Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Varrick, James

VARRICK, James, A. M. E. Zion bishop, b. near Newburg, N. Y., about 1760; d. in 1836. He with eight other members of the Methodist church obtained permission from Bishop Francis Asbury to hold separate meetings for his race. They met in a shop in New York city for three years, and in 1800 the society was incorporated under the name of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion church, their first church being completed the same year. This was the origin of Zion church in this country, of which James Varrick was one of the earliest trustees. In 1820 he was elected one of the first two elders of the church, in the following year chairman of the New York conference district, and in 1822 he was made the first superintendent or bishop, his term of service expiring in 1828.