Editing Francis Asbury (section)

==Biography==

===Childhood and adolescence===
[[File:Bishop Asbury Cottage, Newton Road, Grove Vale, West Bromwich.jpg|thumb|right|160px|[[Bishop Asbury Cottage]], Asbury's boyhood home at [[Great Barr]]]]
Francis Asbury was born at [[Hamstead, West Midlands|Hamstead Bridge]], [[Staffordshire]], England on August 20 or 21, 1745, to Elizabeth and Joseph Asbury. The family moved to a cottage at [[Great Barr]] the next year.<ref name="Hilcox">{{cite journal|last=Hilcox|first=Chris|date=2012-12-21|title=Pictures from the Past|journal=Great Barr Observer|page=10}}</ref>  His boyhood home still stands and is open as [[Bishop Asbury Cottage]]  museum.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=http://www.sandwell.gov.uk/info/200265/museums_and_art_gallery/15/bishop_asbury_cottage|title=Bishop Asbury Cottage &#124; Sandwell Council|website=www.sandwell.gov.uk}}</ref>

Soon after the family moved to Great Barr, in May 1748, Asbury's older sister, Sarah, died; he was less than three years old. Asbury wrote later that his mother Eliza was "very much a woman of the world"; with his sister's death, she "sank into deep distress....from which she was not relieved for many years," and was living "in a very, dark, dark, dark, day and place".<ref name="hallam"/> A few years later she found a renewed Christian faith as itinerant preachers, either Baptist or Methodists, visited Barr on a revival circuit. From then on she began to read the Bible every day and encouraged her son to do so as well.<ref name="hallam">[http://www.brewinbooks.com/taking_on_the_men Hallam, David J.A., ''Eliza Asbury: her cottage and her son''], Studley, 2003, pp. 8-9 </ref> 

Eliza's deep faith may not have been shared by her husband, who seemed to have problems, possibly drink or gambling. Francis Asbury described his father as "industrious."  The husband supported his wife in her faith and witness: he allowed Methodist meetings to be held each Sunday in the cottage.<ref> Hallam (2003), ''Eliza Asbury'', p 13</ref>

During Asbury's childhood the West Midlands was undergoing massive changes as the industrial revolution swept through the area. Waves of workers migrated into the area, attracted by jobs in the growing factories and workshops in [[Birmingham]] and the [[Black Country]] of the mines. The Asburys lived in a cottage tied to a [[public house]], on a main route between the mines and the factories. They would have been aware of the drinking, gambling, poverty and poor behaviour prevalent in the area.<ref> Hallam (2003),''Eliza Asbury'', pp 16-20</ref>

Francis Asbury attended a local endowed school in Snail's Green, a nearby hamlet. He did not get on well with his fellow pupils who ridiculed him because of his mother's religious beliefs. During the 1740s there had been widespread anti-Methodist rioting in [[Wednesbury]] and the surrounding area, and into the 1750s a great deal of persecution. Nor did he like his teacher and left school at the first opportunity.<ref>Hallam (2003),''Eliza Asbury'', pp. 9 and 21</ref> 

Asbury took a keen interest in religion, having "felt something of God as early as the age of seven".<ref> Hallam (2003), p 40</ref> He lived not far from All Saints' Church, West Bromwich,<ref name="vch">{{cite web |title=A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 17, Offlow Hundred (Part). |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/staffs/vol17/pp1-4 |website=British History Online |publisher=Victoria County History, 1976 |access-date=18 March 2025}}</ref> which under the patronage of the Methodist [[William_Legge,_2nd_Earl_of_Dartmouth|Earl of Dartmouth]], provided a living for Evangelical minister Edward Stillinghurst. Well connected, Stillinghurst invited as visiting preachers some of the foremost preachers and theologians of the day. These included John [[John_William_Fletcher|Fletcher]], John Ryland, [[Henry_Venn_(Church_Missionary_Society)|Henry Venn]], [[John Cennick]] and [[Benjamin Ingham]]. His mother encouraged Francis to meet with the Methodists in Wednesbury, eventually joining a "band" with four other young men who would meet and pray together. For them a typical Sunday would be a preaching meeting at 5.00 am, communion at the parish church mid morning, and attending a preaching meeting again at 5.00 pm.<ref> Hallam (2003), pp 22-25</ref> 

Asbury had his first formal job at age thirteen; he went "into service" for local gentry, whom he later described as "one of the most unGodly families in the parish". But he soon left them and is believed to have eventually worked for Thomas Foxall, at the Old Forge Farm,<ref>[http://www.sandwell.gov.uk/info/200341/sandwell_valley/742/forge_mill_farm Old Forge Farm]</ref> where he made metal goods. He became great friends with Foxall's son, Henry.<ref>[https://www.gbhem.org/about/publications/books/henry-foxall-methodist-industrialist-american Henry]</ref> They developed a friendship, which continued after Henry Foxall's emigration to Colonial America. There he continued working with metal and established the [[Foundry United Methodist Church|Foundry Church]] in Georgetown, now part of Washington, D.C. 

Asbury began to preach locally, and eventually became an itinerant preacher on behalf of the Methodist cause.<ref>Hallam (2003), p42. Asbury's childhood, and especially his mother's attitudes, have been the subject of some controversy. In 1927 Herbert Asbury, a journalist who claimed to be a relative of Frances Asbury, published ''A Methodist Saint: The Life of Bishop Asbury,'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.). Herbert Asbury made a number of claims, quoting 'family legend' about the Asbury family, including one that Francis's mother prayed for him to become Archbishop of Canterbury, that Elizabeth claimed to have been visited by angels, and that Joseph Asbury had previously been married to a Susan Whipple, a farmer's daughter from Wednesbury. Extensive research by local historian [[David Hallam]] could find no evidence to support Herbert Asbury's claims, and dismissed his claiming relation to Francis. He noted that Asbury was a common surname in the West Midlands at the time. See Hallam (2003), pp. 14-15. Hallam dismisses a similar claim made by a "genealogical study" presented by an Asbury family to the Love Lane Methodist Museum in Baltimore. Francis Asbury was the only surviving child of Joseph and Elizabeth; he never married. Birth records during this period in England were of poor quality and claims of any relationship are conjecture.</ref>

Asbury's preaching ministry in England is detailed in the section below: "Asbury's circuits in England".

===Asbury's work in America===
At the age of 22, Asbury's selection by [[John Wesley]] as a traveling lay preacher became official. Typically such positions were held by young, unmarried men, known as exhorters. In 1771 Asbury volunteered to travel to [[Thirteen Colonies|British North America]]. His first sermon in the Colonies took place with the Methodist congregation in [[Woodrow, Staten Island]].<ref>Morris, Ira. K. "Early History of Staten Island", ''Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association,'' Volume 17, page 198</ref> Within the first 17 days of being in the colonies, Asbury preached in both Philadelphia and New York. During the first year, he served as Wesley's assistant and preached in 25 different settlements. When the [[American Revolutionary War]] broke out in 1775, he and [[James Dempster (Methodist)|James Dempster]] were the only British Methodist lay ministers to remain in America.<ref>"The Story of Barratt's Chapel," {{cite web |url=http://barrattschapel.org/story.html |title=Barratt's Chapel and Museum - the Story of Barratt's |access-date=2015-10-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151004072532/http://barrattschapel.org/story.html |archive-date=2015-10-04 }} accessed 11 September 2015</ref>

<blockquote>"During his early years in North America, Asbury devoted his attention mainly to followers living on the eastern shore between the [[Delaware River]] and the [[Chesapeake Bay]]. Bishop Asbury was a good friend of the Melsons and was their guest many times on his rounds. When the American revolution severed the traditional ties between the American Thirteen Colonies and Great Britain, Bishop Asbury, in the interest of his religious tenets and principles and in an attempt to remain aloof from the political and military fervor that swept the country, announced he would, to keep the embryonic Methodist congregations neutral, refrain from endorsing either Great Britain or the newly formed United States of America government and urged all his followers to do the same. This request placed almost all of his followers, especially those living in Maryland, in an untenable position. The State of Maryland had enacted a law requiring all citizens to take an Oath of Allegiance to the newly formed American Congress. In addition to this, it stipulated all non-residents within its boundaries also had to take and sign an Oath of Allegiance. Those refusing were summarily incarcerated for treason. Asbury, after proclaiming his neutrality, fled to Delaware, where taking an oath of allegiance was not a requirement. His adherents in Maryland suffered the rancor of the proponents of the Oath."<ref>[http://www.ryanmelson.com/PDF/MelsonFamilyInAmerica-searchable.pdf "Ryan Melson"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170918063911/http://www.ryanmelson.com/PDF/MelsonFamilyInAmerica-searchable.pdf |date=2017-09-18 }}, Melson Family in America</ref></blockquote>Asbury remained hidden during the war and ventured occasionally back into Maryland. Sometimes this had the effect of compromising his parishioners.

Note: Asbury did not become ordained or a bishop until December 1784.

Asbury taught that “slavery was a crime against the laws of God, man, and nature”.<ref>Preston, Dickson J. Young Frederick Douglass: The Maryland Years. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980</ref> In 1780, Asbury met the [[freedman]] [[Harry Hosier|Henry "Black Harry" Hosier]], a meeting the minister believed "providentially arranged".<ref name="blafir" /> Hosier served as his driver and guide and, though illiterate, memorized long passages of the [[Bible]] as Asbury read them aloud during their travels. Hosier eventually became a famous preacher in his own right, the first [[African American]] to preach directly to a white congregation in the [[United States]].<ref name="blafir">Smith, Jessie C. ''Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events'' (3rd ed.), [https://books.google.com/books?id=steLXpuOONEC&pg=RA13-PA1820 pp. 1820–1821]. "Methodists: 1781". [[Canton, Michigan]]: Visible Ink Press, 2013. Accessed 17 October 2013.</ref>

===A camp meeting===
In the fall of 1800, Asbury attended one of the events of the [[Revival of 1800]] as he travelled from Kentucky into Tennessee. The combined Presbyterian and Methodist communion observance made a deep impression on Asbury; it was as an early experience for him of multi-day meetings, which included attendees camping on the grounds or sleeping in their wagons around the meeting house. He recorded the events in his journal: it showed the relation between religious revivalism and [[camp meeting]]s, later a staple of nineteenth-century frontier Methodism.<ref>{{cite book|last=Asbury|first=Francis|title=The Journal and Letters of Francis Asbury, Vol. 2.|date=Oct 21, 1800}}</ref>

===Ordained and consecrated a bishop===
[[File:The Ordination of Bishop Asbury.jpg|thumb|''The Ordination of Bishop Asbury'', an engraving of an 1882 painting of the scene]]
In 1784, [[John Wesley]] named Asbury and [[Thomas Coke (Bishop)|Thomas Coke]] as co-superintendents of the work in the United States. The [[Christmas Conference]] that year marked the beginning of the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]] of the United States. It was during this Conference that Asbury was ordained by Coke.<ref>[http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/denominationalfounders/francis-asbury.html ''Christianity Today'': Francis Asbury], accessed 8 July 2016</ref> 

For the next 32 years, Asbury led all the Methodists in America. However, his leadership did not go unchallenged. His idea for a ruling council was opposed by such notables as [[William McKendree]], [[Jesse Lee (Methodist)|Jesse Lee]], and [[James O'Kelly]]. Eventually, based on advice by Coke, he established in 1792 a [[General conference (United Methodist Church)|General Conference]], to which delegates could be sent, as a way of building broader support.

===His journeys===
Like Wesley, Asbury preached in myriad of places: courthouses, public houses, tobacco houses, fields, public squares, wherever a crowd assembled to hear him. For the remainder of his life, he rode an average of 6,000 miles each year, preaching virtually every day and conducting meetings and conferences. Under his direction, the church grew from 1,200 to 214,000 members and 700 ordained preachers. Among the men he ordained was [[Richard Allen (reverend)|Richard Allen]] in [[Philadelphia]], the first black Methodist minister in the United States who later founded the [[African Methodist Episcopal Church]], the first independent black denomination in the country. Another African American was [[Daniel Coker]], who emigrated to [[Sierra Leone]] in 1820 and became the first Methodist minister there from the West. Bishop Asbury also ordained Peter Cartwright in the fall of 1806.<ref> Cartwright, Peter. ''Autobiography of Peter Cartwright: The Backwoods Preacher'' Pleasant Hills: Self Publication, 1856. Reprint, Columbia: Pantianos Classics, 2019. 48. </ref>

===Failing health and death===
In 1813, Asbury wrote his will. This was a time when "the greatest membership gain in the history of the church"  was achieved.<ref name="Duren, William Larkin 1928">Duren, William Larkin. 1928. Francis Asbury, Founder of American Methodism and Unofficial Minister of State, New York: The Macmillan Company. Pg. xiii</ref> In 1814 his health started to fail and he became ill. In 1816 he started to regain strength and continued his preaching journey. He "preached his last Sermon in Richmond, Virginia" on March 24, "and died at the home of George Arnold near Fredericksburg" on March 31.<ref>Duren, William Larkin 1928"</ref>

Bishop Asbury died in [[Spotsylvania County, Virginia]]. He was buried at [[Mount Olivet Cemetery (Baltimore)|Mount Olivet Cemetery]], in [[Baltimore]], near the graves of Bishops [[John Emory]] and [[Beverly Waugh]].

===Ability as a preacher===
In an exciting time in American history, Asbury was reported to be an extraordinary preacher. Biographer [[Ezra Squier Tipple]] wrote: "If to speak with authority as the accredited messenger of God; to have credentials which bear the seal of heaven ... if when he lifted the trumpet to his lips the Almighty blew the blast; if to be conscious of an ever-present sense of God, God the Summoner, God the Anointing One, God the Judge, and to project it into speech which would make his hearers tremble, melt them with terror, and cause them to fall as dead men; if to be and do all this would entitle a man to be called a great preacher, then Asbury was a great preacher."