Containing extracts taken from the following:.
- Arminian Magazine 1822-33
- Circuit book of the Chatham Mission 1820
- Notes re female itinerants
- Letters from William O'Bryan to his daughter Mary 1823-26
- Letter from William O'Bryan to his wife Catherine 1839
Notes .
- Catherine O'Bryan (d.1860) was the wife of William O'Bryan (1778-1868), the founder of the Bible Christian Connexion. Born in Cornwall as Catherine Cowlin, like her husband she was of Anglican/Methodist parentage and was devoted to the work of the Bible Christian Church, of which she was one of the first female preachers. She moved with her husband to the United States in 1831 and is buried in New York. Source: Thomas Shaw, A History of Cornish Methodism (1967)
- Mary O'Bryan (1807-83) was the daughter of William O'Bryan, founder of the Bible Christian Connexion. At the age of sixteen she joined the ranks of her father's itinerant preachers. She served in the Channel Isles, where she was known as the 'Maiden preacher' and later on the Isle of Wight. She was married in 1825 to Samuel Thorne (d.1873), one of the earliest members of the Connexion. They settled at Lake Farm, Shebbear in Cornwall, where they established a school, which developed into Shebbear College. They remained very active in Connexional affairs and had a particular interest in printing. Source: Thomas Shaw, A History of Cornish Methodism ((1967), and S. L. Thorne, Samuel Thorne, Printer (1875)