Wesley, who for many years had been studying the question of ordination, finally became convinced that under special missionary circumstances, he, a priest of the Church of England, had the right to ordain. "I verily believe," he wrote to his brother Charles in 1780, "I have as good a right to ordain as to administer the Lord's supper." Acting on this belief, Wesley ordained lay preachers Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vasey for ministry in America on September 1, 1784. At the same time he "set apart" Thomas Coke to be a joint superintendent with Francis Asbury of the American work. With these men Wesley sent several items to America: a letter explaining his ordinations, another letter indicating his choice of Coke and Asbury to be joint superintendents, a hymn book, and a prayer book that included Wesley's modifications of the Church of England's doctrinal guidelines.
With this momentous baggage, Coke, Whatcoat, and Vasey arrived in New York City in November 1784. Coke and Whatcoat proceeded to Barratt's Chapel in Delaware, where Coke told Asbury that Wesley had appointed the two of them to superintend the Methodist work in America. Asbury said he would not accept the responsibility unless elected to it by his fellow preachers. So Freeborn Garrettson, accompanied by "Black Harry" Hosier, was sent out to call the preachers together on Christmas Eve in Baltimore.