Asbury’s letters and related documents · Record 113

January 9, 1799 — to Ezekiel Cooper

CHARLESTON, S.C.

Signed in the source: Francis Asbury.

ASB_VOL3.PDF, PDF page 220

Though James O’Kelly had broken off from the church in 1792, he was still a great irritation to Asbury. Here Asbury reveals that he had written three hundred pages of answers to O’Kelly. The O’Kellyite movement was growing in Virginia and North Carolina, and there are references to it in Ohio.

CHARLESTON, S.C.

January 9, 1799

[TO EZEKIEL COOPER]¹

My very dear Friend:

You see how large a letter I have written with my own hand upon a broken sheet of paper. When I began I had no thought of writing so long a letter. I have been employed in dictating near three hundred pages, in answer to Mr. O’Kelly’s² spite and malice. Conference time we have had but six boarders in our house, and frequently in my room, and great part of the Conference visiting. We have had great peace. I wish, if a vessel should offer, my letters in packet may be sent to me at Norfolk or Newbern. I shall be at the former in March. The work of God is under a pleasing growth in the South.

I am, with continued respect to thee,

F. ASBURY

Garrett Biblical Institute Library

Notes (2)

This letter was written on the same page as the letter of January 8, 1799. ↩
James O’Kelly, who split the church. (See references in Journal, 1852 ed., July l, 1798; July 19, 1798; September 4, 1799; also “A Letter of James O’Kelly,” April — 1787, in The Letters of Francis Asbury.) ↩

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