FRANCIS ASBURY

Possibly one of the most well known ministers of Methodism in Salisbury is Francis Asbury. Born in Handsworth in 1745, he came under the influence of John Wesley at an early age, and as a result became one of John's travelling preachers. He was appointed to the Salisbury Circuit as Superintendent in 1770. The Circuit at that time covered most of Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire and included the Isle of Wight. 

It was from Salisbury that he travelled to the momentous Bristol conference in August 1771, where he answered John Wesley's  call for volunteers for the new mission fields of North America . After a short emotional visit home to Great Barr he sailed from Pill, near Bristol ,  on  Wednesday  4th of September  1771. He never returned and  subsequently became known as
'the Father of American Methodism'.