# Alexander Kilham
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{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2019}}
thumb|Alexander Kilham ({{circa|1798}})
'''Alexander Kilham''' (20 July 1762{{snd}}20 December 1798[{{cite book |url=http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3163619 |title=An elegy, on the death of Mr. Alexander Kilham |year=1799 |publisher=National Library of Australia|accessdate=11 October 2016}}]) was an English [Methodist](/source/Methodist) minister.
==Early life==
He was born to parents Simon and Elizabeth Kilham at [Epworth, Lincolnshire](/source/Epworth%2C_Lincolnshire), possibly at a former farm, now known as Prospect House, otherwise 79 High Street.[John Dunstan, 'Alexander's Daughter, Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, May 2008 https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/whs/56-5.pdf]
==Ministry==
He was admitted by [John Wesley](/source/John_Wesley) in 1785 into the regular [itinerant](/source/itinerant_preacher) Methodist [ministry](/source/Minister_(Christianity)). He became minister of a [circuit](/source/Methodist_circuit) in [Sheffield](/source/Sheffield); and also the leader and spokesman of the democratic party in [the Connexion](/source/Connexionalism) which claimed for the [laity](/source/laity) the free election of [class](/source/class_meeting)-leaders and [stewards](/source/steward_(Methodism)), and equal representation with ministers at [Conference](/source/Annual_conferences_within_Methodism). They also contended that the ministry should possess no official authority or pastoral prerogative, but should merely carry into effect the decisions of majorities in the different meetings.[{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Kilham, Alexander|volume=15|pages=791-792}}]
Kilham further advocated the complete separation of the Methodists from the [Anglican Church](/source/Anglican_Church). In the controversy that ensued he wrote many pamphlets, often anonymous, and frequently provocative. For this he was arraigned before the Conference of 1796 and expelled, and he and [William Thom](/source/William_Thom_(preacher)) then founded a movement initially called ‘The New Itinerancy’, then the [Methodist New Connexion](/source/Methodist_New_Connexion) (1798, merged since 1907 in the [United Methodist Church](/source/United_Methodist_Church_(Great_Britain))),[{{cite web |title=Old Ilkeston The Methodist New Connexion |url=https://www.oldilkeston.co.uk/the-methodist-new-connexion/ |website=oldilkeston.co.uk |access-date=6 July 2021}}]
Kilham and Thom jointly wrote the ''Out-lines of a constitution; proposed for the examination, amendment and acceptance, of the members of the Methodist New Itinerancy'', which was published in 1797.[Republished by Gale ECCO, Print Editions (29 May 2010), {{ISBN|978-1170504789}}]
He died in 1798, and the success of the church he founded is a tribute to his personality and to the principles for which he strove. Kilham's second wife, [Hannah Kilham](/source/Hannah_Kilham) née Spurr (1774–1832), whom he married only a few months before his death, became a [Quaker](/source/Quaker), and worked as a missionary in [the Gambia](/source/the_Gambia) and [Sierra Leone](/source/Sierra_Leone); she transcribed to writing several [West Africa](/source/West_Africa)n languages.