James Caughey (9 April 1810 – 30 January 1891) was a Methodist minister and evangelist who was active in the United States, England and Canada.

An imposing and effective preacher, he conducted highly emotional revival meetings at which many of his audience were converted or reaffirmed their faith.

[2] Caughey was converted to Methodism at a revival in Troy in 1830, and in 1832 was accepted as a probationary preacher by the American Methodist Episcopal Church.

[4] Caughey left Montreal in March 1841 and traveled via Saint John, New Brunswick to Halifax, Nova Scotia, from where he sailed to England in late July 1841.

[7] Caughey aroused controversy, since his highly emotional evangelistic style clashed with the middle-class respectability of many members of the English Methodist church.

In that period, 2,000 people were converted, including many non-Methodists, and the membership of Toronto's Wesleyan Methodist churches rose from 714 to 1,537.

[3] Caughey, like other American revivalists such as Charles Grandison Finney and Phoebe Palmer who preached in England in the 1840s, followed a "scientific" approach to converting sinners.

They rented halls, advertised their meetings, preached and prayed for defined ends, encouraged sinners to confess openly at the communion rail, and trained their converts to bring others to the faith.