Shadford, George

Shadford, George, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born. at Scotter, in Lindsley, Lincolnshire, England, Jan. 19, 1739. At the age of sixteen he received his first communion in the Established Church, and for a time was very serious and punctual in the discharge of religious duties; but he fell back into sin.. He enlisted in the militia while still a youth, and became quite desperate in wickedness. He was hopefully converted May 5, 1762, and within two weeks became a member of the Methodist Society. In 1768 he united with the Conference, and was appointed to labor in the west of Cornwall. He was sent in the spring of 1773 to America; and labored for a month in New Jersey, four months in New York city, and four or five months in Philadelphia. He was stationed in 1776 in Virginia, and in 1777 at Baltimore. Not being willing to take the test oath during the Revolutionary war, he returned in 1778 to Great Britain. There he resumed his labors, and continued them with unabated diligence and fidelity till disease and infirmity obliged him to retire. He died March 11, 1816. Mr. Shadford had a Christian character that was decidedly marked. He was a man of prayer, of Christian temper, and godly conversation. As a preacher he was not above mediocrity, and yet his labors were very successful. See Simpson, Cyclop. of Methodism, s.v.; Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 7, 34.