TRINITY METHODIST CHURCH, _273 Meeting Street_: As its congregation springs from the old Cumberland Church, the first Methodist group in Charleston (1786), Trinity may be called Charleston’s oldest Methodist congregation, but the building it now occupies was recently acquired from the Westminster Presbyterian Church (which combined the abandoned Third Presbyterian in Archdale Street and the Glebe Street Presbyterian Church). Through years Trinity Church was at 57 Hasell Street. Here the first church was erected before 1813. For a short time the church was used by an Episcopal congregation. The story goes that some of the congregation were not agreeable to occupancy by Episcopalians and sought legal counsel. They were informed that possession was “nine points in the law.” So, after an Episcopalian service, the Methodist brothers and sisters, when the congregation was dismissed, locked the doors from the inside, fastened the windows and mounted guard within the edifice, women assisting, until the case was returned in their favor. During this peaceful siege, a lad was born in the building; he years later became a bishop of the church. The Methodist church was planted in Charleston when Bishop Asbury and his associates came here in 1785. The first church building was erected in Cumberland Street in 1787, and within it the first Methodist Conference in South Carolina was held the same year. This building was destroyed in the fire of 1861. John and Charles Wesley had visited Charlestown in 1736. John Wesley preached in St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in 1737. The Wesleys came with General James Oglethorpe’s Georgia colonists. Charles Wesley was the general’s secretary and John Wesley was to be a missionary among the Indians.