User:WilyD/William Case/Thomas Whitehead

Thomas Whitehead was a Methodist circuit rider.

Whitehead was born in 1762 in Duchess County, New York. Whitehead converted to Methodism in 1780, and was working as a local preacher in New York City and Albany by 1783. At some point he was sent as a missionary to Nova Scotia, where his name appears in the Methodist records from 1791. Although records remain sparse from this period, his obituary indicates he remained in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick until 1806, when he moved to the New York Conference. Preachers from the British Conference had been displacing American ones in Nova Scotia. Coming to New York, Whitehead's six children made him a poor candidate for a circuit rider, and Bishop Asbury only accepted him into the conference on the condition that he travel to Upper Canada, to which he agreed. He travelled to the Niagara region of Upper Canada, and located his family in the hamlet of St. David's. In 1808 and 1809 Whitehead rode the Long Point Circuit. In 1811, Whitehead rode the Bay of Quinte Circuit with Edward Cooper. Whitehead was assigned to the Smith's Creek Circuit in Upper Canada in 1812. Although records were poorly kept during the War of 1812, Whitehead is known to have worked on the Bay of Quinte Circuit during the latter part of the war. In 1815, Whitehead was assigned to the Ancaster Circuit, where he rode alongside David Youmans. The circuit saw a decrease in members that year, which may have been the result of better record keeping, combined with the re-assignment of some members to the Detroit circuit, rather than members leaving the church. Whitehead retired at the 1817 conference in Elizabethtown, Upper Canada. After his retirement from circuit riding, he settled in Burford township.