Kilham, Alexander [key], 1762–98, English Methodist minister, founder of the Methodist New Connection. He took a leading part in Methodist affairs after the death of John Wesley, advocating separation from the Church of England (see Methodism). He supported the right of preachers to administer the Lord's Supper and sought to have powers of church government distributed between clerical and lay members. For a series of pamphlets that he wrote, he was brought to trial at the conference of 1796 and expelled from the connection. In 1798 he and three other preachers formed the Methodist New Connection, the first group of Methodists to break away.
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