with whom she had three children. When Thomas Birch Freeman was six years old, his father died. He lived with his mother in “a middle-class house facing a three-cornered space, a public house, “The Dolphin”, occupying the second, and a [thatched] cottage, then used as the Wesleyan preaching-house, the third corner of the triangle" in Twyford where it is presumed he received a solid education, although there is no historical record of the institutions he formally enrolled in. During his childhood, he and his friends used to play pranks on a local cobbler who eventually introduced Freeman to Methodism. This shoemaker lived in the Wesleyan preaching house and was a Methodist class-leader and a lay preacher of his village. Freeman followed the footsteps of his late father and became a gardener on a Suffolk estate where he developed an interest in botany. T. B. Freeman became a botanist and head gardener to Sir Robert Harland at Orwell Park on the banks of the Orwell, near Ipswich in Suffolk. Freeman was an avid reader and became knowledgable in horticulture and listing plants Latin botanical names. Freeman kept a small library in his rooms. Decades later when he relocated to the Gold Coast, Thomas Freeman exchanged correspondence with Sir William Hooker (1785–1865), the first Director of Kew Gardens near London, the world’s leading botanical institution, on West African flora. Freeman also researched and collated scientific data on tropical fauna for Kew Gardens. Freeman developed a newfound zeal for the Methodist faith which was frowned upon by his employer, Sir Robert Harland who asked him to choose between his religion and his career. Around this time, the Methodist Mission Society in England had made a mass appeal for volunteer missionaries to go to Africa to propagate the Gospel. He felt he had received a divine call to become a missionary and responded to the appeal by assuring himself, “It may not be necessary for me to live; but it is necessary for me to go." He consulted his friends on the matter, particularly Peter Hill of Chelmondiston who he considered a lifelong family friend. Subsequently, he resigned from his position at Orwell Park. Sir Robert Harland's wife, Lady Arethusa (1777–1860) was unhappy with Freeman's decision to leave and tried unsuccessfully to persuade him to stay. Freeman passed a satisfactory examination before a special committee at the old Mission-house in Hatton Garden. After delivering