Philip Embury was born in Ireland, probably in 1729, to German parents Andreas and Margrath Imberger. He emigrated in 1760, settling with his wife Margaret Switzer in Camden Valley, New York. He had converted to Methodism in 1752 and, in 1766, became the first pastor of America’s first Methodist congregation.
He died on his property in Camden Valley, probably in 1773. Sources vary on the years of his birth (1728 or 1729) and death (1773 or 1775).1 Although either death year would mean that he died before the first battles of the American Revolutionary War or at most few months after, multiple sources make it clear that his entire family was loyal to their King.
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You can find multiple versions of his biography online, so they won’t be repeated here. Here are some links worth looking at:
- Wikipedia
- Encyclopedia Britannica
- John Street Methodist Church
- Adolphustown–Fredericksburgh Heritage Website
- Dictionary of Irish Biography
- Christian History Institute
- Find a Grave
Philip has also been profiled on UELCanada.ca (not to be confused with UELAC.ca).
Archival sources available online include his entry in the 1888 edition of Appletons’ Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. 2, p. 341 (Archive.org).
The best modern source for information about Philip Embury and his Loyalist family appears to be To Their Heirs Forever, United Empire Loyalists, Camden Valley, New York to Upper Canada, a 1977 book (reprinted in 2000) by Eula C. Lapp (Eula Carscallen).
Philip Embury’s entry in the UELAC’s Loyalist Directory is ID 2598).
Footnotes
- The birth and death years that this entry says are “probably” correct (1729–1773) are those that appear in Lapp, Eula C., To their heirs forever, 1977. ↩︎