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

In 1769, Mr. Wesley, in answer to repeated requests, sent his first missionaries to this country.
At the conference which met in Leeds this year, he called for volunteers to go to America; and was
responded to by Messrs. Boardman and Pilmoor, who landed at Gloucester point (now Gloucester
City), October 24, 1769. Mr. Richard Boardman was received as a traveling preacher, in 1763, and
was Mr. Wesley's assistant, or superintendent over the Methodists in this country for three years. In
a letter which he wrote to Mr. Wesley, he says: "When I came to Philadelphia I found a little society,
and preached to a great number of people." In passing through New Jersey, he stayed one night in
some place, which he calls a "large town," and preached in a Presbyterian meeting house. Next day,
he arrived in New York; and, after preaching in Wesley Chapel, he wrote to Mr. Wesley, under date
of November 4, 1769. Mr. Boardman being in New York for the winter of 1769-70, Mr. Williams
left, and, it is most likely, went through Jersey: that he preached in New Jersey, we learn from Mr.
Abbott's Life, p. 37. When Mr. Abbott had preached his first sermon in Deerfield, the head man of
the mob said, he had not heard such preaching since Mr. Williams left: there was much resemblance
between their preaching -- they were both sons of thunder.
Mr. Boardman, in his letter to Mr. Wesley, says, that Wesley Chapel contained seventeen hundred
hearers. This was part and parcel of an old mistake, but too common among the Methodists: we have
no doubt of Mr. Wesley's overrating his congregations nearly a moiety [half], when he says he
preached to twenty, and twenty-five thousand people. We have never seen a Methodist preacher, at
our largest camp meetings in America, preaching to more than ten or twelve thousand people. The
largest churches which the Methodists now have in New York, will not seat more people than
Wesley Chapel was thought to contain -- it would not comfortably seat the half of seventeen hundred
hearers.
In 1769 or 1770, Mr. Boardman's ministry in New York was instrumental in the conversion to
God and Methodism, of John Mann, who became a preacher among the Methodists. Mr. Wakeley,
in "Lost Chapters," informs his readers, that, when the British took possession of New York, and the
city was not supplied with preachers by Mr. Wesley's assistant in America, Mr. Mann preached for
them in Wesley Chapel, until Samuel Spragg relieved him. He was then in the character of a local
preacher. After the war was over, he went to Nova Scotia. He was suspected for being a friend to
King George, and he, with several other Methodists, thought it safest to move to Nova Scotia.
Subsequently, he came to Philadelphia, and was ordained by the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal
Church.
John Mann was born in 1743, in New York; and was married in 1764. His mother was a
Moravian, and belonged to the Rev. Mr. Gamble's church. When her son was first awakened, through
her influence he joined the Moravians; as yet the Methodists were unknown in New York. He died
in 1816, aged seventy-four years; he had preached forty-five years. This datum shows that he began
to preach as early as 1770, or 1771; consequently, was among the first fruits of Mr. Boardman's
ministry in New York. When first among the Methodists, he was appointed to lead a class; and soon
he was authorized to preach, and exercised his ministry in Bloomingdale and Long Island, as well
as in New York.
His brother, James Mann, was a native of New York, and a preacher both in New York and Nova
Scotia, where he was secretary of the Conference, and very useful in the ministry.