Background

Thomas Coke was the only surviving child of Bartholomew and Anne Phillips Coke. He was born on September 09, 1747 in Brecon, Wales, where his father was a prosperous apothecary and small officeholder. He looked back upon his youth as a period of indiscretion, for he had been gay and handsome and fond of dancing, cards, and liquor.

Education

Coke graduated from Jesus College in 1768 with the Bachelor of Arts degree. He received his Master of Arts degree in 1770 and Doctor of Civil Law degree in 1775. He was ordained in the Church of England.

Career

Coke obtained a small curacy at Road, Somersetshire, in 1770, and later at South Petherton in the same county. There, from the eloquence and vehemence of his preaching, his parishioners suspected that he was tainted with Methodism. Meetings with Thomas Maxfield, one of Wesley’s lay preachers, and with Hull, a dissenting minister of South Petherton, further attracted him to the Methodist group. In August 1776 he met Wesley. His preaching became more fervent and evangelical, and he was dismissed from his church by the ancient ceremony of chiming. He then joined Wesley and attended the Bristol conference in 1777.

During his ministry in London, he assisted Wesley in his vast correspondence. In 1782 he became the first president of the Irish conference, an office which he held for many years. Two years later he outlined the first Methodist scheme for the establishment of missions among the heathen, a work in which he was later to become preeminent. After long deliberation, Wesley drew up a plan for the necessary organization of the Methodist church in America, which he revealed to Coke in February 1784. So unprecedented a measure startled Coke and two months of reflection were necessary to overcome his doubts. At Bristol, on September 2, Wesley ordained Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vasey as presbyters for America and appointed Coke the first superintendent; several weeks later these three sailed from England “to go and serve the desolate sheep in America. ”

Arriving in New York on November 3, Coke preached several times before proceeding to Philadelphia where he was entertained by the governor. He traveled southward into Delaware and at Bar- ratt’s Chapel in Kent County he was met by Francis Asbury. When he had explained the instructions of Wesley, Asbury professed to be shocked and for a time refused to be ordained. With his astute political sense, Asbury realized what Coke hardly suspected: that the trend of Methodism in America was away from Wesley. Hence Asbury refused to exercise the duties of his office unless elected by a majority of the American itinerants.

A general conference to be held in Baltimore during Christmas week was determined upon, and Coke went on a thousand- mile preaching tour in Maryland and Virginia. On December 17 the leaders assembled near Baltimore to prepare for the work of the conference, and a week later, in Baltimore, the conference, presided over by Coke but dominated by Asbury, was opened. Coke and the two presbyters ordained Asbury on successive days a deacon, an elder, and general superintendent, a title that Asbury himself changed to bishop.

From 1784 to 1803 Coke made nine voyages to America. He was tireless in his labors for American Methodism; and his lengthy and arduous preaching tours were fruitful. Yet his career in America was a series of conflicts and misunderstandings. In his numerous disputes with Asbury he was inevitably unsuccessful. His solitary triumph over Asbury, who desired merely a Methodist school, was Cokesbury College, founded at Abingdon, Maryland, in 1787; but even this was not lasting, for in December 1795 the college was completely destroyed by fire.

When, during the third conference, Coke suggested that the continent be divided between himself and Asbury as bishops, Asbury secured the passage of a resolution “consenting” that Coke remain in England until recalled and limiting the exercise of his duties as bishop. Although the control of Coke in American Methodism was merely nominal, Asbury remained jealous of the empty priority of consecration that he enjoyed. A storm of criticism broke upon both Asbury and Coke when they, with considerable courage, took a firm stand against slavery.

In 1785 they presented an antislavery petition to George Washington at Mount Vernon. In June of 1789 Coke committed a serious indiscretion when he assisted Asbury in preparing a congratulatory address to Washington as president of the United States; for this the English conference at Bristol formally rebuked him. His efforts to unite the Methodist and Episcopal churches in America in 1791 produced great indignation and were as fruitless as were his similar efforts in England eight years later. He did not return to America after 1803. In 1790 the first Methodist missionary committee had been formed in England with Coke as its head; when the missionary organization was revised in 1804 Coke was made its president. He died after being asea for four months on his way to start a mission in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in the East Indies.

Achievements

• Thomas Coke gained the high and enduring place in the history of Methodism for his conspicuous success in the work of the foreign missions. He was instrumental in organizing the first Methodist missionary committee in England.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Four Discourses on the Duties of a Minister of the Gospel. by Thomas Coke, L.L.D

    (The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration a...)

  • A History of the West Indies: Containing the Natural, Civil, and Ecclesiastical History of Each Island; With an Account of the Missions Instituted in ... But More Especially of the Missions Which Hav

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • The Preacher's Manual

Religion

Coke was a member of the Methodist church.

Views

Coke was an early opponent of slavery.

Connections

Father:

Bartholomew Coke

Mother:

Anne Phillips Coke

References

• Thomas Coke: Apostle of Methodism by Vickers, John A. (2013) Paperback