THE METHODIST REVIVAL
The first record we have of David Sargent is his marriage to Mary Hickmott. This occurred in Sittingbourne on July 24, 1791.
Charles Wesley died that year, which seems appropriate considering the Sargent family's subsequent history. The founder of the Methodist movement is known to have visited Sittingbourne on at least three occasions. He described the assembly as "deeply attentive" in 1768. (THE JOURNAL OF JOHN WESLEY, A.M. FROM October 14 1735 – October 24 1790; Wesleyan Conference Office: London, 1901; vol. III of four, pp. 330, 331) He passed through again three years later, “having preached to a small but much-affected company at Sittingbourne." (JOURNAL OF JOHN WESLEY, vol. III, p 424) His last visit was in 1784.
The Methodist movement changed British society. Their long battle against slavery continued until August 1st 1834, when it was finally outlawed throughout the British Empire. The beginnings of the public school system can be traced back to the Sunday School movement, which Wesley both promoted and threw the entire weight of his organisation behind. Methodists were also in the forefront of the battle for abolition of the death penalty and a humanization of the way prison inmates are treated. Wesley proclaimed that “the world is my parish”, and the first Methodist missionary journeys could be said to be the trips that he and Whitefield took to the Americas. Towards the end of his life, the Methodists established what was soon the foremost of early Protestant societies.
A Captain?
My cousin Jenny wrote of a family legend that David "or some other Sargent ancestor was a sea captain who fell ill in Sittingbourne and was nursed to health by a girl whom he married." Given the proximity of Sittingbourne to the sea and the dearth of any Sargents in the area, the idea that he was at least sailor seems plausible.
This would seem to indicate our David could have been born anywhere in England. A quick IGI search reveals:
David s/o Robert & Martha Sargent was christened in Melford, Suffolk on Nov 22, 1767. Though it is too early in our search to know if this is our David, it is noteworthy that our ancestor named his second son Robert and second daughter Martha.
CHILDREN
David Sargent was probably still in his teen age years when Wesley died, but he baptized all of this children except our ancestor Harriet in the Methodist Chapel that arose on High Street, Sittingboure: