Seys, John, D.D.

a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in Santa Cruz Island, West Indies, March 30, 1799. In 1821 he joined the Wesleyan Church in the island of St. Eustatius. Notwithstanding much opposition from friends, he continued in this Church, and in 1825 was licensed a local preacher. He was ordained in 1829, and, coming to the United States, joined the Oneida Conference. In 1833 he was a missionary among the Oneida Indians, and in 1834 sailed for Liberia as superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Church Missions in West Africa. He returned in 1841, and in 1842 he was appointed to Wilkesbarre, Pa. The following year he went again to Liberia, from which he returned in 1845, when he resigned his connection with the mission and joined the New York Conference. In 1850 he became travelling agent of the Maryland Colonization Society, locating at Baltimore, where he remained six years. He was then appointed agent for the Colonization Society of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and moved to Springfield, O. The same year he went to Africa and located a settlement, and from this time to 1870 was associated with Africa and the improvement of the colored race. He also acted as United States agent for. recaptured slaves, and as United States consul and minister resident in Liberia. On his return to the United States, he became, by request, a member of the Cincinnati Conference. He died Feb. 9, 1872. See Minutes of Anual Conferences, 1872, p. 107.