Sarah Crosby

Sarah Crosby (1729-1804) was the first female Methodist preacher. She was born in Leeds and converted to Methodism by John Wesley in 1750. He gave her permission to lead prayers and exhort the congregation though asked her not to preach from a text as women preachers were controversial. She subsequently became a class leader in his first chapel in London, The Foundery.^[1]

References

1. Phyllis Mack (2008), Heart Religion in the British Enlightenment: Gender and Emotion in Early Methodism, Cambridge University Press, p. 303, ISBN 9780521889186