Page:A short account of the rise and progress of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in America.djvu/11

 names of some of the men who went forward in this dawning of. religious privileges, were Francis Jacobs, William Brown, Peter Williams, Abraham Thompson, June Scott, Samuel Pontier, Thomas Miller, William Miller, James Varick, William Hamilton, and some others whose names are not now recollected, who united together, and by some means hired a house in Cross Street, between Mulberry and Orange Streets, which formerly was a stable, but at that time was occupied by William Miller as a cabinet-maker's shop, which house they fitted up with seats and a pulpit, and also a gallery. In this house they held prayer meetings on Sunday afternoons, in the interval of Divine service among our white brethren, between afternoon and evening or night service, and held also preaching and exhorting meetings on Wednesday nights, by such of our coloured brethren that were licensed to preach and exhort. At this time there were, in the city of New-York, three Licensed Preachers, viz. Abraham Thompson, June Scott and Thomas Miller, and William Miller, Exhorter, who officiated as they had opportunity, and once in a while they were aided by coloured preachers from Philadelphia and other places. In this way they continued until some time in the year 1799, when the number of coloured members, of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the city of New-York, became further increased, and as the seats in the church among our white brethren were limited, they began to think about building a House of Worship for themselves, and to form themselves into a body corporate, separate from the white church, according to the privilege granted to religious societies by the laws of the state of New- York. For this