Robert Richford Roberts (1778-1843) was born in Frederick County, Maryland on August 2, 1778. He migrated to Mercer County, Pennsylvania where he lived as a frontiersperson with his wife Elizabeth Oldham of York County, Pennsylvania. Roberts was admitted on trial in the Baltimore Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church and ordained by Bishops Asbury and Coke in 1804 and 1806. After several appointments in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, he was elected a bishop in 1816. In 1819 Roberts moved to Indiana where he became known as "the log cabin" bishop. His episcopal journeys took him from Maine to Mississippi and to the Indian missions west of Arkansas. Roberts died in Indiana on March 26, 1843.
John Wesley Robinson (1866-1947) was born at Moulton, Iowa, January 6, 1866 and married Elizabeth Fisher in 1891. Having begun his career as a printer before he entered the ministry, he was educated at Garrett Biblical Institute. Robinson was ordained in the Des Moines Conference and after two years was transferred to the North India Conference. After a number of varied appointments he was elected in 1912 as a missionary bishop for Southern Asia, and in 1920 he was elected a General Superintendent. From 1912 when the National Missionary Council was organized in India until 1936 when he retired, he participated prominently in inter-church activities.
After retiring Robinson made his home in California briefly, but then returned to India to assume the editorship of The Indian Witness. In 1940 he administered the Lucknow and Hyderabad Conferences. He was again called from retirement this time to superintend the Delhi Conference. He died in India May 30, 1947. His grave is in the Kaladungi Cemetery near Nain Tal.