THE COMING OF THE METHODISTS *«**Let us pause here at the beginning of the 20th Century and go back to a much earlier period, when the first Methodists came to this Island. Charlottetown was then a mere village. It was in the year 1774 that Benjamin Chappell and his wife Elizabeth came to the shores of this Island. A tablet in the church bears the following inscription: "In memory of Benjamin Chappell 1739 - 1825. Hebrews XI - 8, 10". An original letter from John Wesley to Benjamin Chappell dated the 5th day of September 1772 holds an honoured place in the church. A photostatic copy is included herein. Born in London, England , Benjamin was the elder son of Benjamin and Rachael Chappell, both worthy members of the Church of England. Young Benjamin received a good education in England and learned his father's business of wheelwright and machinist. One day, as he was standing at his father's shop door, a sailor, who was acting as one of John Wesley 's tract distributors, handed him a small pamphlet. As a result of reading this tract, he joined the Methodist Society and was soon taking part in the services. It is said that he even accompanied Wesley occasionally on his tours. In 1770, while John Wesley was on his first visit to Inverness , Scotland, he wrote in his Journal: "Benjamin and William Chappell, who had been here (in Inverness ) three months, were waiting for a vessel to return to London. They had met a few people every night, to sing and pray together and their behaviour suitable to their profession (of faith), has removed much prejudice". In the autumn of 1774, emigrants from London, among whom were Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Chappell , who had been married the previous February, arrived in a sailing vessel on the North Shore of Prince Edward Island . They gave the name " New London " to the surrounding country and soon built up on the West side of the Harbour entrance, the village of "Elizabethtown" — Mrs. Chappell 's name. The population in the winter of 1774-75 was 129 people. "Not a vestige now remains", (says an account in 1888) "except the old burial ground". But there were old people living in New London at that time, who remembered a long row of houses, all in ruins, between "" and the burial grounds in Mr. Sim 's field. Elizabethtown is also marked in maps, published in London, as late as 1830. — 13 —