Wesleyan Heritage Library Search /
Francis Asbury's Journal

1771

22 entries · 1771-08-07 to 1771-12-22

On the 7th of August, 1771,

ASB_VOL1.PDF, p. 28

Notes on this page (3)
  1. The Minutes contain the following: “Q.7: Our brethren in America call aloud for help. Who are willing to go over and help them? A. Five were willing. The two appointed were Francis Asbury and Richard Wright.” Robert Strawbridge in Maryland and Philip Embury in New York had begun preaching several years previously. Robert Williams came to America in 1769, and John King followed in 1770, and in the latter year the British Conference sent Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor. (The sentences in brackets in the early journal are those which were published in the Arminian Magazine but omitted in Hollingsworth’s edition of Asbury’s Journal. See the Introduction.)
  2. Asbury’s boyhood home still stands in Newton Road, West Bromwich, about four miles from Birmingham, and is preserved by the Corporation as a historic site. His birthplace “near the foot of Hampstead Bridge in the Parish of Handsworth” has disappeared. It stood a little north of the Hampstead and Great Barr railway station. His parents were Joseph Asbury (1715?-98) and Elizabeth Rogers Asbury (1715?-1801). Their only other child was Sarah, who was baptized on May 3, 1743, and was buried on May 28, 1748, in the parish church at Handsworth. No support has been found for Herbert Asbury’s statement in A Methodist Saint, 5-7, to the effect that Joseph Asbury had a son by a previous marriage to Susan Whipple and that Daniel Asbury was a descendant of that marriage. (Journal entries for July 24, 1774; July 16, 1792; February 22, 1795; April 5, 1802; Wakeley, “Mother of Bishop Asbury,” The Ladies’ Repository, August, 1867, 449 ff.; various biographies of Asbury.)
  3. Richard Wright had served one year as an itinerant before he came to America. He preached in Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, and Maryland, and returned to England in 1774. He was appointed to West Cornwall for one year and then to East Cornwall for two years, after which his name disappears from the Minutes. He did not succeed in America because, according to Asbury, he “was spoiled by gifts” and “had no taste for spiritual subjects.” (See Journal entry for May 29, 1774; this was also the judgment of Thomas Rankin, as stated in his Journal, now at Garrett Biblical Institute, p. 101. Wakeley: Lost Chapters Recovered from the Early History of American Methodism, 236 ff.; Atkinson: The Beginnings of the Wesleyan Movement in America, 322.)

On Wednesday, September 4,

Wednesday

ASB_VOL1.PDF, p. 29

Notes on this page (1)
  1. From the Port of Pill, John and Sebastian Cabot sailed to the New World in the fifteenth century. (Wood: Elizabethan Sea Dogs, 1 ff.) From there on Good Friday, 1773, Captain Thomas Webb, Mrs. Webb, Thomas Rankin, and George Shadford sailed for America. (Hurst: History of Methodism, II, 954.)

Thursday, 12.

Thursday

ASB_VOL1.PDF, p. 29

On the Lord’s day, September 15,

Sunday

ASB_VOL1.PDF, p. 29

Notes on this page (1)
  1. Walter Sellon was once a Methodist itinerant and a master in Kingswood School. During the controversy over Calvinism, Sellon at Wesley’s request defended the Church of England against the charge of predestination in A Defense of God’s Sovereignty Against the Impious and Horrible Aspersions Cast Upon It by Elisha Coles in His Practical Treatise on That Subject. (See Wesley’s Journal, V, 361.)

On the Lord’s day, September 22,

Sunday

ASB_VOL1.PDF, p. 30

Notes on this page (1)
  1. John Wesley published An Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion in 1743 and A Farther Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion in 1745. These were frequently republished, separately and together; and Asbury probably used one of the collected volumes. M. de Renty was a French ascetic whose biography, The Holy Life of Monr. De Renty, a late Nobleman of France, and some time Councellor to King Lewis the Thirteenth, first published in 1651, was read by Wesley in Georgia (Wesley’s Journal, I, 219, 414, 450). Wesley drastically abridged and published it in 1741, and it was this abridgment which Asbury read. John Norris (1657-1711) was a Platonist whose Treatise Concerning Christian Prudence was abridged and published by Wesley in 1734. Wesley also abridged and published two of Jonathan Edward’s works, A Narrative of the late Work of God, at and near Northampton and Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England, and Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.

September 29,

ASB_VOL1.PDF, p. 30

On the 6th of October,

ASB_VOL1.PDF, p. 30

October 13.

ASB_VOL1.PDF, p. 30

October 27.

Philadelphia

ASB_VOL1.PDF, p. 31

Notes on this page (4)
  1. Philadelphia at this time was the largest American city, having a population of 28,000. It was the Proprietary Capital of the Province until 1776. Carpenter’s Hall, then nearing completion, was to house the Continental Congress three years later.
  2. Francis Harris was a prominent Philadelphia Methodist who frequently accompanied the preachers to their nearby appointments. (See Pilmoor’s Manuscript Journal in the possession of the Philadelphia Conference Methodist Historical Society, Philadelphia.)
  3. This was St. George’s Church, now the oldest Methodist place of worship in America and the first to be called a church. It was here that Asbury preached his first sermon in America on Monday, October 28, 1771. It was purchased from a German Reformed congregation on November 23, 1769. Its congregation was comprised mostly of members of the society organized by Captain Thomas Webb in 1767. Webb preached in a sail loft and later at 8 Loxley Place in a house which is still standing. Whitefield preached in Philadelphia in 1769; and one of his converts, Edward Evans, was preaching in the region before the arrival of Wesley’s missionaries. (Pilmoor’s Journal; Tees: The Beginnings of Methodism in England and America, 92, 93; Tees: The Ancient Landmark of American Methodism, 23-27; Atkinson, op. cit., 145, 146.)
  4. Joseph Pilmoor (1739-1825) was one of the first two preachers sent by Wesley to America, arriving on October 24, 1769. He returned to England in 1774 and resumed his work in the British Conference. In 1784 he returned to America and was ordained by Bishop Samuel Seabury of Connecticut as a clergyman of the Anglican Church and served nearly seventeen years as the rector at St. Paul’s Church in Philadelphia. (Wilson: Life of Rev. William White, 111; Atkinson, op. cit., 447, 448; Seaman: Annals of New York Methodism, 67.)

November 2.

Philadelphia

ASB_VOL1.PDF, p. 31

November 3.

Philadelphia

ASB_VOL1.PDF, p. 31

November 4.

Philadelphia

ASB_VOL1.PDF, p. 31

November 5.

New York

ASB_VOL1.PDF, p. 32

November 6.

New York

ASB_VOL1.PDF, p. 32

Notes on this page (6)
  1. Asbury went by stage to Burlington en route to New York to assist Richard Boardman. (Pilmoor’s Journal.) Captain Webb had formed a Methodist society in Burlington in December, 1770, with Joseph Toy as leader.
  2. Peter van Pelt lived on Staten Island, where his Dutch forebears settled in 1687. He was a prominent citizen, a soldier in the French and Indian War, and one of the leading early Methodists in the region. Pilmoor, Williams, and probably Boardman and Webb, preached on Staten Island; and van Pelt doubtless became a Methodist under the influence of one of these preachers. He is believed to have died in 1781.
  3. Van Pelt’s house was a Dutch dwelling with low sloping roof, wide fireplaces and small windows, located on Woodrow Road about one- half mile from Woodrow Church. This church was built in 1787 and is still in use. Here Asbury preached his first sermon in New York State. (Leng and Davis: Staten Island and Its People, I, 466; Hampton: Asbury on Staten Island, 4.)
  4. Hezekiah Wright was a justice of the Court of Common Pleas of the province of New York, and a prominent citizen who operated a fleet of vessels engaged in coastal trade. His home was on Shore Road. (See Journal entry for May 22, 1802; Hampton, op. cit., 5.)
  5. Asbury took a ferry from the foot of William Street at Stapleton to Whitehall at the lower end of Manhattan Island.
  6. Richard Boardman (1732-82) came to America with Pilmoor in 1769. He was designated by Wesley as “Assistant” with authority to station the preachers. He brought twenty-five pounds in cash and some books which were sold for twenty-two pounds as a contribution from the British Conference to the New York Society. Boardman and Pilmoor returned to England together in 1774. The former resumed his itinerant status and preached in Ireland and London. He died from apoplexy in Cork and was buried in St. Barry’s Churchyard there.

Tuesday, 12.

TuesdayNew York

ASB_VOL1.PDF, p. 32

Notes on this page (2)
  1. In the early Journal there was an error of one day in each date between November 12 and December 2. Corrections have been made herein. Throughout the Journal erroneous dates have been corrected.
  2. This was Asbury’s first sermon in Wesley Chapel, dedicated October 30, 1768. It was the house referred to by Wesley when he asked for volunteers for America in 1769. (Wesley’s Journal, August 3, 1769.) It was the fourth Methodist preaching place in New York. The first was the home of Philip Embury in Augustus Street, where Embury preached the first sermon in New York in 1766. Then a house near the barracks was used, 1766-67. The society moved to the famous Rigging Loft, 120 Williams Street, in 1767, where Captain Thomas Webb joined Embury. On March 30, 1768, lots 44 and 46 on John Street, between Nassau and Williams, were purchased from Mrs. Mary Barclay, widow of a former rector of Trinity Church, the first property owned by Methodist trustees in America. The price, six hundred pounds, was loaned by Captain Webb and William Lupton, who with Thomas Taylor were trustees. Phraseology for the deed was secured from Wesley and was first used in the deed to St. George’s Church in Philadelphia. This meetinghouse was 40 x 60 feet in size, built of stone, faced with plaster, and painted blue. Subscriptions for more than 418 pounds were received from 250 persons, including prominent vestrymen of Trinity Church. A Methodist church has stood on the site since that date. In 1817 a larger building was erected, and in 1841 the present John Street Church was built. It is still active and is one of the official shrines of American Methodism. Its society is the oldest in America, though the present building is not as old as St. George’s in Philadelphia. (Seaman, op. cit., 416-22, 448-53; John Street Church Records, I.)

Wednesday, 13.

WednesdayNew York

ASB_VOL1.PDF, p. 33

Notes on this page (1)
  1. There were Negroes in the New York Society from the beginning. Barbara Heck’s servant, Betty, was present at Embury’s first sermon and a charter member. Others were subscribers to the building fund. Peter, slave of a tobacconist, James Aymar, was converted by Captain Webb in the Rigging Loft and was for many years the sexton of Wesley Chapel. He was purchased by the trustees for forty pounds in 1783 when his owner returned to England and allowed to work out the sum for his emancipation. Peter was one of the founders of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and laid the cornerstone of its first meetinghouse at Leonard and Church streets in 1800. (Wakeley, op. cit., 439; Seaman, op. cit., 485 ff.; Barclay: Early American Methodism, I, 291; John Street Church Records, I.)

Tuesday, 19.

TuesdayNew York

ASB_VOL1.PDF, p. 33

Thursday, 21.

ThursdayNew York

ASB_VOL1.PDF, p. 33

Notes on this page (1)
  1. Asbury refers to his disagreement with Boardman and Pilmoor concerning the principle of itinerancy. Asbury insisted on frequent changes in appointments or a “circulation of preachers” while the other two believed in longer tenures. Pilmoor wrote in his Journal, page 197, “Frequent change… is never likely to promote the spirit of the Gospel nor increase true religion.” This caused a conflict between the men which was reflected in numerous Journal entries and in correspondence with Wesley. The preferences of laymen for certain preachers and the acceptance of gifts became involved. (See Journal entries for October 9, 1772; July 1, 1773; May 29, 1774; and so on.) At the conference on May 25, 1774, after the departure of Pilmoor and Boardman, it was determined that the preachers should interchange each six months and that those in New York and Philadelphia should change quarterly. (See Minutes.) This action was “undeniably one of the chief means of the marvellous growth of Methodism in its first half century.” (Tipple: Prophet of the Long Road, 119, 120.)

Saturday, 23.

SaturdayNew York

ASB_VOL1.PDF, p. 34

Notes on this page (8)
  1. Richard Sause came from Dublin with Charles White in 1766 and established a cutlery business. He was one of the original trustees of Wesley Chapel and a donor to the building fund. His home was open to the preachers, and he frequently escorted them on their travels. Asbury appointed Sause to succeed James Jarvis as the leader of the class in 1774. (See Journal entries November 4, 7, 1774.) He was a Loyalist and returned to England soon after the Revolution, remaining an active Methodist there. The last word of him was in 1795 when Thomas Rankin in London wrote to John Staples in New York about the death of Staples’ son, Thomas, named for Rankin. (John Street Church Records, 30-33, 69, 78, 416, 425-26, 446; Wakeley, op. cit., 84-85; Arminian Magazine, XVIII, 413-15.)
  2. Charles White came from Dublin and was an original trustee of Wesley Chapel, a donor to the building fund, cotreasurer with Richard Sause, and treasurer when Sause returned to England. His house was open to the preachers, and he sometimes traveled with them. He was a Loyalist and went to Nova Scotia after the Revolution. Later he went westward, where Asbury found him “without property and without grace” in May, 1790. (Wakeley, op. cit., 85-86; Journal entries for May 13, 1790, April 29, 1793; Seaman, op. cit., 30-33, 416, 425-26.)
  3. Westchester was a village on the New York mainland, near Throg’s Neck. The section visited by Asbury is now in the borough of the Bronx in New York City. Asbury traveled up Manhattan Island and crossed Harlem River by Kingsbridge about where the present IRT subway and bridge are located. (Scharf: History of Westchester County, I, 746; map of Kingsbridge, 1783.)
  4. The mayor was probably Nathaniel Underhill. (Scharf, op. cit., I, 640.)
  5. The Westchester Courthouse stood near St. Peter’s Church at the crossroads. It was built in 1720 and destroyed by fire in 1790.
  6. Molloy was perhaps related to M. Molloy, a barber who was active in Wesley Chapel and a close friend of Sause and White. (Pilmoor’s Journal; John Street Church Records, I, 14.) The home became the center of West Farm’s society. (See Journal entry for January 3, 1772.)
  7. West Farms, originally known as DeLancey’s Mills, was a sprawling farming district along the Bronx River three miles or so west of the Westchester Courthouse. The area is still called West Farms and includes the southern part of Bronx Park and the thickly populated streets radiating from West Farms Road as it approaches Tremont Avenue.
  8. Asbury preached in Wesley Chapel on John Street in New York. Boardman may have been ill or on Staten Island. Pilmoor on this same date felt “great anxiety on account of hearing nothing from Mr. Boardman.” (Pilmoor’s Journal, December 2, 1771.)

Saturday, December 7.

SaturdayNew York

ASB_VOL1.PDF, p. 34

Notes on this page (4)
  1. Ebeneezer White (1744-1825) was the son of the Rev. Ebeneezer White and attended Asbury in a later illness without charge. (See Journal entries for January 19-February 5, 1772.) He and his wife were deeply religious but do not appear to have been Methodists. (Scharf, op. cit., I, 574.)
  2. Two weeks previously the use of the courthouse had been granted without question. On the present occasion no appeal seems to have been made to the mayor, perhaps because Sause and White were not now with Asbury. (See Journal entry and notes for November 24, 1771.) There were three inns in Westchester at the time.
  3. Lednum: Rise of Methodism in America, 76.
  4. The village of Eastchester was a mile or more inland from Eastchester Bay at the lower part of Mount Vernon. Asbury perhaps preached in the home of Theodosius Bartow, where Pilmoor also preached and where Asbury was to be cared for when ill six weeks later. (See Journal entry for January 23-February 5, 1772; Scharf, op. cit., I, 727, and maps.)

Tuesday, December 10.

TuesdayNew York

ASB_VOL1.PDF, p. 35

Notes on this page (6)
  1. New Rochelle was settled in 1687 by Huguenot refugees from La Rochelle, France. Here the Rev. Theodotius Bartow, son of the man who befriended the first Methodist itinerants, was Anglican rector. As the town grew, a considerable area was absorbed from the holdings of John Pell, who gave his name to nearby Pelham Manor. (Scharf, op. cit., I.) Scharf distinguishes between the spelling of the name of father and son.
  2. “Frederick Deveau (variant spellings) was of French Protestant descent, who opened his home to Pilmoor and Robert Williams as well as to Asbury for preaching. (See Lednum, op. cit., 70; Pilmoor’s Journal.) Asbury later preached at the funeral of his daughter, Sarah Hutchinson, wife of the Rev. Sylvester Hutchinson, in the Bowery Church in New York. (Journal entry for May 30, 1802.) Another daughter, Hester, married the Rev. John Wilson, who became prominent in the Book Concern. Deveau was a Tory, and after the Revolution much of his estate was seized under the Confiscation Act of New York, and it is believed that he went to Nova Scotia. His three-hundred-acre farm called “Beechmont” gave its name to a part of present New Rochelle. This farm after its confiscation was presented to Thomas Paine, who lived there until hostile public opinion forced him to return to New York City. He was buried on the Deveau property, but his remains were later disinterred. (Scharf, op. cit., I, 689, 690; Dictionary of American Biography, XIV, 163.) This man is identified as Mr. Drake in the extract of the Journal printed in the Arminian Magazine; however, nothing more is known about Drake, and it is presumed that the man in question was actually Frederick Deveau.
  3. Rye was established in the early 1660’s and named for an English town. In 1676 a stone fort was built there. This was converted into a tavern by a Mr. Van Sicklin in 1728. Later it was acquired by John Doughty and operated under the name of “Sign of the Sun.” When Asbury visited the place, it was operated by John Doughty, Jr., who was justice of the peace, and Asbury was doubtless entertained and preached there. (Scharf, op. cit., II, 643 ff.) In 1868 the fort-tavern was purchased by the Methodist Episcopal Church and a parsonage erected on the property, which adjoined the church built years before. In 1950 the old well of the tavern was found between the church and the parsonage, and a bronze plaque was erected. (See article by the Rev. J. Lane Miller, “The Church Well at Rye Fort,” Christian Advocate, October 29, 1953. Also see Baird: History of Rye.)
  4. The Anglican church at New Rochelle was a plain structure, 40 x 30 feet in size, built in 1710 on the Post Road near the center of the community. It had been continuously served by ministers of French descent ordained by the Bishop of London. The Rev. Michael Houdon was minister at this time. After his death in 1776 there was no resident minister during the Revolution. The Rev. Theodotius Bartow took the parish in 1790.
  5. Pilmoor visited New Rochelle in 1771, and the Rev. Ichabod Lewis, Presbyterian minister at White Plains, objected to the Methodists preaching in the home of Frederick Deveau. Pilmoor preached, however, and Mrs. Deveau was converted. (Lednum, op. cit., 70.)
  6. Mamaroneck had been founded on the Post Road halfway between Rye and New Rochelle in 1661 by John Richbell, an Englishman who secured the land from the Indians. Asbury had passed through the village three times but had not previously preached there. William Sutton was supervisor (1771-75), and Gilbert Budd was clerk (1771- 1806). The descendants of the colonial Governor James de Lancy lived there. (Scharf, op. cit., I, 846.)

Lord’s day, December 22,

SundayNew York

ASB_VOL1.PDF, p. 36

Notes on this page (2)
  1. These friends were probably not Sause and White, who were involved with Pilmoor in the tense situation relative to the appointment of preachers at Wesley Chapel. One of them may have been Samuel Selby, who later cared for Asbury in illness and accompanied him to Staten Island in February. Perhaps Asbury absented himself from New York in order to leave Pilmoor free to adjust the situation there.
  2. Lednum, op. cit., 76.
1772 →