The New International Encyclopædia/Embury, Philip

EM'BURY, Philip (1729-75). The first Methodist minister in America. He was born of German parents at Ballygaran, Ireland, September 21, 1729. He emigrated to America in 1760. In 1766 he organized a ‘class’ in New York and began preaching, at first in his own house on Barrack Street, now Park Place, and in 1767 in the rigging loft, on what is now William Street. which has become famous as the cradle of Methodism in the United States. A chapel was built in 1768 on the site of the old John Street Church, partly by Embury's own hands. In 1769 preachers sent out by Wesley arrived in New York, and Embury went as a missionary to the neighborhood of Albany. He continued there as a local preacher and organized a church at Ashgrove. He died from an accident, August, 1775.