B. T. Roberts
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Benjamin Titus Roberts (1823–1893), first trained as an attorney, then entered the ministry in the Genesee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church of New York State. His ministerial studies were done at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He married Ellen Stowe, had seven children, and pastored several churches in New York state.
He was an advocate of holiness, being influenced by the teaching of Phoebe Palmer. In 1857 he began to publish tracts on holiness. In 1858 he was defrocked, because of his criticisms of church practices, which he felt had left both the zeal and the teachings of John Wesley, founder of Methodism.
With J. W. Redfield and others, he formed the Free Methodist Church of North America at an organizational conference at Pekin, New York in 1860. That same year he founded a magazine, the Earnest Christian. In 1866 he founded Chili Seminary in North Chili, New York, which today is known as Roberts Wesleyan College in his honor. He was general superintendent of the Free Methodist Church from 1860–93. He traveled extensively and was a frequent speaker at Holiness camp meetings.
Roberts was a staunch abolitionist and early Free Methodists derived their name in part from their opposition to slavery. Many of the early Free Methodists were active in the operation of the Underground Railroad. They were highly critical of the Methodist Episcopal Church, from which many of them had come, because it did not boldly denounce slavery.
Another "freedom" Roberts advocated was the practice of using freewill offerings for church support. They were critical of the Methodist practice of pew rentals, which expressed the social prestige of those who rented the most expensive pews. After the separation of the Free Methodists, the Methodist Episcopal Church abolished pew rentals.
Seventeen years after his death, the Methodists returned his ministerial papers to his son, and formally acknowledged that they had wronged him.