This ordination certificate was signed by Francis Asbury (1745–1816), a founding bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, and issued to a man named James Campbell. Asbury was originally from England and first arrived in the American colonies as a Methodist missionary in 1771. Over the next 45 years, he traveled thousands of miles throughout the young United States and delivered an estimated 16,000 sermons. In addition to preaching, however, Asbury also trained and ordained ministers and deacons, such as Campbell. By the time of Asbury’s death, the Methodist Church had grown from a few hundred members to over 200,000, eventually becoming the largest denomination in the United States.