Joseph Entwisle

Vocation

English Methodist minister who published an "Essay on Secret Prayer" (1820), a volume which obtained a large circulation, and was translated into French. He also contributed biographical and practical articles to the Methodist Magazine. At the age of fourteen Entwisle joined the Methodists. When not quite sixteen he began to preach, and was known as ‘the boy preacher.’ John Wesley called him out to the itinerant work, and in 1787 sent him to the Oxfordshire circuit. Four years after, at the Manchester conference, he was received into the full ministry while stationed in Halifax. During the next few years Entwisle laboured in Leeds, Wakefield, Hull, Macclesfield, Manchester, Liverpool, and London, winning apopularity by his preaching power. He was in 1805 appointed the first missionary secretary. The conference of 1812 was held in Leeds, and Entwisle was elected president. The later years of Entwisle's ministry were spent in Bristol, Birmingham, Sheffield, and London, where he was several times reappointed. In 1825 he was elected president of the conference a second time. He ceased to itinerate in 1834, being appointed house governor of the new Theological Institution opened at Hoxton for the education and training of young ministers. Through failure of health he resigned the office four years after, and retired to Tadcaster, where his only daughter lived. He preached occasionally until within a few days of his death, which occurred on 6 November 1841, aged 74. Link to Wikipedia biography