A Voice from New Mill Creek: The Methodists

By Tony Alan Grayson

A powerful Protestant religion rose in 18th century England to spread throughout the world by the passionate efforts of extraordinary men and women of God. A Voice from New Mill Creek: The Methodists, is a fictional account of the early days of Methodism in the American colony of Virginia. During the years 1737 and 1738, as colonials asserted themselves to the British Crown, Methodism threatened an instrument of national power, the Anglican Church. The distraction presented an opportunity to a succeeding generation of North Carolina pirates. The descendents of Blackbeard's seamen seized their chance to venture from coastal North Carolina towns and blend with the Methodists as they planned to revive their storied past. Experience the exciting time of the Methodists during the waning days of piracy in colonial America. A Voice from New Mill Creek: The Methodists, is the first book of a four-book series that is based on events that occurred on or connect with 18th century New Mill Creek, which is located today in Chesapeake, Virginia.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tony Alan Grayson
• Release date: Dec 14, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301899111

Tony Alan Grayson

Tony Alan Grayson is a native of South Carolina, residing in Virginia. "I have always been an adventure seeker. As a kid, I was the one who formed a "tribe", led expeditions to find other tribes, and I regularly roamed more than ten miles from my house. In high school, I convinced the U.S. Navy to pay for my college degree at The Citadel. I was a lifeguard at The Isle of Palms, a Navy Pilot, a Logistician, a Program Manager, and a Joint Armed Forces Operational Planner. Through the Navy and Navy Reserve, I have seen and experienced diverse people, cultures, food, entertainment, joy, danger, and settings in North, Central, and South America, Europe, Southwest & Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Those experiences swirl in my memory, enabling me to craft diverse and detailed stories for your entertainment. I have written and published 3 full length novels in the e-book format, a guide on how I wrote and published two of the novels, and 110 articles (see them at http://ezinearticles.com/expert/Tony_A_Grayson/1798235), all of which have been published and promoted worldwide. I write for you. Take a chance. Step into a story and experience the thrill of adventure!"

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A Voice from New Mill Creek: The Methodists

Tony Alan Grayson

Smashwords Edition

Copyright

This book is protected with Copyright © TX u 1-576-854, September 17, 2007 by Tony Alan Grayson. Other copyrights are pending.

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this e-book with another person, purchase an additional copy of it, and provide the purchased copy for each recipient. Please respect my years of hard work by refusing to participate in the piracy of books. My books are available online for the price of a vending machine snack. I ask for your support as I continue to craft new stories for you to enjoy. Thank you.

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Dedication

I dedicate this book to those who persevere.

Prologue

You may acquaint yourself with the characters and the general story line before you read the story. Find this information in short paragraphs at the end of the book, prior to the bibliography.

This book is a work of fiction. However, it contains historical facts, and historical people are referenced and involved in the story, within their character, and true to the plot. Refer to the bibliography at the end of the book. Use it like a treasure map to discover truth behind fiction.

I wrote this story for you. I hope that you enjoy it.

Endorsement

A shimmering silver moon stood twenty degrees above the eastern horizon of Norfolk Towne in the British colony of Virginia on a cold 2:00 am morning in January 1737.

Thus begins a new historical novel about the first Methodist meetinghouse in America, founded practically in the midst of the Dismal Swamp. Tony Grayson, a long-time Chesapeake resident, has written A Voice from New Mill Creek - The Methodists, an e-book that details the hard-scrabble beginning of the church, complete with attempts by outlawed pirates to infiltrate.

I was thrilled to hear from Grayson after last Sunday’s piece about how local Presbyterians managed to meet illegally but essentially under the nose of Norfolk’s British-dominated Church of England. Grayson says he discovered the 18th century history of the church literally in my backyard.

He has a story-teller’s gift. Sixteen-year-old Willis Wilkins cupped his cloth-protected hands to his chapped lips and blew hot breath on them, the opening scene continues. The blast of steam wafted into the frigid, moisture-laden air that hovered at the dew point. - Published article in The Virginian-Pilot Newspaper on May 26, 2013 by Paul Clancy, historian and best-selling historical non-fiction author. www.paulclancystories.com.

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Table of Contents

Copyright

Dedication

Prologue

Endorsement

Part I Norfolk Towne

Chapter 1: Norfolk Towne

Chapter 2: Evolution of a Church

Chapter 3: Reverend George Whitefield

Chapter 4: The Haynes Family

Chapter 5: The Pirates of Edenton

Chapter 6: Norfolk (Mid-May 1737)

Chapter 7: The HEIC in Norfolk

Chapter 8: Willis Wilkins

Chapter 9: Cousins

Chapter 10: Unification and Expulsion

Chapter 11: Little Flatty Creek Shipyard

Chapter 12: The Vestry

Part II New Mill Creek

Chapter 1: The Scouting Expedition

Chapter 2: The Voyage of Cutter Anne

Chapter 3: Carbury Mill

Chapter 4: Indians

Chapter 5: A Cutter at Millville

Chapter 6: Willis the Preacher

Chapter 7: His Will be Done

Chapter 8: Stepping Up

Chapter 9: Christmas Eve

Chapter 10: The Return of the Savages

Chapter 11: Robert Haynes

Part III Legend

Chapter 1: Elise

Chapter 2: The Turning Point

Chapter 3: Whitefield

Chapter 4: Training an Apprentice

Chapter 5: The Will of God

Chapter 6: Marq-Paul Arquette

Chapter 7: The Crucible

Chapter 8: The Council of Pirates

Chapter 9: Willis and Sharon Ann

Chapter 10: Enter the Swamp

Chapter 11: Sharon Ann and Elise

Chapter 12: The Attack

Chapter 13: Conclusion

Epilogue

Afterword

List of Principle Characters

Bibliography

Abbreviations

Vita

Description of e-books by Tony Alan Grayson

Part I

Norfolk Towne

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Chapter 1: Norfolk Towne

A shimmering silver moon stood twenty degrees above the eastern horizon of Norfolk Towne in the British colony of Virginia on a cold 2:00 am morning in January 1737. The town was not large for it had grown at a plodding pace as newcomers claimed marshland filled in with the rubbish of the current inhabitants. Principal advisors to the King's Royal Governor of the colony of Virginia managed town growth through an orderly process of surveys of the surrounding marshes, but it was the sovereign of England who owned all Virginia lands. His steward was the governor. Once the governor was satisfied (or influenced) by those who stood to gain by his decision to grant land, he decreed ownership of a parcel. Payment might be outright in the form of coin or commodity, but those with the means to pay did not tend to select the king's marshlands for their new American home. It was the oppressed, the driven, the outcasts, and the poor who made the arduous voyage to America. They came for opportunity or to escape persecution. The new arrivals lived humbly on rubbish fill in a stinking marsh. Those people regularly paid the governor an apportionment of their meager earnings...for the remainder of their lives, and for the lives of their offspring who had no choice but to continue to live there. Norfolk Towne grew as more immigrants arrived, and it was the industry of newcomers that fueled the commerce that benefited everyone. The arrangement also changed everyone, subtly. Most newcomers came to Virginia as Englishmen. Over time, the land of opportunity transformed them into Americans.

Sixteen-year-old Willis Wilkins cupped his cloth-protected hands to his chapped lips and blew hot breath on them. The blast of steam wafted into the frigid, moisture-laden air that hovered at the dew point.

Willis stood at the northeastern edge of town, alone, except for two large harnessed oxen. The animals circled in tandem, obliged to turn a sizeable upended wooden wheel with an embedded millstone, to crush dried maize (corn) kernels that spread upon a ring of sunken base stones. It was Willis’ job to coax, trick, or drive the oxen to turn the wheel for four hours. During that time, he collected the milled corn in burlap bags. He weighed each bag before he tied it off, for it was beneficial to have a consistent product that could be sold. Willis continually added kernels of maize onto the base stones. His employer paid him according to what he milled and bagged, and not for his four hours of effort.

Freshly milled corn makes the tastiest cornbread, His employer often said. Our task is to make it available for women to bake bread. We must grind enough corn for all of them.

Norfolk’s commercial bakers and scores of wives badgered Willis unmercifully during the latter part of his shift and after his shift ended. They wanted the newly-milled corn in eight ounces or one-pound bags. Some baked morning bread while others made coosh (mush), which was a hot breakfast porridge. The Indians called the porridge sofkee, but the Norfolk locals mostly referred to coosh by the name that German immigrants gave it: grits. Few buyers pressed coins into Willis’ palm for their purchase. Most made their mark in a ledger, next to the quantity purchased, for Willis’ boss, the miller, to see. Willis plodded through the monotonous, daily routine. He was only able to alter it by letting his mind wander. This morning, the deep throaty honks of flying geese distracted him. A goose-formed perfect V raced across the silver moon while that heavenly body diminished in size as it rose higher in the eastern sky.

They know where they are going, he half-muttered. So do I.

Willis thrived on the hope of the miller's promise to him. He had said to young Willis that when the mill could no longer meet Norfolk’s needs for cornmeal, he would construct a second mill at the southern edge of town, buy a second pair of draught animals and place Willis in charge. Then, Willis' apprenticeship would end, and he would be recognized as the miller's equal. The man promised to share half of the profits of the second mill. The time to do this was soon, probably before this year was done since the miller noticed that the eight ounce sacks of grain were used by town folk like coins. He thought that it was because the bags were small. While it was common for one commodity to be traded in barter for another commodity, it was unusual to see a commodity traded over and over again, which was the function of coins. On occasion, some of the one-pound sacks were included in the cargo of outbound trade ships. The lone mill struggled to meet the demand of Norfolk Towne, so this was indeed a promising sign for the miller. Willis was a critical component for product expansion.

Willis pondered the matter as he stopped the oxen, unharnessed them and led them to their stalls where he fed and watered them. Then, he cleaned up their leavings around the mill, both to tidy up the place and because it was also a product. Piled near the swamp, a south Norfolk Towne farmer gathered the odorous mass of dung every week. The farmer carted it to his farm where he used it to improve the soil. He traded maize, and other vegetables in spring and summer, for the dung. Willis regularly took delivery of dried maize from that farmer and others who stored it during the winter. It was part of Willis' job to shuck the corn and store the kernels. The cobs were added to the city swamp fill.

On this winter morning, Willis' four hour shift was nearly at an end. The moon was near perigee. It slipped downward as the faintest hint of morning light revealed the miller, arriving with coffee to share with Willis. The two chatted a bit before the miller took the ledger and began his rounds to collect what was owed to him if he could. After he settled debts, he took over from Willis, allowing the young man to go home. Then, the miller drove the oxen. Many of the early morning customers returned to get the second grinding in order to bake cornbread for the evening meal. Late in the afternoon, the long day of milling ended, and the miller's final act was to go by Willis' house to pay him. Mostly, payment was made with bartered goods that the miller had received in trade for his commodity. He also paid in some coin, enough for his young apprentice to contribute the required tithe (ten percent income tax). The Anglican Church required, and the British government enforced, the collection of the tithe on the income of all males, sixteen-years-old and up. The tithe was given to the Norfolk Borough Church, the Parish Church of Norfolk Towne. The miller was an Anglican, and he did not want to be embarrassed by seeing Willis drop a side of bacon or some other commodity into the alms basket.

The miller sometimes tarried to speak with young Willis in front of his family about the writings of Reverend John Wesley. It was not so much because he was keenly interested in the subject, but because Willis and other young people chased this new thing like a cat chase's lantern-cast shadows. Willis was one of today's youth and tomorrow's customer. The miller allowed the young folk to gather socially at his mill to give them a place to share what they heard. Since the miller often crossed paths with seamen and merchants who brought news from England, he was their principal source of new information about the method.

John Wesley, his brother Charles, George Whitefield, and other young Anglican Priests were at the forefront of what some called a great awakening of the spirit in Europe and especially in England. Wesley's new method of worship galvanized common people as much as anything because its inventors told them that Jesus lived in their hearts. The thing caused a stir in the Anglican Church of England. If true, its priests were unnecessary. At first, the powerful elites of England welcomed this method that might get tens of thousands of stinking peasants out of their church. The crown understood that the church was the glue to bind the people to the crown. While the Methodist movement was in its early stages, the crown watched it carefully. In the colonies, the method was something to talk about, another old country thing. The young folks gravitated to it because they saw how it made the elders squirm. Anything new was a young person's business. The method became the central topic that brought the teenagers together. They conspired on how they might bring a Methodist leader to Norfolk Towne.

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Chapter 2: Evolution of a Church

The Anglican Church formed in 1534 by the order of English King Henry VIII, who proclaimed that he was the head of the church in England (and not Pope Clement VII who led the Roman Catholic Church). The Pope understood that the monarch did this in order to enjoy an annulment from Catherine of Aragon, the Queen...his wife, which then would enable him to marry his mistress, Anne Boleyn. The Catholic Church did not grant annulments to anyone, including kings, but since the Anglican Church was to remain doctrinally Catholic, he took no issue with the self-serving move. A later Pope did have a problem with it, and he would excommunicate King Henry for it.

King Henry's action in the 16th century was coincidentally-timed when many factions within the Catholic Church questioned the church doctrine and authority. The movements of these factions organized, and they set themselves apart to protest against church doctrine. However, this Protestant Reformation failed in its purpose. Under the leadership of the Pope, Catholics countered the protestors when they launched a church leadership-sponsored counter-reformation which begat years of fiery argument between the two groups and ultimately war. With a failure to compromise the doctrine, vast numbers of Christians from northern Europe split away from the Catholic Church to form several independent Protestant religions. Southern European Christians remained predominately Catholic.

At King Henry's death in 1547, his young son, Edward VI, inherited the throne. Edward was raised as a Protestant. As he matured in his authority, he reasoned more on his own and less from the influence-peddlers in his court. He began to look upon the still evolving Protestant Anglican church as another means to achieve an English King's sovereign objectives. Thus, under his reign and in the reign of his successors, the Anglican Church moved farther from Catholicism by becoming progressively more Protestant. The king welcomed Anglican Church leaders to participate in political matters...Crown business.

The Anglican Church retained some of the organizational characteristics of the Catholic Church. They installed Bishops in key metropolitan areas. An archbishop provided directional leadership. However, England itself was not yet so unified for all parishioners to support a single archbishop. Thus, the king created two dioceses. Each of them installed an archbishop, and the greater of the two was the Archbishop of Canterbury (mid-to-south England). The other was the Archbishop of York (northern England). As the 18th century progressed, the Anglican Church became set in its ways much as the Catholic Church had done, and like that church, when Christian revival stirred in the rank and file, its leaders were not ready to address it. A great awakening of Christian revival began quietly in the form of procedural changes to the pattern of worship. The source was John Wesley, the son of an Anglican rector.

In their father's footsteps, John and his brother Charles entered England's Oxford College. Oxford professors immersed the young men in the teachings of Jesus. They instilled the art of parable decipherment via the principle Christian guidebook of their age, the English King James Bible. Oxford based instruction to priests-in-training on the principle that the uneducated masses of British citizens were incapable of reaching God's grace, unless learned Christian men guided them.

Gifted professors of Oxford encouraged the eager students of Christ to delve deep into the biographies of righteous men of old. After all, the course on how to serve the Lord had already been set. The Englishmen John Wycliffe, Thomas Linacre, and John Colet were favorite case studies. Erasmus, who re-translated the Bible's Old Testament from the original Hebrew, and the New Testament from the original Greek was an acceptable man of God who was not English. The German, Martin Luther, who dared to root out corruption in church authority was accepted. The writings of the great theologian, John Calvin, a non-English giant of faith, were worthy of emulation. The Wesleys complemented their studies by organizing their peers. Charles formed a fellowship at Oxford, to which John eagerly applied himself and at which he shared his ideas. Between the years 1727 and 1729, John, with the assistance of his brothers-in-Christ, crafted a disciplined and organized method of worship which they believed would improve the understanding of the uneducated masses. They honed their new method of worship. Then, they practiced it.

Only a few Oxford students joined the fellowship. Some of the young men who did not join ridiculed Wesley’s bunch as strange, confused, and bent on developing a method of no use. One among the naysayers coined a title: The Methodists. The name was not intended to be a compliment. It stuck to Wesley and his collaborators. With the passing of time, John learned to love that name. These were heady times for the young men. They graduated from Oxford and became Anglican Priests. They did not yet fully appreciate how to wield their new method. As they practiced it, they did understood its relevancy to their Oxford studies. As in the days of old, an authoritarian church did not react well to change! As challenging as that was, growing disagreement within their circle of friends threatened to disrupt the whole thing!

God, the Great I Am, was manifested in three forms: the Father, the Son (Jesus, God in the flesh) and the Holy Spirit (the influence of God's will on the human spirit). Reverend John Wesley and his peers practiced the method and applied its discipline to convince people that the way to God was through individual belief. One must accept and believe that Jesus was God's son and a sacrifice, the one who was pure enough to bear all of the sins of humans, who could never be pure in the eyes of God. The method explained to the uneducated masses that Jesus' sacrifice was for them and that they could obtain God's salvation directly. Anglican Church leadership viewed such a message to be an affront to them. The entire organization and power of the English church might be obviated by such a message! The church leaders were exacerbated by the fact that some of their own young priests had preached it!

John and Charles Wesley and many of their peers followed the teachings of Jakob Hermanszoom (Jacobus Arminius), who was an active participant in the 16th century Protestant Reformation. That Dutch theologian believed and taught principles that became known as the tenets of Arminianism:

- People have free will to accept or deny their own salvation. Without help, their effort will fall short of salvation

- Only by God's grace can people be saved. People can never be good enough to merit it.

- Good works by people do not result in salvation.

- God extends salvation only to people who believe that Jesus, his son, is the Christ and that Jesus died as a sacrifice, bearing the sin of mankind and that he then defeated death, and was raised from death by God to enter heaven.

- Jesus Christ's atonement was for the sin of all people.

- God will not force his grace upon an unbeliever.

- A saved person can fall back from the grace of God through persistent, un-repented sin.

The principle challenge to the Wesleys came from among their peer group, their friends. Some among the proponents of the method did not base their beliefs on Arminianism. Instead, they followed the teachings of a different 16th century theologian, a Frenchman by the name of Jean Cauvin (John Calvin). George Whitefield was most prominent among this latter group. The Calvinists believed in five central doctrines of God's grace:

- People are totally depraved. They cannot escape sin and they do not naturally love God.

- God has chosen whom he will save. Of his mercy alone, he has unconditionally elected the saved and will not recognize an unsaved person's efforts to earn salvation.

- Jesus atoned only for the sins of the elect.

- God's grace is irresistible. If God has elected a person to be saved, no resistance by that person will prevent him from being saved. It is only a matter of time before it will happen.

- Saints shall be preserved. Saints are set apart by God. They are in communion with him as instruments to do his will, to bring about his purpose. They will continue in faith to the end, no matter what...unless they were false prophets, in which case they will fall away.

The division among the young upstarts fascinated many Anglican scholars and the disagreement became a principle source for Anglican leaders to draw on as they tried to determine how to get control of Methodism. They knew that this was not the first time that clashes in doctrine had upset an established church. In 1619, a synod (church council) was held to debate the conflicting doctrine in the Dutch city of Dordrecht long after John Calvin died (1564) and shortly after Joseph Arminius died (1609). The Calvinists, more long-standing, represented a conservative or orthodox point of view, something solidly based as church doctrine. The Arminian view was newer and liberal. Where was its doctrinal proof of concept?

Actions of the followers of Arminius became the catalyst for the Synod of Dort (the English description). As they grew in number, that group challenged the teachings of John Calvin with a written petition to the church called The Remonstrance of 1610. The uproar that followed this overt challenge spilled out of the European churches and Holland came close to civil war over it. The Remonstrance had five points of contention, one each at odds with the five doctrines of Calvinism.

The leaders of the Synod wished to conduct a review, with an opening position that the accepted Calvinist doctrine was beyond repute. The followers of Arminius must justify their view with proof from the scriptures. The spokesman for the Arminians was Simon Episcopius. He wished to refute the Calvinist doctrine in his opening statement. In that, he was refused, yet he would not relent. Thus, the proceeding bogged down (on how to open the review proceedings) and the debate about that lasted for days! The Arminians finally realized that they would not get their chance to explain their beliefs at the Synod of Dort. Furthermore, they realized that they had weakened their position through public debates with the Calvinists, who already had a doctrinally-based position. The Arminians walked out of the synod en masse. It was a fateful mistake.

The Synod of Dort then proceeded without the Arminians present. The synod condemned Arminianism as heresy. Shortly thereafter, key Arminian leaders were arrested, imprisoned, and some were beheaded. The Arminian movement went underground. Two centuries later, that movement had resurfaced, led by John Wesley, who saw the tenets of Arminius as foundational to the method. Anglican scholars and leaders did not want another Synod of Dort, so they looked for an opportunity among the Calvinists who were part of the Methodist movement, to once again run off the unscriptural Arminian view. However, this time, the two factions did not consume one another. In fact, the leaders of both sides, John Wesley and George Whitefield, remained friends. The Calvinist faction of Whitefield appeared to be the stronger of the two factions. It was that one which moved out smartly to evangelize the English masses. The most that could be said about the situation was that because there were two factions, John Wesley was not in control of the entire Methodist movement. As Anglican leaders worried about Methodists causing a split in the church, some of them perceived a benefit in splitting the movement itself. Two separate Methodist movements would be weaker. They would trend toward a division of ideology. Each would see the other as the greater threat, and the Anglican Church could be cast in the role of peacemaker for the brash children it had spawned. That idea teased some Anglican leaders. A few searched for the means to act upon it. For one of them, the means to act just fell into his hands.

Every month, Reverend Marston, the preacher at the Parish Church of Norfolk Towne, sent a report (in the form of a quilled letter) to the head of the Anglican Church in England. The tricky part was that he had to send the letter to two men, one being the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other was the Archbishop of York. Since the two church leaders might share their respective letters with others, it was necessary that they say exactly the same thing in exactly the same way. The letters were usually transported in a pouch, along with the Virginia Royal Governor’s correspondence, by the next available (and reliable) ship to sail from Hampton Roads to England. Most of the time, the selected ship put in at the River Thames in London. From there, the letters traveled via different overland couriers.

Sometimes, the preacher got a response from either or both archbishops about three months later and sometimes he got a reply from only one archbishop or neither one. The time delay, and the uncertainty of how his letters were perceived, caused him angst. The reverend dared not comment on previous subjects in following monthly letters until he knew what the powerful men had to say. He might easily make a point in the first letter, and expand on that in the next two letters. Then, he may learn that one of the archbishops was displeased about his original point in the first letter! Preachers were replaced when they committed political transgressions.

With meticulous care, he described to the Archbishop of York how the young people in his church had gotten copies of John Wesley’s letters and the letters had become fuel to fire the unstable nature that is inherent in youth. The young people in his church had organized to embrace the method. Marston said there was no immediate concern, however, should the method prove to be more than a fad, the young converts might be emboldened to apply it in their responsibilities to the church. That would be a serious matter over time for as they continued to age, some of them would become important church leaders. After he wrote his letter, Marston compared it to the earlier letter that he wrote for the Archbishop of Canterbury. They were indeed the same.

Lancelot Blackburne was the Archbishop of York in 1737. He was comfortably established in that role because he was politically close with English King George II, close enough that he kept an apartment on Downing Street in London to enable him to regularly appear at the king's court. This was quite high maintenance for a man who linked with piracy in the Caribbean (some said) or secret services for the king among the pirates (others said). In either instance, there was no denying that Blackburne was an archbishop who thoroughly understood and implemented the part of the Anglican Church that he controlled and that it was an instrument of British national power. He saw Marston's letter as significant, and he answered it. Three months to the day after the preacher contacted him, a letter of reply from the Archbishop of York was in Marston's hands.

Reverend Marston,

I share your concern for the future of the Anglican Church. Those who practice the method are a driven people. But, driven by what? They claim that it is the Holy Spirit, yet if that is so, why are we not all infected by it? The method is an unquenchable fire that consumes its practitioners and burdens the rest of us with their unbridled zeal. The church does not condone it, has not found a way to control it, and it has ignored it for far too long. There is, however, division in the Methodist ranks. If your young folk get their fire from Wesley, then know that Wesley’s view of the method is Arminian. Here in York, the method is Calvinist. The archbishop made some vague statements about God’s will for the church. Then, he made a proposal to Reverend Marston.

In Norfolk, we might put the two views together to see if they might cancel each other out. I can tell you that the two views do not compromise well in York. However, Methodist leaders of the two factions are in England, and they continually find a way to keep dissention in check. The Calvinists are willing to go out into the world. Can you convince some of your church families to host Methodist families that migrate to you from York? Think about this, but don't explain to your people the distinction between the Calvinists and the Arminians. See if you might make this thing work so that we shall have a grand experiment to study. You don't have any Methodist leaders over there in Virginia, so our study should be pure, and if it is successful, it might be repeatable. Marston, I am impressed by your sense of duty, and I appreciate your boldness. Stay in contact with me.

Blackburne

Archbishop of York

The archbishop believed that any political gains that he might make with the king through his administration of the church would be checked if he allowed the church to descend into disorder. Britain's enemies could use public perception of a national church divided. An enemy could argue that a people split before God are also split under their king. He had studied how the church of Holland unraveled two centuries earlier. Furthermore, he did not reply to Marston on a whim. Blackburne had first consulted the crown, and he got a predictable, strategic message from the monarch.

Britain must be strong in the eyes of her enemies. Her navy must roam the world's seas. Her Army must hold ground and advance in foreign lands. The Anglican Church is mortar that binds the people to God...and to the King.

The church must endure this ecumenical onslaught, the archbishop muttered to himself. We need time to erase the upset in us. We must have a tipping point to shift our upset to the Methodists who have caused it, and return parishioners from this false doctrine. I want to see what happens to the method in Virginia.

Methodism was not the threat that Blackburne supposed it to be. Under Wesley's lead, all followers of the method had maintained symbiosis. Wesley had not confronted the Anglican leaders the way that the Arminians had confronted church leaders in the 16th century. However, Wesley's friend, George Whitefield, was incautious. He led the Calvinist Methodists in a most fiery manner and he got himself locked out of Anglican churches. He had to preach outdoors.

The interesting thing about Whitefield was that Calvinism was doctrinally-accepted by the church. He practiced the method doctrinally correct and might have been the better agent of compromise. He would not practice politics because he saw Christianity through the eyes of a purest. Once he accepted the method he became its proponent over all other views. Between Wesley and Whitefield, it was the latter that could taint the entrenched Calvinist Doctrine. Thus, Whitefield was the greater threat. Relentless in his pursuit of what he believed and not crushable because so many commoners listened to him, the Anglican leaders simply barred Whitefield from their churches. By default, that move made Wesley the compromiser, the good Methodist to Whitefield's bad.

Blackburne understood that Whitefield was Wesley's friend. He also understood that the Calvinist Methodists were willing to export themselves. That was why Marston's letter appealed to the archbishop. If Whitefield and his fire eaters went out into the new world, they would butt heads with the French and especially the land-hogging Spanish who took Catholicism, their national religion, with them wherever they went. That would leave Wesley in Britain and through him the Anglican's might get compromise and prevent the church from being split. Most elites liked Wesley.

Dear George (Whitefield),

I have long admired your devotion to Jesus, your dedication to our church and your stamina. Also, I am aware of the great expectations that you have for the American colonials and your willingness to endure the arduous journey to that far horizon of the English realm. I do not believe that you have yet visited the colony of Virginia. It may interest you to know that there is an opportunity in the colonial town of Norfolk. A gathering of young people there has shown strong interest in the method of Christian worship that you so fondly share...

Blackburne

Archbishop of York

The archbishop wrote no such letter to John Wesley.

It was true, what the archbishop said; Whitefield corresponded with him and he queried other sources for information as well. He did want to visit Virginia and promised himself to do it one day. But, this was not that day; this was not the time for him to pierce the center of the thirteen colonies with his presence and his sermons while pressing work was at hand in England. He agreed with Blackburne that someone should go, and he put some thought on whom to send. Young people were better impressed by other young people who were like-minded. So, he determined that families with young people should go to Virginia now. There, they could prepare the local people much as a farmer prepares his fields before he sows the seed that he hopes will bear a bountiful harvest. Whitefield sent word out to his followers within and beyond the province of York that seven families were wanted. He promised assistance to those selected from among the volunteers. They were to plan to sail from York in three months, during the early summer after the winter weather cruelties at sea had passed and before the great storms (hurricanes) of the Caribbean formed.

He expected (and it did come to pass) that more families would go than could be supported. It was his personal job to make the selections as well as to soothe the wounded feelings of those who were turned away. It happened that most of those families that were turned away were of the poorest lot; some of them were utterly homeless and they were willing to go anywhere that assistance was provided. Whitefield knew that for God's work, only the singularly best would do. He would send the strongest, surest, and most capable missionaries and tell Archbishop Blackburne to get for them monetary assistance from the crown - that this was necessary for England's best and brightest to succeed.

Blackburne got Whitefield's reply and he agreed that he could get help for those that would be sent. England had long-standing ties to commerce through the sea trade. Commerce flowed to and from the nation so much better if there was a bit of England on the other end of every sea line of communication. The crown and the parliament, the latter of which had a short history (it formed in 1707), were aware that colonists, even those who had originated from longstanding English families, behaved less like Englishmen if they were away too long and unsupervised. Blackburne used this concern to convince the king and parliament to invest a bit of coin in the Anglican Church. The church campaigned to aid staunchly loyal and skilled English citizens of good repute to venture forth to the colony of Virginia so that they might give that supervision. In his endeavor, (which was successful) Blackburne parried questions from parliamentary men that might have revealed the subtlety of his meddling in the new method of worship. Blackburne wanted the monarch and his lawmakers to believe that Methodists were under his control.

The seven selected families hailed from towns within provinces that were under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of York (for spiritual matters), and they did not know one another. This aspect of the selection was purposeful, to tamp down any chance that an organized group that might foment sedition could be exported to a colony. Also, from Reverend Whitefield's point of view, it lessened the burdens on any particular British Methodist Society, all of which were small and growing. In every selected family, there was at least one man (the patriarch) who was proved to be capable of feeding his family by working at a trade believed to be reproducible in Norfolk. Each family had at least one member committed to witnessing for the adoption of the method and was also a passionate Calvinist. In the Haynes family, that person was Sharon Ann.

Sharon Ann Haynes was a 5'4" cornflower blue-eyed flaxen blond and an extrovert, both diligent and dutiful. She was not the eldest of the four children in her family of six, but on most matters, and especially on religious ones, she was the pacesetter. Her family was the single family to be selected from the city of York itself. Outwardly, Sharon Ann was agreeable, trusting, and modest. Those qualities she skillfully used to get at the truth in whomever or whatever subject that she sought truth. When she was satisfied with herself and that all about her was right with the Lord, she became visibly happy, and she shared her joy freely. Within her borough of the city of York, she was known and quite popular. At age sixteen, Sharon Ann Haynes was sought by boys her age and older. She liked that. She was not concerned that two of her friends were betrothed. Still, Sharon Ann had begun to narrow her range of choice for a mate to three worthy boys from York. One, in particular, made her giddy with excitement whenever she saw him. Sharon Ann Haynes enjoyed being sixteen and female in 1737.

What?

Robert Haynes, her father, brought the news to his family that the church had offered them an opportunity. He told his wife, Sherrilee, and their family that they might move to America! Robert was taken aback by the family's lukewarm response. None of them had paid much attention to the colonies. Going there would require breaking familial ties in England, and this was central to their concerns. He told them that this was early news and that they had not been selected. He could not agree to go if selected, unless his employer (he was a manager of a warehouse for the British East India Company) approved.

Yet, I was told, he added, that my being in the employ of the India Company will be a factor in the decision process. It was true. Reverend Whitefield selected, and Archbishop Blackburne approved the Haynes family to go. It was Blackburne who represented the interests of the church and the crown, plus he had influence on the India Company, which was yet another organizational leg that steadied the throne of England. A week later, when Robert talked to his family about it, he told them that they were selected. The most vocal member of his family had no words. Sharon Ann was in shock.

America, to her, was a wild place where backward Englishmen clashed with barbarians over property. There, people died by the score from malnutrition, disease, heat, cold, and overwork. It was the sort of place that one went to when it was a better choice to live there than in England. Never had she thought of leaving England. Sharon Ann was happy where she lived, and she was recognized to be a rising star in the constellation of Christians who lived in York. Still, on this subject, her heart was in turmoil. She did not want to do this thing, but she sensed that she should listen carefully. It crossed her mind that this might be God's will for her to leave England and a test of her faith. The news was upsetting, and Sharon Ann was afraid until she recalled scripture, the story of how Jesus feared God's will for him and how he prayed to his heavenly father to take away the bitter cup of destiny placed before him. Sharon Ann prayed too, but not for the test to pass. Rather, she prayed for the strength to withstand it.

Reverend Whitefield, who was barely twenty-two years old, was wiser than Archbishop Blackburne supposed. He knew that powerful men came to him when they had a mind to use him for their purpose. After exchanging letters with the Archbishop of York and causing the archbishop to believe that he had achieved his objectives as Whitefield's expense, the young Methodist readied himself to meet face-to-face with the powerful church official so that he might divine how to get the Lord's work done in a harmonious way.

You believe that so much of us will leave England that the rest will not make a difference, Whitefield suggested to the archbishop after he had endured an hour of verbal sparring and two cups of exceptionally fine Chinese tea. But, suppose that you are wrong about that. What is your plan if we Methodists should surpass the number of Anglicans?

The day that it happens will be long after the day of my passing, was the reply.

And if that is not the case, Whitefield said, what then?

Whitefield had a purpose of his own. He brought up the subject of glebe land, land given by the crown to the local Anglican Churches and their preachers. He told the archbishop that he intended for his Methodists to go out from the cities, soon after they were settled in the colonies. They would reach everyone who could not travel to the town church. He expected Methodist societies to have glebe land in order to form churches of their own in the countryside. If they did not get it, they would have no choice but to fall back on the existing resources - the Anglican Church properties.

Give some thought to this, Whitefield suggested. Those who accept and practice the method now are of the Anglican Church. We are one people who worship God differently. Outsiders will accept the method too, and they will not share the strong kinship. It is inevitable that there will be a parting, as inevitable as two wives unable to live under the same roof with one man.

Quietly, the archbishop laughed at the thought. The analogy did not fit well. The thing that was upon them was not as two wives. It was two roads leading to the same end: Jesus. He did agree that a split, should it come to that, would be best planned and amicable rather than sudden and painful. The Anglican Church was invested in every city and county of England as well as in most towns of the colonies. It was the crown that had made the investment. Risk would be high for any churchman who might suggest to the king to divest in the Anglican Church, or to invest in a competitor to it. Still, Blackburne put some thought into the idea of shaping the Methodists, then sending them on their way amicably.

"Perhaps we should view these Methodists as our children, he mused after George Whitefield departed. One wants his children to do well. We care for them and want them to come back for a visit now and then after they are grown." He let that thought go, passing it off as whimsy.

Blackburne recalled a recent warning that the Virginia Royal Governor had sent to the King and Parliament about his concerns, concerns of sedition among many of the colonists. The king had shared the warning with Blackburne and with the Archbishop of Canterbury since he felt that it applied to the Anglican Church. The Royal Governor of Virginia was aware of hushed talk about rebellion, and it was coming from well-placed and well-heeled citizens as well as from the poor. The root of dissatisfaction was more of a business concern, a tax, but it had festered into a general sense of outrage at having been taxed without having a voice (no say on the matter). It was the Molasses Act of March 1733 of four years ago that was at the root of it. Parliament enacted it, and the King signed it into law. A sixpence tax was placed on any gallon of molasses imported to the colonies from any non-British island in the Caribbean. The collection points were at American colonial ports. The idea behind it was to make the colonials to stop buying non-British molasses, not to tax them. The actual reason for the tax was that there was a trade connection with the British India Company for the home country molasses used to make a myriad of products that benefited the crown, including rum.

The rub with the colonists, according to the Virginia Royal Governor, was that Parliament, a representative body that drew its roots back to the signing of the Magna Carta by King John, did not represent them. Interestingly, only 30 years earlier (in 1707) the Scottish version of Parliament combined with the English Parliament so that the new British Empire Parliament would represent the combined peoples. However, the same thought did not apply to either the American or the Indian colonies or to the Caribbean islands that Britain ruled.

The people avoid the tax any way they can and feel justified to do it, The governor advised his king. If one of our revenue cutters catches them, the culprits are hauled into court to stand before me. I tell you they are most indignant and defiant.

Archbishop Blackburne wondered how many of these defiant citizens inhabited the colonial Anglican Churches. If the churches themselves were becoming divided by the introduction of the new method of worship, did that not make the church fertile ground for rebellious thought to take root?

****

Chapter 3: Reverend George Whitefield

Faith was an essential element in the busy life of young Reverend George Whitefield, who was an Anglican Church minister that loved to involve his audience as he preached to them about the living God.

It is better, he said once, to wear out rather than to rust out. People remembered his witty sayings. They also dwelled upon his queer facial expressions.

Reverend Whitefield was cross-eyed. It was a malady that he learned to use to his advantage. The funny looks kept his congregation guessing. What might do next? It kept them awake. Since the people could not take their gaze away from his face, he took the opportunity to pepper them with memorable and witty phrases that were laced with intent (the meaning behind the word of God) as it was stated since the Bible was filled with cryptic parables. The central theme of his sermons was that every person, no matter what his or her social standing, could have a personal relationship with God. This was a powerful message for it meant that God was with you as you plodded your way through 18th century life, and for many in his congregation that was a life that was devoid of hope. Reverend Whitefield consciously departed from the standard craft of an Anglican Minister, which was to spew upon the people a litany of doctrinal monologue. He had seen firsthand nearly entire church congregations become comatose from such oratory. He likened their preaching to a verbal sleep tonic. Whitefield believed with all his heart that God was alive, and he made it his mission to introduce the living God to every soul on the planet! He thought it was a doable