A History Of The Rise Of Methodism In America - Media Sabda Org

Mr. William Adams, son of William Adams, was born in Fairfax county, Virginia, in 1759. When
the Methodist preachers first preached in the region of his father; in 1778, he had several
opportunities of hearing them. After two years of deep distress, in which he was fully broken to
pieces before the Lord, he felt that blessed change, in church, 1775, which turned his mourning into
joy. So great was the change in him, so deep and uniform was his piety, though only sixteen years
old, that he was appointed to lead a small class. Being useful in this office, he soon felt it his duty
to give a word of exhortation. In his eighteenth year, he was enabled to feel and believe that God had
saved him from all sin. In 1778, he began to itinerate, and in 1779, was received by the Conference
and stationed on Baltimore Circuit. After six months of faithful, useful labor, he was removed to
another circuit, where he sickened and returned to his father's house. After bearing a full testimony
in favor of that blessed Christianity which he had experienced, with "Come, Lord Jesus, welcome,
Saviour; and hallelujahs," he left his father, mother, brothers, sisters, and weeping friends below, to
join those above. Those that witnessed his triumph, had never seen such a morally sublime scene.
All present -- sinners as well as saints -- were deeply affected, and many good resolutions were
formed on the occasion. Thus died the Rev. William Adams, on the third of December, 1779; in his
twenty-first year.
Mr. Joshua Dudley, whose name appears in the Minutes of 1779, we understand, was the son of
Mr. Dudley, of Queen Anne's county, who gave name to Dudley's Chapel, near Sudler's Cross Roads.
We look upon him as among the first traveling preachers that came from this county; and he appears
to have been among the first from the Eastern Shore of Maryland. In 1783 he ceased itinerating. We
have been informed that he married a Kent county lady and lived in Quaker Neck. It seems he was
living here in 1794, when the Rev. Benjamin Abbott was at his house. See his Life, p. 251. This is
the last we know of him.
Mr. Lewis Alfree, whose name also appears as a fellow laborer with Mr. Asbury and others (was
properly a local preacher acting as a supply), lived in the lower end of New Castle, Del. He was
awakened the previous year; and was the chief instrument in raising up the society and meeting
house at Blackiston's. He also labored much in Thoroughfare Neck, and was useful in establishing
Methodism there; and at Dickerson's, where some of his brothers and a number of his relations were
members: this meeting is now known as the Union. He was quite intimate with Mr. Asbury, while
the latter made Delaware his home. Mr. Alfree ended his days among the Methodists in the latter end
of the last century. He seems to have been the third Methodist preacher raised up in the state of
Delaware.
Mr. Philip Cox was born at Frome, Somersetshire, England. He joined the Methodists about 1776.
He commenced preaching in 1777, in which year he was initiated into the itinerancy, probably by
Mr. Rodda. He was one of the first Methodist preachers that was known in Sussex county, Del. Mr.
Asbury first mentions him under date of March, 1778, at which time he sent him to Kent Circuit.
When he began to travel he was unable to procure a horse -- his poverty obliged him to be a
pedestrian itinerant, carrying his scanty wardrobe and library in a linen wallet swung across is
shoulder: thus, with staff in hand, he carried the message of salvation. Pitying his destitution, the
daughter of Judge White spun thread and wove it into linen, and made undergarments for him. After
a while, through the kindness and contributions of his friends he was able to travel as an equestrian.