Hamilton, William

Hamilton, William a veteran Irish Wesleyan minister, was born near Newry in 1761. He became a member of a Methodist society at the age of fourteen, in 1788 received an appointment to the Brookboro' Circuit, and for twenty-nine years labored for the evangelism of Ireland. He was the first preacher who encouraged Ouseley's extraordinary plan of labor, inducing the conference to sanction it, and to enroll the missionary on their minutes. Hamilton had superior talents; he was an effective preacher, singularly can himself, but as singularly powerful over the passions of his hearers. His thoughts were original and often humorous; his arguments ingenious and irresistible; his style simple; the effect of his discourses sometimes magical. He worked with his might. Ouseley declared that he never saw a more indefatigable laborer. Broken down in the labors of the ministry, he was compelled to retire from the active service in 1816. He was one of the eight preachers who received a rebuke of the Irish Conference for the administration of the Lord's Supper. He died October 8, 1843. See Stevens, Hist. of Methodism, 3:420, 435; Minutes of the British Conference, 1844; Smith, Hist. of Wesleyan Methodism, 3:24, 25.