tempted to escape by means of a cord from his window, but on reaching the ground was seized and placed in a more secure and disagreeable cell. On 26 June he was tried at Newgate, and offered pardon if he would take the oath of allegiance; he refused, and, in spite of the intercession of the Spanish ambassador, was executed on 1 July. A few days before his trial he wrote a letter to Dr. Kellison; it is still preserved in Douay College, and was printed in Challoner's 'Martyrs.'
Challoner supplies a somewhat fanciful picture of Maxfield in prison. Granger (i. 376) supposes him to be one of the 'Jesuits and priests in council' depicted in a print in the second volume of the 'Vox Populi' by Thomas Scott.
[Douai Diaries, i. 21, 35; Coppie d'une lettre envoyée d'Angleterre au Seminaire des Anglois à Douai, Douay, 1616; Vita et Martyrium D. Thomæ Maxfildæi, Douay, 1617; Brevis Narratio Martyrii Thomæ Maxfeildii, printed in vol. i. of the Miscellany of the Abbotsford Club from the Balfour MSS. in the Advocates' Library; Hist. MSS. Comm., Hatfield House MSS. iv. 272; Challoner's Martyrs to the Roman Catholic Faith, ii. 68-77, and Modern British Martyrology, iii. 57-64; Granger's Biog. Hist. i. 376; Dod's Church Hist. ii. 378.]
MAXFIELD, THOMAS (d. 1784), Wesleyan, a native of Bristol, of humble origin, was converted by John Wesley during his first visit to the city in 1739. The 'conversion' took place on 1 May. In March 1740 he was travelling with Charles Wesley, and remained with him 'for a year or two.' At the conference of 1766 Wesley spoke of Maxfield as the first layman who 'desired to help him as a son in the gospel,' but in his last journal Joseph Humphreys is said to have been 'the first lay preacher that assisted me in England in the year 1738' (Southey, Life of Wesley, i. 511; cf. Tyerman, Life and Times of John Wesley, i. 276 n., and New, Life of Lady Huntingdon, i. 32).
Maxfield seems early to have gained the confidence ot Charles's brother John, who on 21 April 1741 wrote: 'I am not clear that brother Maxfield should not expound at Greyhound Lane; nor can I as yet do without him' (Wesley, Works, xii. 102; Tyerman, i. 369-70). In 1742, when Wesley left London, he gave Maxfield the charge of the Foundery Society, directing him to pray with the members and give them suitable advice. Maxfield soon passed from praying to preaching, and Lady Huntingdon, who was a constant attendant at the chapel, was impressed by his talents, and 'exhorted him to expound the scriptures.' Many shared Lady Huntingdon's admiration, but others complained to Wesley that Maxfield had usurped the sacred office without being called to it. Wesley hastened back to London, deeply displeased. His mother deprecated his anger, and asserted that Maxfield was 'surely called of God to preach.' After Wesley heard Maxfield he decided the dispute in his favour, and became a convert to lay preaching.
In June 1745 Maxfield, while preaching in Cornwall, was pressed for the navy, but the captain to whom he was taken refused to have him on board, and he was thrown into prison at Penzance. When about to be released he was handed over to the military authorities through the intervention of the Rev. William Borlase of Ludgvan, who was very hostile to the methodists. Wesley, who was preaching in the neighbourhood, rode over on the 19th to Crowan Church-town, where Maxfield was confined, and examined the warrant; and on the 21st attended the meeting of the justices at Marazion, by whom Maxfield was given over to the military (Wesley, Journal, 1745). He served in the army for several years. After his discharge he was at Wesley's request ordained at Bath by Dr. Barnard, .bishop of Derry. From this time he was one of Wesley's chief assistants, as well as an assistant chaplain to the Countess of Huntingdon.
Maxfield, however, was ambitious, and soon created dissatisfaction in the minds of the more sober methodists. As early as 1760 he encouraged 'the select band in London … who professed to be entirely sanctified,' who saw visions and 'began to have a contempt for those who had not.' At the conference of 1761 Maxfield silenced his accusers (Wesley, Works, iii. 120), but Wesley wrote to him subsequently respecting the complaints made of his views, and Maxfield defended his position.
At the beginning of 1762 Wesley wrote to his brother Charles: 'If Thos. Maxfield continue as he is, it is impossible he should long continue with us.' About the same time Fletcher of Madeley, who was well acquainted with Maxfield, asserted that 'spiritual pride, stubbornness, party spirit, uncharitableness, prophetic mistakes — in short, every sinew of enthusiasm is now at work among them [i.e. Maxfield and his friends].' In the course of the year the crisis became more acute. Maxfield had adopted a prediction made by George Bell, a fellow-minister, sharing his mystical opinions that the world would end on 28 Feb. 1763. Wesley openly preached against him on 23 Jan., but with little effect. 'All this time,' he writes, Maxfield 'was continually spiriting up all with whom I was intimate
