John Wesley 1703-1791
Article and Photos Courtesy Adger

John Wesley was born on the 17th of June 1703, in Epworth Rectory, Lincolnshire.
He was the fifteenth of nineteen children of Samuel and Susanna Wesley. The father of John Wesley was the Rector of Epworth, and his mother was a remarkable woman in wisdom and intelligence.

At the age of six, John Wesley was one of the fortunate children to be rescued by a neighbour, from the great fire at Epworth Rectory in 1709. In 1714 he was admitted to Charterhouse School, London, and in 1720 became an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford. He was ordained as a deacon in 1725 and after finishing his studies he remained at Oxford where he taught Greek. It was while he was at Oxford that Wesley became a member of a small group of students and tutors which he co-founded with his brother Charles and George Whitefield. This group of people became known as the Holy Club or sometimes the Oxford Methodists.

George Whitefield
In 1735, Wesley, along with his brother and George Whitefield, went to America and became Evangelical Missionaries in Georgia where they developed their powers as preachers. During the voyage they fell into the company of several Moravians, members of the association recently renewed by Count Zinzendorf. It was noted by John Wesley in his diary, that during one great
tempest when the English people on board lost all self-possession, these Germans impressed him by their composure, and also their humility under shameful treatment. This made Wesley enter into the more deeper experiences of Religion and help develop those marvelous powers, which made him an extremely popular Preacher. On his return in 1737 to Bristol, John Wesley began his passionate sermons, this upset the local clergy so much he was shunned from their gatherings. John Wesley overcame this problem by building their first Methodist Chapel in Bristol in 1739.
Wesley and Whitefield also began open air preaching, known as camp meetings, and travelled all over the country, mainly to poor neighbourhoods where his followers were mostly industrial workers and agricultural labourers. Wesley preached about personal morality and encouraged people to work hard and warned against the dangers of drinking and gambling.
In 1751 John Wesley married Mary Vazeille, but probably due to the lifestyle he chose, the couple separated in 1755.
During his life it is said that Wesley travelled many thousands of miles around Britain, by carriage or on horseback and preached several times a day. He also wrote or edited hundreds of publications including, psalms, hymns and sermons.
John Wesley died of old age in 1791 at City Road, London.
He left behind a Methodist movement of over 76,000 members, and after his death the Methodists formally separated from the Anglican Church. Membership continued to grow and by 1801 had reached 87,000. The movement was weakend in 1808 though, when the followers of Hugh Bourne, some two hundred of them, were expelled. This was the start of the Primitive Methodist movement, while the followers of John Wesley became known as Wesleyan Methodists.