Whitefield, George

hwit'feld, George (1714-1770), a noted English evangelistic preacher. He was born at Gloucester and educated at Oxford. Here he was a member of a society of young men including the Wesleys. He was ordained a deacon and priest, but instead of settling down to a parish he became an open-air preacher. He traveled extensively in England, Scotland, and Wales, holding what would now be called revival meetings. In 1737 he joined the Wesleys in Savannah. He made successive trips to America, preaching along the coast from Georgia to New England. On one of these occasions he was heard by Benjamin Franklin at Philadelphia. White-field incurred the hostility of Harvard and the New England Puritans. He fell out with the Wesleys also in regard to points of doctrine. He continued active to the very day of his death. He died at Newburyport, Massachusetts, and was buried beneath the pulpit of the Federal Street Church.