Ryland, William

Ryland, William, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in the north of Ireland in 1770. He came to the United States at the age of eighteen, and settled in Harford County, Md. He afterwards removed to Baltimore and engaged in commercial pursuits, but in 1802 was admitted on trial in the Baltimore Conference. His ministry comprised a period of forty-four years, the first nine of which were spent on circuits, the next eighteen in cities, and the remaining seventeen as a chaplain in the United States navy. He was five times elected chaplain of the United States Senate, was a friend for many years of general Jackson, and commanded general respect on account of his integrity, his intellectual powers, and pulpit abilities. He died Jan. 10, 1846. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 7, 392.