was converted to Christianity during this period. Freeman was in Lagos in 1884 to settle disputes that had arisen in the Wesleyan mission there. On 17 January 1885, during the Synod and the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Gold Coast Methodist Mission, he acted as the principal preacher. The Jubilee Service was held at Cape Coast on 1 February 1885, during which several donations were made to the Jubilee Fund. The Rev. W. Terry Coppin of the Methodist mission provided a written account that was published by the English media. The 1885 Synod had among its ranks fourteen native Methodist pastors as well as a small contingent of European ministers. At the Synod, the Juaben chief, Akyeampong and his brother, Frimpong addressed the gathering and appealed to have a minister stationed in the community of Juaben settlers, lodged behind the Accra hills. Freeman declined an offer from his fellow missionaries to pay for a trip to England citing the cold weather and old age, as he was no longer acclimatised to the temperate regions of the British Isles. 'Father' Freeman, as he was affectionately called in his old age, fully retired in 1886 to his small house close to Accra, together with four of the men he had tutored in the Christian ministry, John A. Solomon, Frederick France, John Plange and Edward T. Fynn. Illness, death and funeral Freeman caught a cold after he went to listen to a sermon on the arrival of a new European missionary, Price. He was taken ill the following May and moved to the Methodist Mission House in Accra. He was infected with the influenza on 6 August 1890. In his final days, Thomas Birch Freeman remained at the mission house, where he died in the early hours of 12 August 1890, aged 80. Freeman's body was laid-in-state at the mission house the following day on 13 August, before his funeral service was held at the Wesleyan Church in Accra, attended by a large crowd. Among the officiating ministers were T. J. Price and S. B. Solomon of the Wesleyan Mission Society, the inconsolable native Methodist minister, John Plange together with the Anglican vicar, D. G. Williams and the historian and Basel Mission pastor, Carl Christian Reindorf. Freeman's remains were buried at the Wesleyan cemetery in Accra. A memorial service was held simultaneously at Cape Coast. Memorials and legacy Freeman's ability to forge formidable relationships