VOLUME 1 — BOOK I — CHAPTER I
FOUNDERS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH

Wesley among the Irish — The "Palatines" — Their Historical Importance — Their Origin — Their Character — Their Emigration to America — Philip Embury — He founds Methodism in the United States — Captain Webb — Sketch of his Life and Character — His Style of Preaching — Barbara Heck — The First American Methodist Chapel — Embury retires from New York — His Death — Barbara Heck — Curious Controversy: Note

John Wesley appreciated the Irish character in both its virtues and its defects. Ireland was a favorite resort to him; he crossed the channel forty-two times, as we have seen, spending at least six years of his laborious life on the island. Though he was sometimes mobbed, and even hung in effigy, these hostilities were but local, and could not affect his estimate of the people generally. They are, "an immeasurably loving people," he writes. During a sermon in the open air they would not cover their heads in a hail-storm, though he advised them to do so. "Indeed, so civil a people as the Irish in general I never saw," he says, "either in Europe or America." As "perfect courtesy" could be found in their cabins as in the courts of London or Paris. His Irish congregations were generally "in tears," but "the water spread too wide to be deep." He found it necessary to preach to them with a more alarming tone than he used in any other part of the United Kingdom, in order to make any lasting impression upon their versatile minds. Yet Ireland was to yield him many of the most eminent of his coadjutors: Adam Clarke, Henry Moore, Thomas Walsh, Gideon Ouseley, and scores more. Irishmen were to found Methodism, or aid in founding it, in the North American British Provinces, in the United States, in the West Indies, in Australia, in Africa, in India. "They sleep in missionary graves, awaiting the trumpet of the resurrection, in nearly all parts of the globe to which Methodism has borne the cross."

In the year 1758 Wesley visited the county of Limerick. His Journal reports there a singular community, settled in Court Mattress, and in Killiheen, Balligarrane, and Pallas, villages within four miles of Court Mattress. They were not native Celts, but a Teutonic population. Having been nearly half a century without pastors who could speak their language, they had become thoroughly demoralized: noted for drunkenness, profanity, and "utter neglect of religion." But the Methodist itinerants had penetrated to their hamlets, and they were now a reformed, a devout people. They had erected a large chapel in the center of Court Mattress. "So did God at last provide," writes Wesley, "for these poor strangers who, for fifty years, had none who cared for their souls." At later visits he declares that three such towns as Court Mattress, Killiheen, and Balligarrane were hardly to be found anywhere else in Ireland or England. There was no cursing or swearing, no Sabbath breaking, no drunkenness, no ale-house in any of them." "They had become a serious, thinking people, and their diligence had turned all their land into a garden. How will these poor foreigners rise up in the day of judgment against those that are round about them." [1]

But the most interesting fact respecting this obscure colony was not yet apprehended by Wesley, or he would have wondered still more at their providential history. The Methodism of the New World was already germinating among them; in about two years the prolific seed was to be transplanted to the distant continent, and at the time of Wesley's death (about thirty years later) its vigorous boughs were to extend over the land from Canada to Georgia, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, sheltering more than sixty-three thousand Church members, [2] and two hundred and fifty itinerant preachers. In about thirty years after Wesley's death (1820) American Methodism was to advance to the front of the great "movement," with a majority of more than seventeen thousand over the parent Church, including all its foreign dependencies, and thenceforward the chief numerical triumphs of the denomination were to be in the western hemisphere.

But how came this singular people, speaking a foreign tongue, into the west of Ireland?

The troops of Louis XIV., under Turenne, devastated, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, the Palatinate, on the Rhine. Its population was almost entirely Protestant; the strongest reason for the relentless violence of the bigoted monarch and his army. The whole country was laid waste; the Elector Palatine could see from the towers of Manheim, his capital, no less than two cities and twenty-five villages on fire at once. The peaceable peasants fled before the invaders by thousands to the lines of the English general, Marlborough. Queen Anne sent ships to convey them from Rotterdam to England. More than six thousand arrived in London, reduced to dependent poverty. The sympathy of Protestant England relieved their sufferings, and commissioners were appointed by the government to provide for them. They were encamped and fed on Blackheath and Camberwell Commons. Popish rule and persecution followed the invasion of the Palatinate, and thousands more of its virtuous and thrifty peasants deserted it for refuge in England and other countries. Nearly three thousand were sent by the British government to America in 1710, and became valuable additions to the colonies of New York, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. Of those who remained in England about fifty families emigrated to Ireland, [3] where they settled, near Rathkeale, in the county of Limerick. They were allowed eight acres for each person, young and old, for which they were to pay a small annual rent to the proprietor, Lord Southwell. The government paid their rents for twenty years, made them freeholders, and furnished each man with a musket, enrolling him in the free yeomanry of the county as "German Fusileers." A list of those who "settled contiguous to each other on Lord Southwell's estates" has been published; on it are the names of Embury, Heck, Ruckle, Switzer, Guier, and others associated with the original Methodists of New York. An Irish historian represents them as industrious, "better fed and clothed than the generality of Irish peasants ... Their houses are remarkably clean, to which they have a stable, cowhouses, a lodge for their plow, and neat kitchen gardens. The women are very industrious. In short, the Palatines have benefited the country by increasing tillage, and are a laborious, independent people, who are mostly employed on their own small farms." [4]

Such was the origin of the "Irish Palatines," and thus did the short-sighted policy of Louis XIV scatter these sterling Protestants of the Rhine to bless other lands, as his bigoted folly, in the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, sent half a million of his own best subjects to enrich, by their skill and virtues, Switzerland, Germany, England, and the North American colonies. His attempt to suppress Protestantism in the Palatinate led, through the emigration of these Irish settlers, to one of the most energetic developments of Protestantism recorded in the modern history of religion.

"On a spring morning in 1760" (says an Irish authority apparently familiar with the local facts) "a group of emigrants might have been seen at the custom-house quay, Limerick, preparing to embark for America. At that time emigration was not so common an occurrence as it is now, and the excitement connected with their departure was intense. They were Palatines from Balligarrane, and were accompanied to the vessel's side by crowds of their companions and friends, some of whom had come sixteen miles to say 'farewell' for the last time. One of those about to leave — a young man, with a thoughtful look and resolute bearing — is evidently the leader of the party, and more than an ordinary pang is felt by many as they bid him farewell. He had been one of the first-fruits of his countrymen to Christ, had been the leader of the infant Church, and in their humble chapel had often ministered to them the word of life. He is surrounded by his spiritual children and friends, who are anxious to have some parting words of counsel and instruction. He enters the vessel, and from its side once more breaks among them the bread of life. And now the last prayer is offered; they embrace each other; the vessel begins to move. As she recedes uplifted hands and uplifted hearts attest what all felt. But none of all that vast multitude felt more, probably, than that young man. His name is Philip Embury. His party consisted of his wife, Mary Switzer, to whom he had been married on the 27th of November, 1758, in Rathkeale Church; two of his brothers and their families; Peter Switzer, probably a brother of his wife; Paul Heck and Barbara his wife; Valer Tettler; Philip Morgan and a family of the Dulmages. The vessel arrived safely in New York on the 10th of August, 1760. Who that pictures before his mind that first band of Christian emigrants leaving the Irish shore but must be struck with the simple beauty of the scene? Yet who among the crowd that saw them leave could have thought that two of the little band were destined, in the mysterious providence of God, to influence for good countless myriads, and that their names should live long as the sun and moon endure? Yet so it was. That vessel contained Philip Embury, the first Class Leader and local preacher of Methodism on the American continent, and Barbara Heck, 'a mother in Israel,' one of its first members, the germ from which, in the good providence of God, has sprung the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States; a Church which has now, more or less under its influence, about seven millions of the germinant mind of that new and teeming hemisphere! 'There shall be a handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.' " [5]

Philip Embury was born in 1728 or in 1730. [6] His family seem not to have been among the original German settlers in Ireland, but to have arrived there some years later. [7] He bore among his neighbors the character of an industrious, sober, honest, and obliging young man. Gier, an aged Palatine, was schoolmaster to the little community of Balligarrane, and taught Embury the elements of knowledge in German. He afterward studied in an English school of the neighborhood. He was apprenticed to a carpenter, and became skillful in his craft. Without remarkable talents, he was esteemed not only an upright, but an intelligent youth. There remain fragmentary manuscripts from his pen which show that he was an elegant writer. His orthography is faultless; the punctuation, and certain abbreviations customary at that day, are given with perfect accuracy. One of these records, in a bold if not beautiful chirography, is of vital significance in his history. It reads thus: "On Christmas day, being Monday, the 25th of December, in the year 1752, the Lord shone into my soul by a glimpse of his redeeming love, being an earnest of my redemption in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." [8]

It was in this year, of his conversion, that he first saw Wesley, who was then traveling in the west of Ireland. With Gier he ministered faithfully to his neighbors, as a local preacher, in the intervals of the visits of the itinerant preachers on their circuit. There was apparently a tone of deep pathos in his quiet and somewhat melancholy nature. He was diffident; he shrank from responsibilities, and wept much while preaching.

It can hardly be doubted that on arriving in New York Embury, a Class Leader and also a licensed Local Preacher in Ireland, attempted some religious care of the few Methodists who had accompanied him; but they fell away from their steadfastness in the temptations of their new condition, and he, yielding to discouragement, appears not to have used his office as a Preacher till the autumn of 1766. One of our best authorities in Methodistic antiquarian researches says: "The families who accompanied him were not all Wesleyans — only a few of them; the remainder were members of the Protestant Church in Ireland, but made no profession of an experimental knowledge of God, in the pardon of sin and adoption. After their arrival in New York, with the exception of Embury and three or four others, they all finally lost their sense of the fear of God, and became open worldlings. Some subsequently fell into greater depths of sin than others. Late in the year 1765 another vessel arrived in New York, bringing over Paul Ruckle, Luke Rose, Jacob Heck, Peter Barkman, and Henry Williams, with their families. These were Palatines, some of them relatives of Embury, and others his former friends and neighbors. A few of them only were Wesleyans. Mrs. Barbara Heck, who had been residing in New York since 1760, visited them frequently. One of the company, Paul Ruckle, was her eldest brother. It was when visiting them on one of these occasions that she found some of the party engaged in a game of cards; there is no proof; either direct or indirect, that any of them were Wesleyans, and connected with Embury. Her spirit was roused, and, doubtless emboldened by her long and intimate acquaintance with them in Ireland, she seized the cards, threw them into the fire, and then most solemnly warned them of their danger and duty. Leaving them, she went immediately to the dwelling of Embury, who was her cousin. It was located upon Barrack Street, now Park Place. After narrating what she had seen and done, under the influence of the Divine Spirit and with power she appealed to him to be no longer silent, but to preach the word forthwith. She parried his excuses, and urged him to commence at once in his own house, and to his own people. He consented, and she went out and collected four persons, who, with herself; constituted his audience. After singing and prayer he preached to them, and enrolled them in a class. He continued thereafter to meet them weekly. Embury was not among the card-players, nor in the same house with them." [9]

The little company soon grew too large for Embury's house; they hired a more commodious room in the neighborhood, where he continued to conduct their worship; its expenses being met by voluntary contributions. In a few months there were two "classes," one of men, the other of women, including six or seven members each. No little excitement began soon to prevail in the city on account of these meetings, and they were thronged with spectators. Three musicians of a regiment in the neighboring barracks, attracted, probably, by the peculiar charm of Methodist singing, were converted, and became active co-workers with Embury as Exhorters. [10] The lower classes of the people received the word gladly; the interest reached the Alms-house; Embury was invited to preach there, and the superintendent of the institution, and several of its inmates, were soon recorded among his converts. Thus American Methodism, like British Methodism, and primitive Christianity, of which it was a reproduction, began among the poor, and thus was foreshadowed its honorable mission throughout the continent and throughout the world. With Christ it could say, as the supreme proof of its genuineness as a dispensation of the truth, that "the poor have the Gospel preached unto them." Half a century ago a historian of Methodism, himself one of the noblest heroes of its history, remarked, "There are a few persons still living in New York who formerly met in the Rigging-loft, and are pleased at the recollection of what the Lord did for them in their little society, when they were weak and ignorant in the things of religion, but were united in Christian fellowship, and were willing to be despised for the sake of their Lord and Master." [11]

About February, 1767, [12] the little assembly at Embury's house were surprised, if not alarmed, by the appearance among them of a stranger in military costume, girt with his sword. He was an officer of the royal army. "All eyes were upon him; had he come to persecute them, to interrupt their religious services, or prohibit them from worshipping? [13] He soon relieved their apprehensions by his devout participation in their devotions. When they sung he rose with them, when they prayed he knelt. At the conclusion of the service he introduced himself to the preacher and his leading brethren as Captain Thomas Webb, of the king's service, but also "a soldier of the cross, and a spiritual son of John Wesley. They were overjoyed, and hailed him as a 'brother beloved.' " He had been authorized by Wesley to preach; they offered him their humble desk, and thenceforward Captain Thomas Webb was to be one of the chief founders of American Methodism.

A very interesting character is this "good soldier of the Lord Jesus." "The brave are generous," says the old maxim. Thomas Webb's benignant face showed that he had both qualities. It presented the lineaments of a singularly tender, a fatherly heart, and there was no little "fire" and pathos in his elocution. He wore a shade over one of his eyes, a badge of his courage; for he had been at the siege of Louisburg, and had scaled with Wolfe the Heights of Abraham, and fought in the battle of Quebec, the most important military event, before the Revolution, in the history of the continent; for by it the Papal domination of France was overthrown in the North, and the country, from Hudson's Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, placed under Protestant control, and opened for its great career in Christian civilization.

Captain Webb lost his right eye at Louisburg [l4] and was wounded in his right arm at Quebec. About eight years after the battle of the Plains of Abraham he heard John Wesley preach in Bristol; he now became a decidedly religious man, and, in 1765, joined a Methodist society. Entering a Methodist congregation at Bath, which was disappointed by its circuit preacher, he advanced to the altar, in his regimentals, and addressed them with great effect, chiefly narrating his own Christian experience. Wesley, ever vigilant for "helpers," licensed him to preach, and through the remainder of his life he was indefatigable in Christian labors both in the New World and in the Old; preaching, giving his money, founding societies, and attending Conferences. Asbury characterized him as "an Israelite indeed." Wesley, delighted in the disciplinary regularity, the obedience and courage of military men, not a few of whom entered his itinerant ranks, evidently loved the good captain. "He is a man of fire," wrote the great founder, "and the power of God constantly accompanies his word." He heard Webb in the Old Foundry, London, and writes, "I admire the wisdom of God in still raising up various Preachers, according to the various tastes of men. The captain is all life and fire; therefore, although he is not deep or regular, yet many, who would not hear a better preacher, flock to hear him, and many are convinced under his preaching." He records, again, that he had "kindled a flame" in Bath, "and it has not yet gone out." "I found his preaching in the street in Winchester had been blessed greatly. Many were more or less convinced of sin, and several had found peace with God. I never saw the house before so crowded with serious and attentive hearers." The brave captain's word "in the street in Winchester" was to sound further than Wesley supposed when he made this entry in his journal. There were soldiers in the town, and Webb always drew such to his congregations; some of them were converted, and their regiment was afterward sent to the Norman Isles in the Channel. They wrote back for a Methodist Preacher; if one were sent who could speak both French and English they predicted that "the Gospel would shine over the islands." The sainted Robert Carr Brackenbury, "gentleman" and "Local Preacher," Alexander Killham, (founder of the "New Connection Methodists,") and, later, Adam Clarke, were sent, and Methodism was founded in the beautiful Channel Islands, where it has ever since flourished, and whence it sent forth at last the evangelists who have founded it in France.

For eleven or twelve years we catch glimpses of the military evangelist in the Journals of Wesley. The last of them is in 1785, when, being at Salisbury, where the captain had recently preached, he "endeavored to avail himself of the fire which" that veteran "seldom fails to kindle." Fletcher of Madeley appreciated him, and tried hard with him to induce Benson, the commentator, to throw himself into the Methodistic movement in America. Fletcher himself; doubtless by the influence of Webb, had strong thoughts of doing so, but his health forbade it. The allusions to Webb in the contemporary publications of Methodism show that he was a man of profound piety. "He experienced much of the power of religion in his own soul," says an itinerant who usually lodged at his home in Bath. "He wrestled day and night with God for that degree of grace which he stood in need of that he might stand firm as the beaten anvil to the stroke, and he was favored with those communications from above which made him bold to declare the whole counsel of God. His evidence of the favor of God was so bright that he never lost a sense of that blessed truth, 'the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.' For him to live was Christ, to die was gain." [15]

There must have been an eminent power of natural eloquence in the preaching of this zealous man. John Adams, the statesman of the American Revolution and President of the Republic, heard him with admiration, and describes him as "the old soldier — one of the most eloquent men I ever heard; he reaches the imagination and touches the passions very well, and expresses himself with great propriety." By another hearer he is spoken of as "a perfect Whitefield in declamation." His discourses were very effective, as has been remarked, with military men. They admired his noble mien and commanding voice. One of them, John Parsons, heard him in the open air at Salisbury, and has left us a brief representation of his manner. "With all that reverence," says the account, "which he had been wont to pay to his superiors, he stood before the preacher, (whose piercing eye he thought scrutinized every individual present,) prepared to listen with deep attention." The service commenced by the singing of a hymn, with which, we are told, the military hearer was highly delighted; an earnest prayer was then offered up in behalf of the assembled multitude; and, another hymn having been sung, the preacher read his text from his pocket Bible, and addressed the people in an extemporaneous discourse of considerable length, during which "the admiration of Parsons was excited to the highest pitch by the earnestness of his manner and his powerful voice, which so wrought upon the military feelings of the soldier that he thought the word of command, by such an excellent officer, could distinctly be heard throughout the line, from right to left." The sermon being ended another hymn was sung, and a short prayer concluded the meeting. John Parsons's favorable opinion was won for the Methodists by this sermon. He afterward himself became a powerful Local Preacher, and, having done much good in various parts of England during forty-five years, he departed to the hosts above, in his seventieth year, shouting as he went, "When I get to glory I will make heaven ring with my voice, and wave my palm over the heads of the saints, crying, 'Victory! victory in the blood of the Lamb!' [16]

A high Methodist authority, who knew the captain well, says, "They saw the warrior in his face, and heard the missionary in his voice. Under his holy eloquence they trembled, they wept, and fell down under his mighty word." [17]

The native talent of Webb was sustained by considerable intelligence. He had seen much of human life, and had some knowledge of books. He read the Scriptures in the Greek language, and his Greek Testament is still a precious relic in America. [18]

One of Wesley's veterans, who was intimate with the captain, and who read the funeral service over his coffin, says, "Great multitudes crowded to hear him, and a vast number in different places owned him for their spiritual father. His ministry was plain, but remarkably powerful; he was truly a Boanerges, and often made the stouthearted tremble." [19]

Such was the stranger in uniform, whose sudden appearance startled the little assembly of Embury's hearers. He had heard of them at Albany, where he had lived a short time before as Barrack-master, and where he had opened his house for religious services, conducted by himself. He had hastened to New York to encourage the struggling society. Following the custom of the times, he always wore his military dress in public. He preached in it, with his sword lying on the table or desk before him. The populace were attracted by the spectacle, and soon crowded the preaching room beyond its capacity. A rigging loft, sixty feet by eighteen, on William Street, was rented in 1767. Here Webb and Embury preached thrice a week to crowded assemblies. "It could not contain half the people who desired to hear the word of the Lord."

Webb saw the necessity of a chapel; but he was anticipated in the design by Barbara Heck, who was really the foundress of American Methodism. This "elect lady" had watched devoutly the whole progress of the infant society thus far. She was a woman of deep piety. From the time that, "falling prostrate" before Embury, and "entreating him with tears to preach to them," [20] she had recalled him to his duty by the solemn admonition, "God will require our blood at your hand," she seems to have anticipated, with the spirit of a prophetess, the great possible results of Methodism in the new world. Seeing the growth of the cause and the importance of a permanent temple, "she had made," she said, "the enterprise a matter of prayer; and looking to the Lord for direction, had received with inexpressible sweetness and power the answer, 'I the Lord will do it.' " In the fervor of her wishes and prayers, an economical plan for the edifice was devised in her mind. She considered it a suggestion from God. It was approved by the society, and the first structure of the denomination in the western hemisphere was a monumental image of the humble thought of this devoted woman. Webb entered heartily into the undertaking. It would probably not have been attempted without his aid. He subscribed thirty pounds toward it, the largest sum by one third given by any one person. He was one of its original trustees, Embury being first on the list — first trustee, first treasurer, first Class Leader, and first Preacher. They leased the site on John Street in 1768, and purchased it in 1770. They appealed successfully to the citizens of New York for assistance, and nearly two hundred and fifty names are still preserved on the subscription paper, including all classes, from the mayor down to African female servants, known only by their Christian names, besides the primitive Methodists, Lupton, Sause, White, Heck, Jarvis, Newton, Sands, Staples, Brinkley, etc. The highest ranks of the New York social life of the times are honored on this humble memorial — the Livingstons, Duanes, Belanceys, Laights, Stuyvesants, Lispenards, and the clergy of the day, Auchmuty, Ogilvie, Inglis, and others.

The chapel was built of stone, faced with blue plaster. It was sixty feet in length, forty-two in breadth. Dissenters were not yet allowed to erect "regular churches" in the city; the new building was therefore provided with "a fireplace and chimney" to avoid "the difficulty of the law." Though long unfinished in its interior, it was "very neat and clean, and the floor was sprinkled over with sand as white as snow." [21] Embury, being a skillful carpenter, "wrought" diligently upon the structure. He constructed with his own hands its pulpit; and on the memorable 30th of October, 1768, mounted the desk he had made, and dedicated the humble temple by a sermon on Hosea x, 12: "Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and reign righteousness upon you." The house was soon thronged. Within two years from its consecration we have reports of at least a thousand hearers crowding it and the area in its front. It was named Wesley Chapel, and was the first in the world that bore that title. Seven months after its dedication a letter to Wesley, concerning Embury and Webb, said, "The Lord carries on a very great work by these two men." The city at this time contained about twenty thousand inhabitants, the colonies but about three millions. Methodism was thenceforward to grow alike with the growth of the city and of the continent.

Webb saw the importance of this its first material fortification in the colonies, and zealously endeavored to render it secure. His personal generosity was infectious. He could not admit the Christian character of an avaricious man. "Is his purse converted?" was his inquiry when hearing a report of the conversion of a capitalist. Besides his liberal donation, he lent the trustees three hundred pounds, and gave them the interest of the loan. He begged for them in Philadelphia at least thirty-two pounds. Like Wesley and his itinerants, he scattered religious books, and gave the profits for the debt of the church. Meanwhile he was practically an itinerant preacher. Being at last on the retired list, with the title and pay of a captain for his honorable services, he had leisure for travel. The kindred of his wife lived at Jamaica, L. I. He went thither, hired a house, and preached in it, and "twenty-four persons received justifying grace." He passed repeatedly through New Jersey, forming societies at Pemberton, Trenton, Burlington, and other places. While preaching in the market-place at Burlington in 1770, a young man in the throng, Joseph Toy, [22] was awakened. Webb soon after formed there a class, and appointed him its leader. He became one of the first teachers in the first college of Methodism and died at last a veteran of the Itinerancy.

Captain Webb was the founder of Methodism in Philadelphia, where he first preached in sail loft and formed a class of seven members in 1767 or 1668. He continued to preach in that city more or less till Wesley's itinerants arrived, and was there to welcome them in person in 1769. He aided in the purchase of the first Methodist church of Philadelphia, St. George's, in 1770, contributing liberally for it. He introduced Methodism into Delaware in 1769, [23] preaching in Newcastle, Wilmington, and in the woods on the shores of the Brandywine. Still later he labored in Baltimore.

Having thus founded the new cause on Long Island, in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, and prominently helped to found it in New York, he appealed to British Methodism for aid, urging Wesley to send out preachers. In 1772 he returned to England, apparently to promote the interest of the Wesleyans for the colonies. We catch frequent glimpses of him in the contemporary records, as going to and fro in the land, preaching in Dublin, in London, and other places. He made a spirited appeal for missionaries at the Conference in Leeds, and led back with him, to America, Shadford and Rankin; Pilmoor and Boardman having been previously sent in response to his urgent letters. Re-embarking with his two missionaries in 1773, he continued his travels and labors with unabated zeal till the breaking out of the Revolution, when he returned finally to Europe. To Embury unquestionably belongs chronological precedence, by a few months, as the founder of American Methodism, but to Webb belongs the honor of a more prominent agency in the great event; of more extensive and more effective services; of the outspread of the denomination into Long Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware; the erection of its first chapels, and the introduction of Wesleyan itinerants. Aside from the mere question of priority, [24] he must be considered the principal founder of the American Methodist Church. We shall still meet him, occasionally, in the course of our narrative, and take leave of him at last in a good old age, when we shall see him fall in death as heroically as he labored through life.

But let us return to Embury and his little flock in New York. He continued to minister faithfully in their chapel twice or thrice a week. "There were at first no stairs or breastwork to the galleries;" they were ascended by a rude ladder. [25] "Even the seats on the lower floor had no backs." The "singing was congregational; some one set the tune, the rest joined in, and they made melody to the Lord." There was no vestry nor class-room; "the classes met in private houses." A parsonage, adjacent to the chapel, was erected in 1770 — a small house, furnished chiefly with articles given or lent by the people. It was to be the occasional home of Boardman and Pilmoor, of Shadford and Rankin, of Asbury and Coke, and their fellow itinerants; who, being mostly unmarried men, found it sufficiently convenient. Embury's ministerial services seem to have been mostly gratuitous. The early records of the society show only an occasional donation to him of clothing, or money for clothing, or for work as a carpenter upon the premises. Before he left the city the trustees presented him two pounds and five shillings for the purchase of a Concordance, as a memento of his pastoral connection with them. Wesley's first missionaries, Pilmoor and Boardman, arrived in the colonies in the autumn of 1769, and not long after the faithful carpenter retired from the city to Camden, a settlement in the town of Salem, Washington county, New York. Thither he was accompanied by Peter Switzer, Abraham Bininger, a Moravian, who had crossed the Atlantic to Georgia with Wesley in 1735, and others of his companions. He there continued to labor as a local preacher, and formed a society, chiefly of his own countrymen, at Ashgrove — the first Methodist class within the bounds of the Troy Conference, which in our day reports more than 25,000 communicants, and more than 200 traveling preachers. He was held in high estimation by his neighbors, and officiated among them not only as a preacher, but as a magistrate. While mowing in his field in 1775, he injured himself so severely as to die suddenly, aged but forty-five years, "greatly beloved and much lamented," says Asbury. He was buried on the neighboring farm of his Palatine friend Peter Switzer. After reposing fifty-seven years in his solitary grave without a memorial, his remains were disinterred with solemn ceremonies, and borne by a large procession to the Ashgrove burial ground, where their resting-place is marked by a monument, recording that he "was the first to set in motion a train of measures which resulted in the founding of John Street Church, the cradle of American Methodism, and the introduction of a system which has beautified the earth with salvation, and increased the joys of heaven." Some of his family emigrated to Upper Canada, and, with the family of Barbara Heck, were among the founders of Methodism in that province.

Thus we end reluctantly the meager narrative of what knowledge remains respecting this humble but honored man, whose name will probably never be forgotten on earth "till the heavens be no more."

Barbara Heck lived and died a model of womanly piety — "a Christian of the highest order; she lived much in prayer, and had strong faith; and therefore God used her for great good." [27] Some of her descendants have been conspicuous in the progress of Methodism. [28]

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ENDNOTES

1 Journals, 1758, '60, '62.

2 The Minutes of 1791 give nearly thirteen thousand more, but are inaccurate. See Bangs Hist. of M. E. Church, I, 337.

3 Wesley estimates them at one hundred and ten families; additions were probably made to their number after the first settlement.

4 Ferrar's "History of Limerick," pp. 413, 414.

5 The Irish Evangelist, 1860. See also sketches by Dr. G. C. M. Roberts in Lednum's "Rise of Methodism," etc., pp. 26, 27.

6 I am inclined to the first date. "Is it true that Philip Embury died in 1775? I think not. A granddaughter of Philip Embury, living in St. Armand, C. E., has in her possession an antiquated blank book, containing, among other things, the grandfather's family record, written by himself. In the same book Samuel Embury wrote as follows: 'My father, Philip Embury, died in August, 1793, aged forty-five years.' The record does not give the date of Embury's birth; but he was baptized 'Ye 28th of 7ber, [September,] 1728.' And as his own children were baptized before they were four weeks old, it is safe to conclude that he was born in August or September, 1728." — Letter of Rev. G. G. Saxe to the Author.

7 "Another tradition may not be as readily credited. It is this: That a brother of Philip Embury, but three years older than himself, was born on the continent. Whether Philip was born there, or after the parents had removed to Ireland, they are not so certain, though some incline to think that he too was of German birth as well as German blood. Still we must remember that if P. Embury's brother, but three years older than himself, was born in Germany, the family must have emigrated to Ireland some twenty years after the main body of the Palatines. The main body, if not all who settled in Ireland, came in the reign of Queen Anne, in the first decade of the century." — Letter of Rev. P. P. Harrower to the Author.

8 Wakeley's "Lost Chapters," chap. 2.

9 Dr. Roberts to the author. See Lednum's Rise of Methodism in America, p. 21, and also a letter to Wesley signed "T. T." (Thomas Taylor) in Atmore's Methodist Memorial, (Appendix, Manchaster, 1802, p. 579.) This letter positively determines the date of Embury's labors in New York. It will be observed that I differ from most of our older historical writers in several dates. I must refer the reader to my marginal authorities for my justification. See also Methodist Magazine, May, 1807, p. 45, London, and Irish Evangelist, Dec. 1, 1860, Dublin.

10 Peter Park's MS. Account of the Rise of Methodism in America, found among the papers of Rev. Ezekiel Cooper; communicated to the author by Rev. Dr. I. T. Cooper.

11 Lee's History of the Methodists, p. 25. Baltimore, 1810.

12 Letter of "T. T." to Wesley, Atmore, App., 580.

13 Wakeley, chap. 4.

14 Wes. Mag., 1849, p. 880. — "A ball hit him on the bone which guards the right eye, and taking an oblique direction, burst the eyeball, and passing through the palate into his mouth, he swallowed it. His only recollection was a flash of light, which accompanied the destruction of the eye. The wounded were put into a boat, and having crossed the water, all were assisted to land excepting Webb, of whom one of the men said, 'He needs no help; he is dead enough.' His senses had returned, and he was just able to reply, 'No, I am not dead.' Three months passed away before he could again attend to his military duties. May we not ask, Do the annals of surgery record a more wonderful escape? Had the ball struck him a hair's breadth higher or lower it would have taken his life! He had yet a great work to do for his heavenly Master, and for this he was preserved."

15 Wes. Mag., 1855, p. 12.

16 Dredge's Biog. Record, etc., p.197. London, 1838.

17 Rev. J. Sutcliff, Wes. Mag., 1849, p. 550.

18 He presented it to Rev. Wm. Duke, an early Methodist itinerant, who afterward became a Protestant Episcopal clergyman, and died in Elkton, Md., 1840. Mr. Duke gave it to Rev. J. B. Hagany. It is now in the library of Bishop Scott of the M. E. Church.

19 Atmore's Memorial, p.446, App.

20 Am. Meth. Mag., 1823, p. 184, attributed to Rev. Dr. P. P. Sandford. His "particulars are derived from an unquestionable source, even from living witnesses, who well remember the circumstances." — P. 427.

21 See Wakeley for these and abundant similar particulars.

22 Meth. Mag. (Am.) 1826, p. 438.

23 Lednum, p.55.

24 Webb arrived in New York only about four months after Embury began to preach. Compare letter of "T. T." (Thomas Taylor) to Wesley. Atmore, App., p. 580.

25 Wakeley's "Lost Chapters."

26 The date is doubtful, see p.53.

27 Lednum, p. 85. 28 The importance which Methodism has attained in America has led, within a few years, to no little bibliomania for early Methodist documents, and to the minutest research for local traditions and relics. In these researches an extraordinary perplexity has arisen respecting not only the fate of Barbara Heck and her posterity, but the very orthography of her name. It has heretofore been supposed that her name was Hick, that she died in New York, and was buried in Trinity churchyard, and that Paul Hick (one of the early trustees of John Street Church) was her son. On the contrary, it is claimed, with singularly plausible evidence, that "her name was not 'Hick,' but 'Heck,' " with which the Irish authorities agree, as also the original New York signatures of Paul Heck, (see Wakeley's Lost Chapters;) — that she with her husband and all her sons (John, Jacob, and Samuel) removed to Camden, N.Y., (the new home of Embury,) in 1770 or 1771, and thence to Canada as early as l774; that in 1778 they were in Upper Canad a, and resided in Augusta (where they were a part of the Methodist class, under the leadership of Samuel Embury, son of Philip) till their deaths; Mr. H. dying in 1792, Mrs. H. in 1804; and that they lie side by side in the burying-ground of the "Old Blue Church in the front of Augusta;" that "the Paul Hick of New York was a nephew of the original Paul Heck (the husband of Barbara) and cousin of John, Jacob, and Samuel;" that the change of the name was made in his family, etc. (See ample documents on the subject in the Christian Guardian, Canada, May 25, 1859.) The question is biographical rather than historical, and I have therefore chosen not to introduce it into the text of my narrative. I may be allowed to say, however, that I am inclined to the Canadian side of the dispute. The family of Hecks have been numerous in the province, and active in its Methodism. They undoubtedly spring from the original Palatine stock in New York city. The orthography of the name as used by them, as well as their whole explanation of the curious problem, are decidedly vindicated by authorities in Ireland, where these questions have been discussed with no little eagerness in the Irish Evangelist, the organ of Irish Methodism. There has been no better authority in Canadian Methodist history than the late Rev. William Case. He seems never to have doubted the residence of the Heck family, and of the descendants of Embury, in Upper Canada. From a private letter (now in my possession) addressed by him in 1855 to Rev. Dr. Nathan Bangs, (his fellow-laborer in Canada at the beginning of this century,) I extract the following passage, as not only bearing on this question, but as affording some interesting allusions to several names venerable in our early history: "During the winter just passing I have enjoyed the unspeakable pleasure of visiting the scenes of our early labors, yours and mine. I passed through Hallowell, Belleville, Kingston, Elizabethtown, Brockville, Augusta, Matilda, and thence to Bytown, (Ottawa City;) thence to Perth a nd Wolford on the Rideau; then home through a portion of the northern new settlements. In this route I found some, though few, of our former religious friends now living. Arthur Youmans, Rufus Shorey, Mrs. McLean, (formerly Widow Coate,) and William Brown are yet living, at the ages of from eighty to ninety-one. Youmans (of the latter age) was one of the members of the first class formed in Hallowell, January, 1798, by Darius Dunham. A class paper of the same class was written by Elijah Wolsey in 1795. But the parents of the Johnsons, Congers, Van Deusens, Robins, Germans, Huffs, Emburys, Detlors, Clarkes, Parrots, Maddens, Keders, Colemans, Hecks, Coons, Brouses, Aults, Dulmages, Laurences, are all gone; yet they live in their example of piety, integrity, hospitality, and Christian benevolence. These virtues are prominent to a great extent in their numerous descendants. The progeny bears a striking impress of their worthy patriarchal fathers. You will remember the names of Samuel and Jacob Heck of Augusta, a nd the Emburys of Bay of Quinte — the former the sons of Paul Heck and his worthy companion, the parents of Methodism in the city of New York and in America. The parents are gone, and the sons have followed them in the way of holiness to glory; but a numerous train of grandchildren are pursuing the Christian course 'their fathers trod' — intelligent, pious, and wealthy. 'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.' A few years since I visited John Embury and his worthy companion. He was then ninety-eight years old. The scenes of early Methodism in New York were vivid in his recollection, and he referred to them as readily as if they had recently occurred. He said, 'My uncle, Philip Embury, was a great man — a powerful preacher — a very powerful preacher. I had heard many ministers before, but nothing reached my heart till I heard my Uncle Philip preach. I was then about sixteen. The Lord has since been my trust and portion. I am now ninety-eight. Yes, my Uncle Philip was a great preacher.' Aft er this interview he lived about a year, and died suddenly, as he rose from prayer in his family, at the age of ninety-nine. The Emburys, Detlors, Millers, Maddens, Switzers, of Bay of Quinte, are numerous and pious, and some of them ministers of the Gospel, all firmly grounded in Methodism. Their Palatine origin is prominent in their health, integrity, and industry." — See Life and Times of Bangs, p. 386.

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