Wesley

an English family of talented clergymen and poets. The father, Samuel Wesley, and his three sons, Samuel, John, and Charles, merit notice.

SAMUEL WESLEY, the father, was a graduate of Exeter College, Oxford. He was for many years rector of the parish of Epworth in Lincolnshire. He wrote a number of religious works, including a Life of Christ, and one or two popular hymns, including Behold the Saviour of Mankind. He had three sons, all of whom were educated at Christ Church, Oxford.

SAMUEL WESLEY, the oldest son, lived 1691-1739. He took orders in the Church of England and adhered to that denomination through life. He was head master of a grammar school at Tiverton. He wrote a number of well known hymns.

JOHN WESLEY, the second son, the founder of Methodism, was born at Epworth June 28, 1703. He died in London March 2, 1791. He was graduated in 1724, and was appointed a fellow in Lincoln College, Oxford. In 1729 he acted as his father's curate at Epworth. On returning to Oxford to a lecture, he became a member of a coterie of young men of a serious turn of mind who met Sunday evenings to study the Scriptures. The members were nicknamed Bible Moths. The little society fasted twice a week and took communion frequently. They interested themselves in charities, visiting the prisons and the sick. Charles Wesley, Harvey, and Whitefield were members of this society. In 1735, at the invitation of General Oglethorpe, John, with his brother Charles, went to preach to the colonists of Georgia. Here he remained three years. He became intimately acquainted with a Miss Hopkey, a niece of the Governor of Savannah. He expected to marry her, but did not do so. On her marriage to a Mr. Williamson, he refused to admit her to the Lord's Table. This created a disturbance, on which Wesley "shook the dust from his feet" and returned to England. He became associated with Whitefield in the management of open air meetings. In London he established himself in an old building, known as the foundry, formerly used by the government in casting brass cannon. This structure was his headquarters for some time. Although Wesley never formally left the Church of England, being a strong believer in Episcopacy, he founded an association known as the United Society for Week Day Meetings. His efforts were directed toward a revival of piety within the Church of England, but the organization of the society mentioned is regarded usually as the beginning of Methodism. He was a man of great energy. He was capable of riding fifty miles a day and of addressing several outdoor meetings. He wrote a number of miscellaneous books, including a grammar, a Dictionary of the English Grammar, several biographies and lectures on logic and medicine, as well as several manuals of history. The copyright brought him in a comfortable living and rendered him independent of church livings and collections.

CHARLES WESLEY, the third son, was born at Epworth. He lived 1708-1788. He was a member of the coterie mentioned above at Oxford. He says of himself that he began "to observe the method of study prescribed by the university. This gained me the harmless nickname of methodist," a name subsequently transferred to the little society of which he was a leading member. He accompanied his brother John to Georgia, but he was not successful in that colony. He returned to England and became an active itinerant preacher aiming to do good among the lowly. He wrote, it is said, over 6,000 hymns, some 500 of which still find place in the Methodist hymnals.

See Methodist; Epworth League, etc.