Author: Minter, Jeremiah
Biography:
MINTER, Jeremiah (1766-1829: ancestry.com)
Most of the facts about Minter's life up to 1817 are known from the autobiography he published in Washington DC that year, A Brief Account of the Religious Experiences, Travels, Preaching, Persecutions from Evil Men, and God's Special Helps . . . . His parents, Elizabeth and Anthony Minter, were farmers in Powhatan VA where their youngest son, one of ten children, was born in 1766. He had basic schooling and at the age of 18 was working as a bookkeeper for a merchant in Manchester VA when he was converted to Methodism. He was ordained a deacon in 1789, became an Elder in 1790, and began his career as a circuit preacher. In 1791, however, finding himself sexually attracted to a devout married woman, Sarah Jones, he had himself castrated. He was forced out of the official church organization in 1792 but declared himself an "Independent Methodist" and continued his itinerant ministry. According to a family history in ancestry.com he was declared insane twice, in 1791 and 1804. He based himself in Richmond and financed his evangelical work by publishing and selling his writings, which included hymns, sermons, and polemical pamphlets (in one of which he charges the bishop who had had him excommunicated with practising black magic). He died in Chesterfield VA; no death record has as yet been located. (Minter, A Brief Account; David Rawson, "Minter, Jeremiah," Index of Virginia Printing, virginiaprinting.org 11 Apr. 2020; ancestry.com 27 June 2025) HJ
Other Names:
- J. Minter
- Jerem. Minter