sweetroberts

The following biographical sketch of Bishop Robert R Roberts comes from portions of the book

CIRCUIT-RIDER DAYS IN INDIANA,

published in 1916 and written by William W Sweet.

The General Conference of 1824 divided the Missouri and Ohio Conferences, and placed the States of Illinois and Indiana into a new Conference, which was called the Illinois. The time and place of the session of the Missouri Conference for 1824 had been fixed six months before the General Conference met, and as the time was short, It was decided that for the first year the two Conferences should hold their sessions at the same time and place. Therefore, in October of the year 1824, three bishops, McKendree, Roberts and Soule, were present at this joint session of the Conferences held at Looking Glass Prairie, Missouri. (p.42)

The conference which met in Lawrenceburg in 1839 was a very interesting and important meeting. In the first place there were three bishops present, Bishops Roberts and Soules being visitors and Bishop Morris the president of the conference. (p.74)

The tenth session of the Indiana conference met at Terre Haute, October 6, 1841, and was presided over by Bishop Roberts. This was the last time the venerable Bishop, now the senior Bishop of the Church, was to preside over an Indiana conference. For over twenty years Bishop Roberts had been a resident of Indiana, having moved to Lawrence county, Indiana, from Shenango, Pennsylvania, in 1819. He had been elected to the episcopacy by the General Conference of 1816, the very year of Asbury's death, and was the first married bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Bishop Roberts being the first married bishop, the General Conference which elected him, passed a resolution, making it the duty of the Book Committee at New York, to decide what sum was to go to married Bishops for family expenses. This was done until 1832 when the rule was so changed as to make it the duty of the annual conference in which a Bishop resided, to estimate the "table expense." Thus at each of its sessions since 1832 the Indiana conference had appointed a committee to estimate the "table expense" of Bishop Roberts. From 1816 to 1832 Bishop Roberts had received the sum of $200 living expenses; from 1832 to 1836 he received $250; from 1836 to 1840, $300; and from 1840 to his death in 1843, the annual sum received was $400.

Besides this the Bishop received a quarterage of $200 yearly, which was contributed by all the Conferences. During these years of residence in Indiana, Bishop Roberts had greatly endeared himself to the Methodist of the state, and as old age approached the Indiana Conference became solicitous for his comfort, and at the session of the conference in 1839 resolutions were offered by C. W. Ruter, and Allen Wiley, which were unanimously passed, requesting Bishop Roberts to remove to some more prominent place in the state, where his brethern and friends could more easily have access to him, and thus render him such attention, as the Church felt anxious that he should receive. Bishop Roberts, however, refused to leave his farm in Lawrence county, and form new neighborhood alliances.

Again at the session of the conference at Terre Haute, in 1841, a Resolution was offered and passed requesitioning that our venerable and beloved Superintendent, Bishop Roberts, be, and is hereby requested, at his first convenient opportunity, to sit for his portrait, and that the preachers of this conference be permitted to defray the expense which may accrue in obtaining such portrait."When this resolution was passed Bishop Roberts related the following anecdote of Bishop Asbury.

When the Philadelphia conference offered a similar resolution, in view of getting Bishop Asbury's portrait, he told them, if they ever got his portrait they would have to go to "Paradise" for it. The brethren thought the Bishop, altogether unreasonable, and insisted that it was a duty he owed the Church and posterity, to sit for his portrait. "Well," said Bishop Asbury, with an indifferent air, "all I have to way is if you ever get my portrait, you will have to go to 'Paradise' to get it. He is the best artist I know of in America." Mr. Paradise resided in New York, and of course the portrait was taken.

Bishop Roberts, probably, would have taken no step to have his portrait painted had it not been for a letter addressed to him by Dr. Matthew Simpson and E. R. Ames, urging him to come to Greencastle in July, 1842, to sit for his portrait. Accordingly everything was arranged and the Bishop spent two weeks in Greencastle, and during his stay his portrait was painted, and Dr. Simpson wrote down, from the Bishop's own mouth, a brief outline of his early life, intending to write the life of the Bishop, but these notes were afterwards used by the Bishop's biographer, Dr. Charles Elliott. (Elliott, Life of Roberts, 349-351).
The portrait then painted was a life-sized picture, and for many years hung in the old chapel of Indiana Asbury University, but in the fire which partially consumed that building, in 1878, the picture was cut out of the frame and is now [1916] hanging in the east gallery of Meharry Hall of DePauw University. (pp.83-85)

Bishop Roberts had died March 26, 1843, and it was fitting that the old Indiana conference at its last session should take appropriate notice of his death. Early in the session a committee consisting of C. W. Ruter, Mathew Simpson and Allen Wiley was appointed to draft appropriate resolutions, and later in the session they reported in a series of nine resolutions. Among the resolutions were several resolving that the remains of Bishop Roberts, which had been buried on his farm, should be removed to Greencastle; and that a suitable monument should be erected over the body, to be paid for by the Indiana conference; and that Bishop Soule should be requested to furnish the epitaph for the tomb. These resolutions were afterwards carried out to the letter, and in 1844 the remains of Bishop Roberts were removed to the campus of Indiana Asbury University at Greencastle, and later a suitable monument was erected over the spot, upon which was engraved the inscription furnished by Bishop Soule, where it can be seen to this day. [1916] (pp. 88-89)
The committee on the death of Bishop Roberts reported the following resolutions:
1st, Resolved, That we regard with deep gratitude that providence which granted us the privilege of claiming for the period of twenty-four years Bishop Roberts as a fellow citizen and a patriarchal minister resident among us.

2d, Resolved, That in view of the intellectual and moral worth of Bishop Roberts and his kind regard for us and the whole church, his death be considered as a paternal bereavement to the church in general and to the Indiana Conference in particular, which calls for proper humiliation and resignation.

3d, Resolved, That we shall be greatly wanting to ourselves, and the cause of God, if we do not imbibe his spirit, and imitate his wholesome and Godly examples,.

4. Resolved, That the remains of the venerable Bishop ( the widow consenting) be removed from the present obscure lodgment and be transferred to Greencastle.

5. Resolved, That a suitable monument or tombstone be erected to the memory of the Bishop.

6. Resolved, That the expense incurred in carrying into effect the last two resolution be met by the Indiana Conference, and should the Conference be divided, by the two Conferences jointly, according to their numerical strength.

7. Resolved, That Bishop Soule be requested to furnish a suitable epitaph or inscription for the Bishop's tomb. 8. Resolved, That M. Simpson and the Presiding Elder of the Greencastle District and the district in which Bishop Roberts was buried be a committee to carry into effect the foregoing resolutions.

9. Resolved, That the foregoing resolutions be spread on the journals of this Conference and a copy of them be forwarded to the aged widow of the Bishop, and also a copy be furnished the editor of the Western Christian Advocate for publication, with a request that the other Methodist papers copy.

On the presentation of the parchment of Bishop Roberts, on the traveling trunk of Bishop Asbury, formerly in the possession of Bishop Roberts, it was resolved that the Conference permit Dr. Elliott to use them as he may need in preparation of the Bishop's life, and then that they be deposited in the cabinet of the Asbury University. (pp. 318-319)