2fi History of Methodism 



of Shaftesbury and Locke, when the Dissenters, in no 

 fear of having the Church of England made the na- 

 tional religion of the province, since no motion to that 

 end had at any time been brought forward in the As- 

 sembly, and in particular with no thought of opening 

 the way to so vital a change in the fundamental law, 

 granted, in 1694, by legislative act, with the approval 

 of the Governor, Joseph Blake, who was also a Dis- 

 senter, to Samuel Marshall, the rector of St. Philip's 

 Church, and to his successors, a salary of one hundred 

 and fifty pounds sterling per annum, with a house and 

 glebe and two servants. This act of Christian recog- 

 nition and generous liberality on the part of the 

 Dissenters " being notoriously known to be above two- 

 thirds of the people, and the richest and soberest 

 among them," was duly appreciated not only by Mr. 

 Marshall and his successor, Edward Marston, but also 

 by the better class of Episcopalians in general, and 

 had the happy effect of diffusing for a time feelings 

 of harmony and mutual good- will throughout the 

 province. 



Bat in 1703, Sir Nathaniel Johnson, a bigoted prel- 

 atist, was appointed Governor, and conspired with 

 ex-Governor James Moore, whom he made attorney- 

 general, and Nicholas Trott, to whom he gave the office 

 of chief -justice, by means of " undue elections," and 

 the blending of religious controversy with political 

 questions, to make the Church of England the estab- 

 lished religion of the colony. James Moore, oppressed 

 with poverty, had sought the office of Governor in 

 1700 to enrich himself, and had procured a bill to be 

 introduced in the Assembly of that year, regulating 

 the Indian trade, which, if it had, passed, would have 

 secured to him the benefit of that lucrative com- 



