Bird, William (2)

Bird, William (2), an English Wesleyan minister, was born at Stourport, April 11, 1781. He was converted at eighteen, entered the ministry in 1806, and exercised a successful ministry for forty-five years; retired in 1851, and died at Oldham, Sept. 7, 1869. Mr. Bird's intellectual powers were acute, masculine, and discriminating. He was an extensive reader, a vigorous thinker, a sound theologian, and a fluent speaker. His racy and epigrammatic sayings often became household words, or were admired as gems of wisdom. See Minutes of the British Conference, 1871, p. 673.