212 History of Methodism 



been a missionary also in the West Indies. This gen- 

 tleman, after ministering to them a short time, con- 

 cluded that his temporal interests might be better 

 served by selling the church. He accordingly bar- 

 gained it away to a Protestant Episcopal clergyman. 

 The Protestant Episcopalians took possession of it, 

 built pews in it, and had it dedicated according to 

 their forms. But the original trustees were not dis- 

 posed to submit tamely to these proceedings. A law- 

 suit was the consequence, which resulted favorably to 

 the trustees; the church was restored to them, and the 

 congregation was served sometimes by one, and some- 

 times by another, until at length they remembered the 

 days of old, and invited the Methodist preachers to 

 occupy the pulpit, which at first they did only a part 

 of the time. But finally an amicable arrangement 

 was made by which they became identified with the 

 Methodist Episcopal Church. The union so happily 

 formed has been most graciously cemented by God's 

 blessing; and we may only say further on this point 

 that all the churches and parsonages built by the 

 "Primitive Methodists" have passed to our own use. 

 (Bishop Andrew.) 



Mr. Hammett built a second church in the city, and 

 his party erected churches in Georgetown, Savannah, 

 and Wilmington in North Carolina. William Mere- 

 dith had charge of the latter, and gathered to it a large 

 congregation of blacks; he afterward withdrew from 

 Hammett, and when he died, in 1799, left his church, 

 parsonage, and society to the care of the Methodist 

 Episcopal Church. Mr. Hammett died in 1803, about 

 eleven years after his secession, and the schism be- 

 came extinct. 



The sixth session of the South Carolina Conference 



