Philip Embury Sr.

  General Notes:

http://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=24

John Wesley founded the Society called "Methodists" in 1729, as a movement within the Church of England. Organized Methodism began in America in 1766, when six persons led by Philip Embury met at his home in New York City. They created a Society which in 1768 leased property on John Street and erected the Wesleyan Chapel, the first Methodist meeting house in the colonies. The John Street Methodist Church still occupies the site.

In 1784, following the Revolution, the Methodists of the new United States broke with the Church of England to form the Methodist Episcopal Church. It was only at this point that New York Methodists began to maintain their own marriage and baptismal registers, having previously relied on the Anglican clergy of Trinity Parish to perform these rites. In a report of 1785 the chapel on John Street was first referred to as a "church," with 178 white and 25 black members. The denomination grew rapidly, and by 1800 had four churches and over 1,000 members in the city.

This continuing growth reflected a steady increase in New York City's population. The great period of immigration from abroad was still some decades in the future, and much of the city's new population came from Long Island, Westchester County, the Hudson Valley, New Jersey, and southern New England. Many of these new arrivals were "unchurched," providing fertile ground for the Methodists, who also found converts among foreign immigrants, especially from the British Isles. Whatever their origin, a substantial number of the people attracted to Methodism were members of the city's working class. They were less likely than their more affluent neighbors to have their marriages reported in newspapers, making their church records even more important to genealogists.

The Work Projects Administration (WPA)'s Inventory of the Church Archives of New York City: The Methodist Church (New York: The Historical Records Survey, 1940) [NYC G 36 v.3] includes an historical sketch and list of surviving records for every Methodist Episcopal (M.E.) church that existed in Manhattan. Another basic source, including lists of the ministers who served each church (with dates), is Rev. Samuel A. Seaman, Annals of New York Methodism - A History of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the City of New York, 1892 [NYC G 42.1]. It was this same Samuel A. Seaman who just over a century ago made the meticulous handwritten transcripts which form the NYG&B collection of Methodist records.

  Noted events in his life were:

• No Name: 1784, Methodist Episcopal Church Founded.

• No Name: 1766, Organized Methodism, Nyc.

• He immigrated in 1760 to Limerick, Ireland To Nyc.

• He worked as a Preacher, Superintendent of Construction, Methodist Church, St. John St., NYC after 1765.

• He owned Embury Wilson Patent on 31 Oct 1765.

Philip married Margaret Switzer, daughter of Johann Christopher Schweitzer and Katherine Elizabeth Ruckel, in Nov 1758 in Nyc. (Margaret Switzer was born on 16 May 1743 in Courtmatrix, Limerick, Munster, Ireland, christened on 16 May 1743, died on 21 Aug 1807 in Augusta Township, Ontario and was buried in Blue Church, Oswegatchie Grenville . . ..)