May 27, 1808 — to the British Conference
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
ASB_VOL3.PDF, PDF page 491
The General Conference, meeting in Baltimore in 1808, sent this address to the British Conference. In the address they acknowledged the British Address and endorsed many of its remarks.
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
May 27, 1808
[TO THE BRITISH CONFERENCE]1
Your request for the continuance of our beloved Brother, Dr. Coke, among you, has been taken into the most serious and solemn deliberation in our Conference: and in compliance with your request, a vote has past, that he may be continued with you, until he may be called to us by all the annual conferences respectively, or the General Conference. We are, however, not insensible of his value, nor ungrateful for his past labours of love. Our venerable Father, Mr. Asbury is still spared to us; and not withstanding he carries the weight of threescore and three years, he had been enabled regularly to visit all the annual conferences, and to preside in our General Conference. We esteem this a peculiar blessing. As the pious Whatcoat2 is taken from us to his eternal reward, we have elected and set apart our beloved Brother, William M’Kendree… to fill his place as joint superintendent with Mr. Asbury… 3
By the Committee,
EZEK. COOPER — DANIEL HITT — JOSHUA WELLS — WM. PENN
CHANDLER, Secretary
P.S. Our Brother, Samuel Coate,4 has returned from England under a deep impression of gratitude for the kindness he has experienced among you. Among due investigation, we are satisfied concerning the purity of his motives and integrity of his conduct in his late visit to make collections for the Montreal church; and we join him in thanks for the many marks of favour and love he has received from you.
FRANCIS ASBURY
WILLIAM M’KENDREE5
“Minutes of Several Conversations, at the Sixty-Sixth Annual Conference, begun in Manchester, July 31, 1809.” Transcribed by Frank Baker
Notes (5)
- A reply to the request from the British Conference. ↩
- Bishop Whatcoat. ↩
- The address was signed by the committee, the P.S. by Asbury and McKendree. ↩
- Samuel Coate was appointed by the Methodist Episcopal Church to Canada in 1796. He married a niece of Philip Embury, and they were known as “The Handsome Pair.” Coate was eloquent; “he swept like a meteor over the land, and spellbound the wondering new settlers.” Coate was again appointed to Canada in 1804, becoming presiding elder. The conference of 1807 set him free to canvass funds for a new chapel at Montreal. Although Asbury and McKendree vouched for his trustworthiness, this mission was the beginning of Coate’s deterioration, which led to his withdrawal from the ministry in 1810 and to his failure in business and a penurious death. (Frank Baker.) ↩
- McKendree was born in King William County, Virginia. He was presiding elder of the Cumberland District when elected. (See excerpt of Asbury’s letter to Douglass, page 396; Paine, Life and Times of William McKendree, 132; also ordination certificate, 119.) ↩