Editing Francis Asbury (section)

===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".