Methodist connections from Oxford led to a colonial mission in America where he developed a keen interest in the Moravian church from German missionaries.

Following a 1738 visit to Germany for greater exposure to the Moravian faith, Ingham returned to preaching in Yorkshire for the next four years.

When the viewpoints of the Moravian elders clashed with those representing the Church of England, Ingham used this 1753 scandal to distance himself from his Brethren and reestablish his own Inghamite societies.

Still insecure as an independent church, Ingham turned to Sandemanianism during the final years of his life as a viable option forward for his followers.

], King George II of Great Britain enacted a corporate charter authorizing James Oglethorpe to colonize the Province of Georgia.

Tomochichi, a Yamacraw chief, together with John and Mary Musgrove (outpost traders), were instrumental to Oglethorpe as mediators and interpreters in the establishment of peaceful relations between the original European settlers in Georgia and the Lower Creek people.

Count Nicolous Ludwig von Zinzendorf arranged for August Gottlieb Spangenberg to lead a party of 10 Moravians to the province in January 1736, just ahead of Oglethorpe's return.

[6] During his return to Georgia, Oglethorpe's party of 231 persons set sail from Gravesend, Kent in December aboard the brigs Simond and London Merchant.

Delamotte, 26 Moravians led by their bishop, David Nitschman, and a second group of Salzburgers headed by Baron Philip George Friederich von Reck.

The Moravian Brethren, at the inclination of Oglethorpe, built a schoolhouse near Tomochichi's village to teach reading and writing to the Creek children.

Benjamin Ingham acted as liaison between the main settlement in Savannah and this school, where he and the Roses instructed the children.

While sending John Wesley off on his Georgian mission, Hutton was transformed by the experience he had on board Simond with the Moravian Brethren.

It was during this period that another young Moravian missionary, Peter Boehler, en route to America, was invited to one of these meetings at Fetter Lane.

This gathering, or "Vestry Society", rightly considered themselves as part of the Church of England, and at times included members of the Holy Club.

Peter Boehler established the rules he had learned under Zinzendorf, James Hutton presided, and Philip Henry Molther ministered.

[20] Ingham returned to Yorkshire from his 1738 visit to Saxony where he reestablished his ministry in The North, primarily the countryside surrounding Wakefield, Leeds, and Halifax.

Ingham, like his fellow ministers from Oxford, was forbidden to preach inside English churches, a condition that lasted some five years.

Zinzendorf's 1743 visit to Yorkshire strengthened the fraternal bond with Ingham, who reciprocated to attend the Synod held in Vogtland later that year with his wife, Lady Margaret.

Ingham, Hutton, and Bell aided this cause when they attained an audience with the King to demonstrate the loyalty of the United Brethren on 27 April 1744.

That same year, Count Zinzendorf's Church suffered a credit crisis which severely strained what was left of those underlying friendships.

He softened his initial demand for full payment of the land surrounding Grace Hall, to require only an annual rent for some 500 years.

Later that year in Lancashire, Ingham was elected to the position of "General Overseer" of his societies,[36] with James Allen and William Batty chosen as his two principal helpers.

In 1759, Benjamin Ingham read Glas's Testimony of the king of martyrs concerning his kingdom, and Sandeman's Letters on Theron and Aspasio.

[38] Ingham, by way of correspondence with Glas and Sandeman, joined into discussion with them in an attempt to save his Inghamites through unification with congregations that most closely resembled those of the Moravian-Methodists he had established in Yorkshire.

The following year, Ingham sent two of his ministers, James Allen and William Batty, on a discreet mission to Scotland to learn first-hand about Glasite practices.

While their report swayed the conference decision from Methodism to Sandemanianism, they could not agree on the specifics of this transformation as Ingham intended to maintain his position as "General Overseer".