Richard Whatcoat

He considered himself fortunate to be in Church of England parish where the Minister, the Reverend Samuel Taylor, was "a converted man".

When he was thirteen Whatcoat was apprenticed to Mr Joseph Jones who lived in Birmingham, shortly after moving to Darlaston in Staffordshire.

In the same instant I was filled with unspeakable peace and joy in believing: all fear of death, judgement, and hell, suddenly vanished.

"[2] Whatcoat's spiritual journey continued and on the 28 March 1761 he understood that Grace was a free gift of God "my soul was drawn out and engaged in a manner it never was before.

The Methodist community which met at Wednesbury included the young Francis Asbury, with whom Whatcoat developed a lifelong friendship, and William Legge the 2nd Earl of Dartmouth.

John Pawson proposed him at that year's Methodist Conference and he was accepted as a probationer, initially stationed at Oxford.

In 1784 John Wesley remedied the situation by himself ordaining Francis Asbury in absentia and Thomas Coke, appointing them joint superintendents of the work in the new United States.

[9] At the Annual Methodist Conference held in Baltimore, Maryland in May 1800, Whatcoat was elected the third Bishop of the new church.

I have been able to travel three thousand four hundred and sixteen miles the last twelve month.....I have great reason to bless God, who has preserved me these many years as an itinerant preacher, during which he have delivered me from many afflictions of body and mind"[11] By the time of his death in 1806 he had been in itinerant ministry for 37 years, 22 of them in the United States.