BIOGRAPHY
Mr. William Trotter was born in Yorkshire, in the UK, in
1818 and was converted when he was twelve.
He began to preach at 14, and
at 19 was ordained as a minister of the Methodist New Connection, being used to
the conversion of many in Halifax and York.
Shortly after he began to
question several trends in the New Connection:
an increasing central
control,
a growing distinction between clergy and laity,
and forcing
acceptance of formal creeds.
In addition he published several lectures and
pamphlets against worldly trends: His 'Lecture on the Use of Money' criticized
the laying up of wealth and material possessions.
When his views were
attacked, he defended them in a pamphlet, 'The Foolishness of God wiser than
the Wisdom of Men'.
In 1841, his condemnation of insurance and benefit
societies, such as the denomination's benevolent fund for its clergy, put him
in conflict with the ruling conference, resulting according to his own 'Brief
Report' in his "being discontinued from the ministry".
At that time a large
number withdrew from the New Connection, including almost all of Mr. Trotter's
own Bradford circuit.
By 1844, he was identified with the brethren in
Halifax.
For a few years he edited 'The Christian Brethren's Journal and
Investigator' which, according to one report, gave accounts of the "little
companies of earnest men who began to meet in the early part of the nineteenth
century in various parts of the country, unknown to each other, and under no
human leadership … "the inception of this movement arising from a new
illumination of the Personality of Jesus Christ, and of the essential unity of
all who believe in Him, under whatever names they were differentiated".
His printed ministry consists of:
Eight Lectures on Prophecy (Trotter and
Smith)
Plain Papers on Prophetic Subjects
Five Letters on Worship and
Ministry in the Spirit.
He also wrote The Origin of so-called
Open-Brethrenism, The Whole Case of Plymouth and Bethesda. This valuable
booklet is published by Kingston Bible Trust.
The Lord took His
servant in 1865, at the early age of 47.