ASBURY, FRANCIS (1745-1816). The first bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church ordained in the United States. lie was born at Hamstead Bridge, 4 miles northwest of Birmingham, Fog., August 20 or 21, 1745. He (Attained rodhnentary education in a village school; at IS became a local preacher: at 21 was received by Wesley into the itinerant ministry; and on October 27, 1771, landed in Philadelphia as a missionary in America. It was but three years after the building of the first .Methodist church in the country, and there were only about 600 persons of the faith, chiefly in Phila delphia and New York. When the Revolution Asbury sympathized with the people, and while Mr. Rankin. who was the ecclesiastical superior. returned to England, Asbury remained; though, like many other conjurors, he was sub jected to suspicion, and at one time to imprison ment. After about two years of surveillance, the authorities concluded that the scruples of Asbury were not political, but religious, and he was permitted to go free. He improved his op portunity, and when the war closed there were S3 Methodist ministers at work, and the member ship reached 14,000. In 1784 the several societies were organized into an Episcopal Church, and Asbury and Thomas Coke were elected, by the conference in Baltimore, Md., 1784, joint superin tendents. The title bishop was substituted later, which called out a rebuke front Wesley, who, however, approved of Asbm•y's superintendence.
Thenceforward his life was devoted to preaching and the supervision and extension of churches. Ilis labors were incessant, and his biography is itself a good history of the growth of Methodism in America. Ile never married, lest a wife should distract attention from his great work. He was always poor and always generous. In 1785 he laid the foundation for the first Methodist col lege, and afterwards formed an educational plan for the whole country, by making districts with at least one classical academy in each. He was rather stout, of medium height, with a fresh countenance and a penetrating eye. Wesley alone was his superior as C. practical worker and organizer, and the two were alike in zeal and spirit. • During his ministry it is estimated that Asbury traveled more than 270,000 miles, visit ing every part of the country; preached more than 16,000 sermons; ordained over 4000 minis ters, and presided at 224 conferences. It is la•gely due to the labors of this indefatigable apostle that Methodism in America owes its excellent organization and wonderful growth. He died at Spottsylvania, Va., March 31, 1816. His only written works were his journals (New York. 1852), which are personally and his toric-ally of great valise. For his biography, eon sult W. P. Strickland (New York, 1S5S), and Smith (Nashville, 1806).