Bishop Francis Asbury

Below is a brief outline of his life and ministry. For a much fuller biography, see David Hallam's web site at www.francisasbury.org 

His beginnings

Francis Asbury was born in a cottage in Hamstead, now demolished, to parents Joseph and Elizabeth Asbury. Within months, they had moved to a new home in a cottage in the hamlet of Newton at nearby Great Barr, which was to be the only home that Francis ever knew. His father was a farm labourer and gardener at Hamstead Hall. Elizabeth, his mother, was a devout Christian, a major influence on the young boy since the death of their young daughter in May 1748. Bishop Asbury's Cottage, as it is now known, dates from the mid 17th century and was earlier part of a short terrace, the other cottages having been demolished some years ago to allow widening of Newton Road. 

School

Young Francis went to school at Snails Green, a small settlement about a mile away. He was a good scholar and able to read the Bible by the age of six but was not fond of his tyrannical schoolmaster. At the age of 13, Francis was apprenticed to a Methodist blacksmith at the Old Forge, now Forge Mill Farm just off Sandwell Park lane. His period of apprenticeship involved mainly manual work, which built up his strength and physical stamina, both of which served him well in his future years as a circuit rider.

His early religion

The Asbury family attended the parish churches at Great Barr and All Saints at West Bromwich, a prominent landmark in the Sandwell Valley. The Vicar at that time was the Rev. Edward Stillingfleet, a man of great Methodist enthusiasm and friend of John Wesley The most powerful landowner in the area, the 2nd Earl of Dartmouth, was also an admirer of Wesley and encouraged Francis. The Dartmouth estate included Sandwell Hall and its home farm, now splendidly restored as Sandal Park Farm.

His conversion to Methodism

The young Asbury, in his early teens, attended a Methodist service at nearby Wednesbury where bitter persecution of John Wesley and his followers had taken place a few years earlier in 1743-44. Francis was most impressed by the service and nature of the singing, prayer and sermon. It was at the age of 18 that he was converted and soon became a local preacher. His first sermon was preached at Manwoods Cottage, just off Sandwell Park Lane but now demolished. The site, however, can still be located. In 1766, he left his work and became a full-time itinerant preacher and worked in the circuits in Gloucestershire, Staffordshire, Bedfordshire and Wiltshire. In the main, he was based at Salisbury in Wiltshire. A display of water colours depicting scenes from Asbury's life can be viewed at Salisbury's Methodist church.

Off to America to Spread the Word

In August 1771, Francis attended his first Methodist conference in John Wesley's Chapel (The New Room) in Bristol, at the age of 26. It was here that he heard John Wesley's appeal for preachers to go out to America to 'Spread the Word'. Asbury volunteered. After returning home to Great Barr to tell his parents of his undertaking, he set off on his long journey. The departure was an emotional one and Francis was never to see his parents again although he wrote to them regularly. On 4th September 1771, Francis Asbury, set sail from the little port of Pill on the River Avon near Bristol, bound for the New World and a new life where he was to become the founding father of a new church. Read of his work and preaching at Asbury as a Preacher

Reminders of the Past

There are still various sites around the borough of Sandwell and the Black Country which all formed part of the Asbury story and the early beginnings of Methodism - Forge Mill Farm (The Old Forge) ; Sandwell Park Farm, the site of Manwood Cottage; The Oak House, All Saints Parish Church, and the Manor House- each at West Bromwich. The Black Country Museum in Dudley houses a typical Methodist chapel of the New Connexion, whilst Bishop Asbury's Cottage at Great Barr is a permanent reminder and shrine to the man who once lived there who was to become the first Bishop of the American Methodist Church. The cottage is not well signposted, but can be found on Newton Road, right across the road from the much more visible Asbury Tavern which carries a painting of Bishop Asbury on their sign.