Undated — Francis Asbury’s Last Will and Testament

FRANCIS ASBURY’S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

In the name of Almighty God, Amen!

June 6, 1813¹

I, Francis Asbury, native of Great Britain, born at Great Barr, Handsworth Parish, Staffordshire County, Superintendent and Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, in common health of Body and firm exercise of mind, having deliberated upon the shortness of human life and the certainty of death. I make my last Will and Testament revoking all others. Item, I give my body to the dust, from whence it was originally taken, in hopes of a Glorious resurrection to everlasting Life! I commit my Spirit to the Father of all Spirits, in the justifying, sanctifying, preserving, and Glorifying Grace of the Son of God and only Saviour of the world. Item, I give and bequeath all my wearing apparel to the travelling and local preachers of the Methodist E. Church that shall be present at my death. Item, I give and bequeath my Horses or Horse and carriages, together with all my Books and Manuscripts, to William McKendree,² first American Bishop of the Methodist E. Church. Item, I give and bequeath in Special Trust and Confidence to William McKendree, Daniel Hitt, and Henry Boehm, the sum of Two Thousand Dollars, now deposited in the Book Concern, be the same more or less, to be applied in printing Bibles and Testaments, with other pious. Books and Tracts and Pamphlets upon experimental and practical Godliness; and upon the decease of said Trustees, then and in that case I devise the trust and Confidence shall be founded upon the Bishops elected by the General Conference in succession on the one part, the Baltimore Annual Conference on the other part, shall elect two Elders of their Body, in joint Trust and Especial Confidence to insure the deposit in the Book Concern as long as the General union of Order and interest shall be maintained, and an equal dividend is made to all the Conferences in Union and within the United States. Should the present order of things be changed, then and in that case I wish the money to be funded, and the Interest by the Special Trust and Confidence to be equally and annually divided among the Ten Conferences as now appointed by order of the General Conference, or if the number shall hereafter be increased, there shall be an equal dividend to the whole number. Be it known that I have not laid up treasure upon Earth; more than the sum I have bequeathed, in the principal and interest, has been left to me in Legacies by persons that died childless, some thinking possibly I might live to advanced age, and to need an Independent Support; these legacies were left me chiefly by persons of the first Generation of Methodists. I have appropriated the Interest and some of the principal, and as a faithful steward return it to the Church; should Elizabeth Dickins survive me and continue in her widowhood, it is my will she should be paid, during her natural life, Eighty Dollars annually; as to all my nominal Children, Male and Female, whose parents have thought proper to put any part of my name upon them, I wish the Book Concern to give these each a Bible, as one of my nominal Children. Lastly, I appoint my three before-mentioned friends, viz: William McKendree, Daniel Hitt, and Henry Boehm, as sole executors of this my last Will and Testament, revoking all former Wills by me made; my Burial decent and solitary, a Gravestone or not, but plain; my Funeral expenses paid by money in my Pocket, or from the Interest of the deposit in the Concern. Given under my hand and seal this Seventh day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirteen. FRANCIS ASBURY (SEAL)

Signed, sealed, published, and declared by the above named Francis Asbury, to be his last Will and Testament, in the presence of us, who have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses in the presence of the testator: Baltimore County, to wit:

MICHAEL COATE

ASAHEL COATE

JOHN W. BOND

Emory University Library