December 10, [1786] — to John Dickinson
ASB_VOL3.PDF, PDF page 68
Little is known of the offer of John Dickinson. The letter is interesting in that one wonders what it was.
COKESBURY, MARYLAND
December 10, [1786]1
[TO JOHN DICKINSON]2
Dear Sir:
I have seriously considered your generous offer in favour of Cokesbury and judge that to grant bargains and sell would be the readiest way. Thomas White,3 Allan McLane,4 and Francis Money5 will purchase from you at any time and give a special bond to myself and another or two members of the Conference, to apply the money arising as they shall be directed.
We have upon the charitable part of the institution two young men grave and pious, one that acts as a teacher, who lost by accident one of his legs, and who promises to make a valuable teacher; the other a backward youth after smoothing his language, may be of publick service, only learning to speak the English. One son of a preacher, whose father is in the vineyard. One so poor orphan, the son of a very pious man and woman that I must rest from their labours,6 We meet with many difficulties at this time. I do expect that we shall enter very largely into the charitable design, we only want to be just and then we wish to be very generous. I hope this will prove the noblest charity that ever presented itself to your view. This letter comes by the hands of one of my presbyters that will deliver it himself. I am with great respect, your sincere friend and servant.
FRANCIS ASBURY
P.S. We have a second orphan son to a local preacher family of New York. P.S. Anything desired as to time and place of preaching near your mansion house in Little Creek or wherever it may be, please to communicate to Thomas Foster (who I suspect will reside in Wilmington for sometime), the bearer of this letter. I am now hasting to Georgia. I am with kind respects to your lady and well wishes of your family. I ask pardon for not taking time of notice of your kind letter.
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Notes (6)
- Date of year, evidently, 1786, as Thomas Foster was presiding elder that year. ↩
- Layman, Wilmington, Delaware. John Dickinson (1732-1808), son of Samuel Dickinson, was born in Maryland and is called “The Penman of the Revolution.” His “brilliant legal mind and eloquence were prime forces in the establishment of the American nation.” He helped to found Dickinson College, which was named for him. He studied law at Middle Temple in London and was a lawyer in London. In pamphlets before the Revolution he appealed to reason to avert a break with England. He voted against the Declaration of Independence and declined to sign the document. However, when the decision to fight was later made, he took up arms with America. He later served as president of Delaware and later as president of Pennsylvania. (Delaware was formerly part of Pennsylvania.) He was a powerful influence in the Continental Congress of 1787. He had been a slave owner but became opposed to slavery and freed his slaves. He was a Quaker and is buried in the Friend’s Meetinghouse yard at Fourth and West streets, Philadelphia. (From Delaware, a Guide to the First State, Viking Press, 1938.) (Jacob S. Payton.) ↩
- Judge Thomas White in whose home near Whitleysburg, Delaware, Asbury found sanctuary. (See Journal, November 9, 1778; Lednum’s History of the Rise of Methodism, 267-71.) The judge was among the ten laymen appointed chartered trustees of Cokesbury. (See Armstrong, Old Baltimore Conference, 89.) (Jacob S. Payton.) ↩
- Allan McLane, a resident of Smyrna before he moved to Wilmington, Delaware, where he became a prominent layman during Asbury’s visit there. (See Hallman, History of Asbury Church, Wilmington, ed. John D. C. Hanna, 1889, 116.) (Jacob S. Payton.) ↩
- Francis Money, unknown. ↩
- He would help the old people with their burdens. ↩