Francis Asbury (1745-1816) was the first Methodist bishop ordained in America. Asbury was born near Birmingham, England. He became a preacher after his conversion at the age of 13 and was later, at his own request, sent to America as a missionary in 1771. After the Revolutionary War Asbury was named superintendent and then bishop along with Thomas Coke in 1787. From that point Asbury worked tirelessly, traveling over 300,000 miles through forests, swamps, and wilderness and ordaining more than 4,000 preachers. Coke eventually returned to England, leaving Asbury to oversee Methodism in America alone. He succeeded brilliantly – there were nearly 200,000 Methodists in America at the time of his death. He gave away his meager belongings, never married, and worked under the harshest conditions to spread the Gospel.
