41 Facts About Francis Asbury

Francis Asbury was one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States.

Francis Asbury founded several schools during his lifetime, although his own formal education was limited.

Francis Asbury's journal is valuable to scholars for its account of frontier society, with references to many towns and villages in Colonial America.

Francis Asbury attended a local endowed school in Snail's Green, a nearby hamlet.

Francis Asbury did not get on well with his fellow pupils who ridiculed him because of his mother's religious beliefs.

Francis Asbury took a keen interest in religion, having "felt something of God as early as the age of seven".

Francis Asbury lived not far from All Saints' Church, Bromwich, which under the patronage of the Methodist Earl of Dartmouth, provided a living for Evangelical minister Edward Stillinghurst.

Francis Asbury's 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.

Francis 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".

Francis Asbury began to preach locally, and eventually became an itinerant preacher on behalf of the Methodist cause.

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

In 1771 Francis Asbury volunteered to travel to British North America.

Bishop Francis Asbury was a good friend of the Melsons and was their guest many times on his rounds.

Francis Asbury, after proclaiming his neutrality, fled to Delaware, where taking an oath of allegiance was not a requirement.

Francis Asbury remained hidden during the war and ventured occasionally back into Maryland.

In 1780, Francis Asbury met the freedman Henry "Black Harry" Hosier, a meeting the minister believed "providentially arranged".

Hosier served as his driver and guide and, though illiterate, memorized long passages of the Bible as Francis Asbury read them aloud during their travels.

The combined Presbyterian and Methodist communion observance made a deep impression on Francis 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.

Francis Asbury recorded the events in his journal: it showed the relation between religious revivalism and camp meetings, later a staple of nineteenth-century frontier Methodism.

Bishop Francis Asbury ordained Peter Cartwright in the fall of 1806.

Francis Asbury was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery, in Baltimore, near the graves of Bishops John Emory and Beverly Waugh.

Francis Asbury had been in America for 23 years, and a bishop for 10 years before he had let a portrait be made of him.

Francis Asbury had had a portrait painted of him for his mother in 1797.

Francis Asbury had times when he tended to have gloomy thoughts and opinions.

Francis Asbury believed himself to be "a true prophet of evil tidings, as it suits my cast of mind".

Francis Asbury loved simplicity and had "frequent spells of morbid depression".

Francis Asbury tended to use cynical sarcasm in his preachings.

Francis Asbury rose at 5 every morning to read the Bible.

Francis Asbury was impatient with those who did not do the tasks assigned to them as soon as the task was assigned.

Francis Asbury was "one of the wisest and most farseeing men of his day".

Francis Asbury became seasick for the first week but had recovered.

Francis Asbury was "poor in material things, but rich in the spiritual atmosphere created and maintained by his mother".

Francis Asbury spent a lot of time studying and reading the Bible and books written by Wesley.

Francis Asbury's journal contains some references to opinions of ministers who disagreed with the Methodist leadership, such as Rev Charles Hopkins of Powhatan County, Virginia who had rejected the Methodist ideals several years before.

Around 1763, Francis Asbury began leading the class of about two dozen faithful at the West Bromwich Wesleyan society.

Francis Asbury was still living with his parents, he was preaching in places that had heard him preach for the last five years.

Francis Asbury pressed Mather to assign Francis Asbury to the low round of the Staffordshire circuit, and found it more grueling than he had anticipated.

In London, it is likely that Francis Asbury met George Whitefield when he attended worship at Whitefield's Tabernacle.

In lieu of attending the 1768 conference in Bristol, Francis Asbury is given instructions to wait in London to await his next assignment.

Francis Asbury will preach along the southern coastline of the River Stour, from Manningtree to Harwich.

In Portsmouth, it is likely that Francis Asbury began his study of Hebrew through the large Jewish settlement that coexisted with the Portsmouth Methodists.