Thomas Coke (bishop)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Thomas Cooke (bishop).

Thomas Taylor
Succeeded byJoseph Benson
In office
1805–1806
Preceded byHenry Moore
Succeeded byAdam Clarke
Personal details
Born9 September 1747
Brecon, South Wales
Died2 May 1814 (1814-05-03) (aged 66)
OccupationMethodist bishop

Thomas Coke (9 September 1747 – 2 May 1814) was the first

bishop.[1] Born in Brecon, Wales, he was ordained as a priest in 1772, but expelled from his Anglican pulpit of South Petherton for being a Methodist. Coke met John Wesley in 1776. He later co-founded Methodism in America
and then established the Methodist missions overseas, which in the 19th century spread around the world.

Early life and ordination

Born in

Master of Arts in 1770, and Doctor of Civil Law in 1775. On returning to Brecon he served as mayor
in 1772.

In the same year as his mayoralty he was ordained in the

Easter Sunday 1777, and his parishioners celebrated at the rector's behest by ringing the church bells and opening a hogshead
of cider. He returned to Petherton in 1807 and preached to a crowd of 2,000.

Meeting with John Wesley

He met John Wesley in August 1776, becoming one of his closest assistants. Wesley called Coke "the flea" because he seemed always to be hopping around on his missions.

He was appointed Superintendent of the London District in 1780 and President of the Methodist Church in Ireland in 1782 – a function he was to serve many times in the coming decades.

Early plans for Methodist missions

In January 1784, Thomas Parker, "a barrister and able local preacher from York", joined Coke in issuing a "Plan of the Society for the Establishment of Missions among the Heathens" (Coke 2013:48; Vickers 2013:133-135)[2]

Voyage to America

The house in which Dr. Coke commenced the Jamaica Mission (May 1852)[3]
Coke Chapel, Kingston, Jamaica (April 1852)[4]

Following the

Puritan missionary to North American aboriginals), and a treatise on episcopacy. A conference of Methodist preachers was held at Baltimore, starting on Christmas Day 1784, at which Coke and Francis Asbury
were elected superintendents, and the Church was constituted as an independent body under the name of the Methodist Episcopal Church. On 27 December Coke ordained deacons and presbyters and consecrated Asbury as Superintendent; Coke and Asbury are regarded as having been jointly the first superintendents of the Methodist Church in America (the American Methodist Conference formally endorsed the title of Bishop in 1787).

Other voyages

Coke returned to England in June 1785 and made eight further visits to America, his final visit being in 1803. While in America he spoke out against slavery and wrote a letter on the subject to George Washington. Washington met Coke twice and even invited him to preach before Congress. After spending some months travelling throughout Great Britain and Ireland, Coke made his first mission to the West Indies in 1786, making further visits in 1788–89, 1790, and 1792–93.

Death of Wesley

Following Wesley's death in 1791 Coke became Secretary to the British Conference, having been widely supposed to be Wesley's desired successor. He was

President of the Conference
in 1797 and 1805, on both occasions trying to persuade the Conference to confer on him the official title of Bishop.

More voyages

In the same year he went to Paris and preached in French. He established a mission in Gibraltar in 1803 and then spent five years travelling in the cause of Methodist missions, including visiting Sierra Leone. He promoted others in setting up missions in Canada and Scotland.

Marriages

On 1 April 1805, at the age of 58, Coke married Penelope Goulding Smith, a wealthy woman who happily spent her personal fortune furthering the missions. She travelled with him until her death on 25 January 1811. That same year in December he married for a second time, to Anne Loxdale, and his wife died the following year, 5 December 1812.[5]

Death of Coke

He hoped to open Methodist missions in the

Ceylon (Sri Lanka).[6] It is thought he died of a "fit of apoplexy," or possibly a stroke. He died aboard ship, located 2 degrees, 29 minutes south latitude, and 59 degrees, 29 minutes east longitude, in the Indian Ocean
, where he was also laid to rest.

Asbury described Coke as "a gentleman, a scholar, a bishop to us; and as a minister of Christ, in zeal, in labours, in services, the greatest man in the last century."

Publications

Coke's publications included:

He also contributed to Henry Moore's Life of Wesley (1792).

See also

References

  1. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Coke, Thomas" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 655.
  2. ISBN 978-1-62032-975-7
    .
  3. ^ "The house in which Dr. Coke commenced the Jamaica Mission" (PDF). The Wesleyan Juvenile Offering: A Miscellany of Missionary Information for Young Persons. IX. Wesleyan Missionary Society: 55. May 1852. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  4. ^ "Coke Chapel, Kingston, Jamaica" (PDF). The Wesleyan Juvenile Offering: A Miscellany of Missionary Information for Young Persons. IX. Wesleyan Missionary Society: 42. April 1852. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  5. ^ "Adventures of Asbury" by Eric Jennings, The Historical Trail 1997: Yearbook of Conference Historical Society and Commission on Archives and History, Southern New Jersey Conference, The United Methodist Church (issue 34, 1997), p. 31 footnote 43
  6. ^ "Thomas Coke". The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Columbia University Press. 2007.

Sources

External links

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