 1824 - 1892 (67 years)
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| Name |
BISHOP Milton LaFayette [1] |
| Prefix |
Rev. |
| Birth |
22 Aug 1824 [1] |
| Gender |
Male |
| Religion |
Methodist Preacher [1] |
|
|
| Death |
29 Jul 1892 |
Campbell, VA  [1] |
| Burial |
Campbell, VA |
| Notes |
- Sketches of the Virginia Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, South
By John James Lafferty
REV-MILTON LAFAYETTE BISHOP
A SINGLE leaf can contain a recital of deeds which have blessed thousands of hearts, the Church and the Commonwealth, and more, made heaven glad. The simple narrative that follows these lines are without ornament, but tells the unvarnished story of a useful life. 'We have little doubt that the readers of this brief
sketch will receive good from the perusal:
I was the third child of my parents\emdash Anna Ellis, daughter of Benjamin Ellis, and John D. Bishop, son of Thomas Bishop, all of Surry county, Virginia. There were six children of us, two sons and four daughters, all now living except the oldest, who died in 1847. I was born in 1824, August 22d. I never knew any of my ancestry to follow anything but farming as a vocation. My father died when I was about twelve years of age, and my mother in 1865, having been a Methodist from one year after I joined the church. From my earliest recollections I was trying to be a Christian, mainly from the influence of Christian slaves, as neither of my parents professed religion. My mother was always a pious woman. I read my Bible regularly and prayed up to the session of the Virginia Conference held in Petersburg in 1843 (perhaps in 1842), when I openly sought conversion at the altar in Washington street church. Though I realized a change in all my feelings and views of life\emdash a change that entered at once into all my plans for life\emdash I did not accept such as conversion, simply because of the extravagant experiences I had often heard related by the old slaves of my father. Nor did I become satisfied of my conversion till some months after. I had read the Old Testament through in the last eight months, and the New Testament eight
times, sitting up late at night to read after I had prepared my school studies, and so was at no loss in making up my mind as to what Church I should join. I joined at Carsley's church, Surry County, Virginia, then served by Rev. G. M. Andross, who baptized me by pouring just as I received the Holy Ghost. He appointed me class-leader. I had formed my ideas of the doctrines of the Bible before I joined the church, and to this day have not had to change those views. I had read with prayer to be guided, and I believe I was directed by the Spirit of all Truth. With the change of heart in Petersburg, I received the conviction of my call to the ministry, and my studies at school were all conducted in view of that calling; yet my mind was not satisfied on that subject for years after. I had my heart on farming\emdash a sort of inherited
proclivity\emdash nor did I consent to quit it until "Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel" had shut me up to preaching or ruin. From the time of my conversion I went to school in Surry; Little Town, in Sussex; Emory and Henry, and Randolph Macon College, up to the year 1848, May 17th, when my health forced me to leave school. I was licensed as an exhorter in 1847, October 5th, by William A. Smith, D. D., Presiding Elder; was licensed to preach in April, 1848, by Rev. J. H. Davis. Presiding Elder; joined the Virginia Conference in the fall of 1848, at Elizabeth City, and was sent as a helper under Rev. G. N. Winfree, on the Amelia circuit, then embracing all of Amelia and about half of Dinwiddie. I traveled but five months of this year, in consequence of the work\emdash eighteen appointments being too large for my feeble health. Yet I preached much in my native county, and held several very successful protracted meetings. The next year, 1850, I was sent to Bedford circuit under Rev. A. Wiles, but as his health failed him in the spring, he left the circuit, and I fell in charge; and here I did the hardest year's work of my life, and I realized the greatest success in the way of revivals\emdash -over three hundred professing conversion. The next year, 1851 and 1852, I was on the Staunton circuit\emdash part of South Bedford and Campbell counties; in 1853 and 1854 on the Amherst circuit; in 1855 and 1856, the Charlotte circuit: in 1857, the Mecklenburg circuit; in 1858, the Murfreesboro circuit; in 1859, the Fincastle circuit, Botetourt county; in 1860, the Nelson circuit, in all of which I had a successful work. By this time my health had become very
bad, and by the urgent advice of my Presiding Elder and physician, I took a supernumerary relation, which I sustained until the fall of 1865, when I located. My health improved so much that I joined Conference again in the fall of 1868, and was sent to Fluvanna circuit four years. I rested one year there, or a part of one year, my throat being badly diseased. I then was sent to the Rappahannock circuit, where I travelled three years; from which I was sent to the South Bedford circuit, where I am now serving out my fourth year. On all my fields of labor I had good revivals\emdash an average of not less than one hundred and fifty conversions a year. Some twenty of these are in the ministry, mostly the Methodist.
The Virginia conference annual
By Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Virginia Conference
SIXTH DAY.
TUESDAY, November 20th, 1883.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
HALF-PAST THREE O'CLOCK P. M.
(1874? widower? involved in church sex scandal Church trial 1883)
Conference met according to adjournment. L. S. Reed (by appointment of Bishop Kavanaugh)
in the Chair.
Divine service was conducted by J. D. Hank.
The minutes of the morning session were read and approved.
On motion of P. Whitehead, the report of the Committee on Memoirs was made the order of
the day for half-past 10 o'clock A. M. to-morrow.
T. McN. Simpson, from the Committee of Investigation in the case of M. L. Bishop, made the
following report:
The Committee of Investigation, to whom was referred the case of Rev. Milton L. Bishop, beg leave to report that they regard the reports reflecting upon the character of Rev. Milton L. Bishop of such gravity as to demand an investigation, but as the accused is not present, nor any witnesses, they respectfully ask that the case be remanded to the Presiding Elder of the Lynchburg District for investigation.
(Signed) T. McN. SIMPSON, J. C. REED, W. G. WILLIAMS.
Which on motion was adopted, and the case of Brother Bishop remanded accordingly. [1]
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| Person ID |
I10051 |
Booth Family |
| Last Modified |
6 Sep 2015 |
| Father |
BISHOP John D., b. 1794 d. 1836 (Age 42 years) |
| Mother |
ELLIS Anna, b. 1793, Dendron, Surry, Virginia, United States d. 1865 (Age 72 years) |
| Marriage |
12 Dec 1818 |
Dendron, Surry, Virginia, United States [1] |
| Family ID |
F2614 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family |
SMITH Susan Lambeth, b. 3 Jul 1834, Lynchburg, Campbell County, Virginia, USA d. 18 Jan 1908 (Age 73 years) |
| Marriage |
21 Aug 1851 |
Campbell, VA [1] |
| Children |
| | 1. BISHOP Ann V., b. 1 Dec 1852, Campbell, VA d. 2 Jul 1910 (Age 57 years) |
| | 2. BISHOP Eloisa L., b. 1856, Campbell, VA d. Yes, date unknown |
| | 3. BISHOP Ludie, b. 1854, Campbell, VA d. Yes, date unknown |
| | 4. BISHOP Corrine L., b. 21 Apr 1858, Campbell, VA d. 1 Jan 1901 (Age 42 years) |
| | 5. BISHOP Milton L., b. 1860, Campbell, VA d. Yes, date unknown |
|
| Family ID |
F3353 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
30 May 2011 |
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| Sources |
- [S1120] joann rice, joann rice, (Bishop-Ellis families) (Reliability: 2).
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