210 THE GRANITE MONTHLY.
again visited Portsmouth Feb. 25, 1745, and preached for Rev. William Shurtleff at the South church; on the following day (26th), for Rev. Jabez Fitch, at the North Parish, and subsequently, Sept. 23d to 29th, 1770, he preached again in Portsmouth and vicinity, once at Kittery, once at York, and the 29th at Exeter; on the 23d, 24th, and 25th, four times at Portsmouth, being the week previous to his death, which occurred at Newburyport, Sept. 30, 1770. Mr. Whitefield left Portsmouth for Exeter, where he preached on Saturday, for two hours in the open air, as none of the buildings in that town could accommodate the people who desired to hear him. This was his last sermon. In the afternoon he rode to Newburyport, where he intended to preach the next day; but he died suddenly, on Sunday morning, of asthma, and was buried under the pulpit of the Federal Street Congregationalist church. "No clergyman ever possessed the power of oratory in a higher degree." He was a Calvinistic Methodist, — not distinguished as an organizer — while Wesley was Arminian in sentiment, and eminently successful. Methodism proper, however, was not introduced into Portsmouth until 1790, when Jesse Lee, "the apostle of Methodism in New England," first visited that town. In 1787 Lee was stationed at Baltimore; in 1788 he labored in New Jersey; and in 1789 entered New England, spending considerable time in Connecticut, where he formed several societies. He was a Presiding Elder in 1790, and had the oversight of the ministers appointed at Boston, New Haven and Fairfield, but was stationed at Boston, where he had a colleague, being thus enabled to visit contiguous places, and finally to extend his travels to Salem, Ipswich, Newburyport, and thence to Portsmouth. His biographer informs us that "From Newburyport he proceeded to Portsmouth, which was then the metropolis of New Hampshire. Here he preached to a solemn and attentive congregation, and some were truly thankful that he had visited the place. He then left Portsmouth and returned to Newburyport." This was, doubtless, the first sermon preached in Portsmouth by a properly accredited Methodist minister, and, indeed, the first in the State. It was delivered on or about the 11th of July, 1790; but the place and the subject are unknown; nor can it be ascertained where Mr. Lee was entertained. There are no records concerning either. He writes "We used to preach occasionally in that town (Portsmouth), from that time (1790), but we never made any particular stand until 1808, which was eighteen years from the time of our first beginning there. In the course of that year one of our preachers (George Pickering) took his station in that town and purchased an old meeting house that was formerly occupied by another denomination (Universalist), and he had a good congregation to hear him." In 1 791 Mr. Lee was appointed Presiding Elder for New England, having under his supervision twelve preachers and seven circuits in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. He labored most of the time in Lynn and adjacent towns. August 26 he stopped at Greenland, N. H., where he dined with Dr. Clement March, a well-known citizen of that town, and then proceeded to Portsmouth, where he was entertained by Rev. Joseph Walton. A meeting was first held in a private dwelling, and at the request of Mr. Walton, Mr. Lee preached in his church, on Pitt street, the text being from Psalms 1:6; "For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; but the way of the ungodly shall perish." Lee writes: "I found it to be a time of much life and love, and some of the people seemed to be much affected. When the meeting ended, some blessed God for an interview, and when the minister asked them what they thought of shutting such preaching as that out of the meeting house, they replied, if they shut that man out, they did not know whom they would let in. All seemed very
