The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Embury, Philip

EMBURY, Philip, Methodist clergyman: b. Ballygaran, Ireland, 21 Sept 1729; d. Camden, N. Y., August 1775. He joined John Wesley's society and became a local preacher at Court-Mattress in 1758. Emigrating to New York in 1760, he began to preach in his own house in 1766 and two years later erected a chapel on the site of the present “Old John Street Church.” Being a carpenter by trade, he worked on the building with his own hands and completed the pulpit, in which he preached the sermon of dedication 30 Oct. 1768. This was the first Methodist chapel of the New World and he has been called “the founder of American Methodism.” It was, however, at Camden, Washington County, N. Y., that he did his greatest work, forming there a congregation which grew into the flourishing and influential Troy Conference. Consult Buckley, ‘History of Methodism’ (Vol. I, New York 1898).