In 1784 Wesley ordained Thomas Coke to administer to the Americans after Independence. As a minister Wesley was not supposed to ordain and this partly contributed to the separation of the Methodists from the Church of England four years after Wesley's death. But Coke's ordination and subsequent missionary work across the Atlantic marks the official beginning of Methodism in America.

"I wish I had a hundred preachers like him", Wesley wrote of Coke.