Table Of ContentHenry Foxall’s Journals, 1816–1817
This book introduces four journals that Henry Foxall (1758–1823) kept
during a trip to the British Isles in 1816–1817. It provides unique primary
source material, extensively annotated for clarity and context. Foxall’s
journals offer an eyewitness account of Methodist embourgeoisement and
institutionalization as they were occurring. They also provide some insight
into the developing differences between American and British Methodism.
The journals contain information on recent technological innovations of
the British Industrial Revolution and recount Foxall’s interactions with a
number of prominent persons, both in British Methodism and outside it.
Because of Foxall’s close relationship with Francis Asbury, his status as
an insider at the highest levels of American Methodism, and his clear un-
derstanding of the British Methodism in which he was raised, converted,
and first licensed as a local preacher, his perspective is well-informed and
unique.
Jane Donovan is Book Review Editor for Methodist History and a retired
lecturer in Religious Studies at West Virginia University, USA.
Routledge Methodist Studies Series
Series Editor: William Gibson, Director of the Oxford Centre for
Methodism and Church History, Oxford Brookes University, UK
Methodism remains one of the largest denominations in the USA and is
growing in South America, Africa and Asia (especially in Korea and China).
This series spans Methodist history and theology, exploring its success as a
movement historically and in its global expansion. Books in the series will
look particularly at features within Methodism which attract wide interest,
including: the unique position of the Wesleys; the prominent role of women
and minorities in Methodism; the interaction between Methodism and pol-
itics; the “Methodist conscience” and its motivation for temperance and
pacifist movements; the wide range of Pentecostal, holiness and evangelical
movements; and the interaction of Methodism with different cultures.
Editorial Board:
Ted A. Campbell, Professor of Church History, Perkins School of
Theology, Southern Methodist University, USA
David N. Hempton, Dean, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard
University, USA
Priscilla Pope-Levison, Associate Dean, Perkins School of Theology,
Southern Methodist University, USA
Martin Wellings, Superintendent Minister of Oxford Methodist Circuit
and Past President of the World Methodist Historical Society, UK
Karen B. Westerfield Tucker, Professor of Worship, Boston
University, USA
The Methodist Church in Poland
Activity and Political Conditions, 1945–1989
Ryszard Michalak
Anglican-Methodist Ecumenism
The Search for Church Unity, 1920–2020
Edited by Jane Platt and Martin Wellings
Henry Foxall’s Journals, 1816–1817
Transatlantic Methodism in Transition
Jane Donovan
For more information and a full list of titles in the series, please visit: https://
www.routledge.com/religion/series/AMETHOD
Henry Foxall’s Journals,
1816–1817
Transatlantic Methodism in Transition
Jane Donovan
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Jane Donovan
The right of Jane Donovan to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 9781032111377 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781032123899 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781003224303 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003224303
Typeset in Sabon
by codeMantra
For Nicola Nelson
Contents
Acknowledgments viii
Abbreviations x
Introduction: Whither Foxall? 1
1 Journal One 26
2 Journal Two 77
3 Journal Three 113
4 Journal Four 149
Appendix: Scripture References in the Journals 181
Index 183
Acknowledgments
Several years ago I traveled from my then-home in Washington, DC to the
Chicago suburbs to meet Nicola Nelson and transcribe the journals kept by
her ancestor, Henry Foxall. I had suspected that there might be journals,
but it took the inspired curiosity of my dear friend Virginia Steele Wood
to locate Ann Coulthurst, Nicola’s mother, and through her, Nicola. I owe
Nicola and Ann an enormous debt of gratitude.
The Foxall Journals have been a lengthy, complicated project. It took a great
deal of research before I realized what Foxall had set before me. As my friend
and mentor Doug Strong recently pointed out, “There is a gold mine in those
journals.” He’s right. I am especially obliged to the Archives of the United
Methodist Church in Madison, NJ for permission to publish them.
Many thanks to treasured colleagues Doug Strong, who has lived with these
journals and my curiosity about them for a very long time, Ted Campbell,
Russ Richey, William Gibson, Tim Macquiban, Robert Williams, Fred Day,
Dale Patterson, Mark Shenise, and Ashley Boggan Dreff. John Vickers was
enormously helpful in identifying harder-to-find English Methodist preachers.
David Hallam’s extensive knowledge of the West Midlands proved essential.
Ken Tolley’s unbeatable copy editing skills improved the text considerably.
Thanks to art historian Linda Rosefsky for research on Benjamin West, Paul
Fitzmaurice and Janet McNamara for sources on John Quincy Adams, and
Duane Watson for correspondence and accounts of George Suckley. I also wish
to express my appreciation to Sarah Roberts of the Ironbridge Museum Trust
and Lauren Roberts of the University of Edinburgh.
Virginia Steele Wood of the Library of Congress has been an invaluable
coach and resource. I am indebted to Judi McCracken, reference librarian ex-
traordinaire at West Virginia University. WVU colleagues Rudy Almasy and
Pat Conner shared their wisdom, and I thank former WVU students Joe Super,
Ken Tolley, Kyria Henry, Katie Kline, and Dwight Pavlovic for their assistance.
My deepest gratitude, however, is to my husband Graeme Donovan and
our daughter Kathleen Dailey, for their patience and encouragement.
Jane Donovan
Louisville, Kentucky
May 2021
Figure 0.1 M ap of Henry Foxall’s travels in England and Wales in 1816–1817.
Illustration by Pablo Garcia Loenza.
