probably 550, or about 12,000 altogether.

Colleagial Summations of Bishop Waugh

Quoted by Bishop Matthew Simpson, Bishop Edmund Storer Janes remarked of Bishop Waugh::"During his whole term of episcopal service it is believed he traveled about 100,000 miles by all sorts of conveyances, preached 2,000 sermons, presided over 150 Conferences, and ordained from 2,500 to 3,000 Deacons and Elders, besides services rendered on various special occasions."

Bishop Simpson, in his own voice, wrote this of Bishop Waugh::"He was a pure specimen of a Christian gentleman, combining ministerial dignity with the simplicity and sweetness of a child. He was a good theologian, and as an administrator adhered most scrupulously to every part of the economy of the church. As a presiding officer, he was dignified and courteous, always repectful and respected, evincing nothing of the prelate but much of the father in Christ, and always had the confidence and respect of his brethren. The whole term of his ministry was nearly forty-nine years, during which he never was disqualified from labor."

Illness, Death and Burial

Bishop Waugh visited Carlisle, Pennsylvania for several days in January 1858 to assist in an interesting revival of religion. On his return home, he was seized with erysipelas, but recovering was able to sit up in the evening before he died, and to converse a little with his friends. That night he died, 9 February 1858 in Baltimore. The immediate cause of his death is supposed to have been an affection of the heart, as he expired in a moment and without a struggle. He was buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Baltimore, near the graves of Bishops Francis Asbury, Enoch George and John Emory.

elected Writings

*Beverly Waugh's Journal. Mss. from 1807. Continued with gaps for many years.
*A Series of Questions for Bible Classes, with J. Emory, 1828.
*Wesley's Works, Editor (with John Emory), 1831.
*"Nature and Objects of the Methodist Book Concern," a statement in Emory's Life and Works, R. Emory, 1841.
*"Funeral discourse on Bishop Roberts," in Sermons on Miscellaneous Subjects, Cincinnati, 1847.

Biographies

*"Discourse on," delivered by Bishop T.A. Morris, General Conference, published by its order, 1860.
*"Sketch:" Western Cavaliers, A.H. Redford, 1876.
*"Sketch:" Lives of Methodist Bishops, H.B. Ridgaway, Flood and Hamilton, 1882.

References

* Cyclopaedia of Methodism, Matthew Simpson, D.D., LL.D., Ed., ("Revised Edition.") Philadelphia, Louis H. Everts, 1880. [http://wesley.nnu.edu/wesleyctr/books/0801-0900/HDM0856.PDF]
*
* Leete, Frederick DeLand, Methodist Bishops. Nashville, The Methodist Publishing House, 1948.

ee also

*List of Bishops of the United Methodist Church