The Biographical Dictionary of America/Asbury, Francis

ASBURY, Francis, missionary bishop, was born at Handsworth, Staffordshire, England, Aug. 20, 1745. In his fourteenth year he was apprenticed to a trade, and spent his leisure hours in reading and studying. He determined to be a Methodist preacher, and began by holding prayer-meetings in his own neighborhood, preaching with great effectiveness to large numbers of people in his father's house and in the houses of friends. After some four years of successful preaching in Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire, he was admitted into the Wesleyan conference, and appointed to labor on a circuit, according to the Wesleyan custom. In August, 1771, he attended the conference held at Bristol, and when John Wesley called for volunteers for the work in America, young Asbury was among the first to respond. He landed in Philadelphia toward the end of the same year, and at once began his labors on a continent on which there were but three Methodist meeting-houses, and about three hundred communicants. He saw a disposition on the part of the preachers to confine their labors to the cities, and to him is due the introduction of circuit preaching in America. In October, 1772, John Wesley appointed him "general assistant in America," with power of supervision over the preachers and societies. The next year, however, he was superseded by Thomas Rankin, an older minister, who soon returned to England, intimidated by the spirit of revolution among the colonists. At the first annual conference held at Philadelphia in 1773, the society was found to comprise eleven hundred communicants and ten ordained preachers. At the second conference held in May, 1774, the number of communicants reported was two thousand, while the ranks of the itinerant preachers had been greatly increased. Although Asbury sympathized with the colonists in their resistance to British oppression, he became, nevertheless, an object of suspicion, because of his refusal to take the oath of allegiance to the state of Maryland. He fled to Delaware, and for two years his work was confined within the borders of that small state; but the authorities becoming convinced that his scruples were altogether of a religious nature, he re-entered upon his labors with increased ardor, and at the close of the revolutionary war, the church numbered fourteen thousand communicants, with eighty-three ministers.

In 1784 Francis Asbury was consecrated by Bishop Coke, who came from England for the purpose, the scattered societies were organized as the Methodist Episcopal church of the United States of America, Francis Asbury being the first bishop of that body consecrated in America. The amount of work accomplished by him was marvellous, and his time was spent in travelling, preaching, establishing new societies, ordaining ministers, raising money for church erection and for sending ministers to destitute places, encouraging religious education, distributing tracts, and engaging in every good work. He travelled during his life more than 270,000 miles, mostly on horseback, over rough roads, rougher mountain paths, and often through dense thickets, where the foot of horse or eye of man had never penetrated. He preached over 16,500 sermons, and ordained more than four thousand preachers, besides discharging the various and multitudinous duties of his episcopal office. He left sufficient material for three volumes of "Journals," which are a faithful picture of his daily life. He died March 31, 1816.