Birkett Edward

Birkett Edward a Methodist Episcopal minister, was born at Kendall, Westmoreland, England, Jan. 4, 1812. He gave himself to Christ at the age of fourteen; was soon licensed to exhort, and four years later to preach; emigrated to America in 1835, and immediately began his ministerial labors in connection with the Pittsburgh Conference. On the formation of the Erie Conference in 1836, he became a member of it, and two years later was transferred to the Pittsburgh Conference, wherein he labored faithfully, with three years' exception as superannuate, until 1872, when he took for a third and last time a superannuate relation, which he sustained until his death at Mount Union, O., Aug. 13, 1878. Mr. Birkett was not strong physically, but attained a superior mental power. He was sound in faith, and steady in purpose. His sermons were full of thought, chaste and elegant. See Minutes of Annual Conferences, 1878, p. 47.