Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum
   You are in: Museum of History >> Hall of North and South Americans >> John Wesley





The Seven Flags of the New Orleans Tri-Centennial 1718-2018

For more information go to New Orleans 300th Birthday

 

Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by James Grant Wilson, John Fiske and Stanley L. Klos. Six volumes, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-1889 and 1999. Virtualology.com warns that these 19th Century biographies contain errors and bias. We rely on volunteers to edit the historic biographies on a continual basis. If you would like to edit this biography please submit a rewritten biography in text form . If acceptable, the new biography will be published above the 19th Century Appleton's Cyclopedia Biography citing the volunteer editor




Virtual American Biographies

Over 30,000 personalities with thousands of 19th Century illustrations, signatures, and exceptional life stories. Virtualology.com welcomes editing and additions to the biographies. To become this site's editor or a contributor Click Here or e-mail Virtualology here.



A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

 





Click on an image to view full-sized

John Wesley

WESLEY, John, founder of Methodism, born in Epworth, Lincolnshire, England, 17 June, 1703; died in London, 2 March, 1791. He was graduated at Christ church college, Oxford, in 1727, and the same year he was ordained presbyter and was his father's curate at Epworth, but he returned to Oxford as tutor in 1729, and became the head of the society that had been founded by his brother Charles and others for personal purification by means of "prayer, fastings, alms, and labors among the poor," the members of which in derision were called "Methodists." In 1735 he accompanied General James Oglethorpe to Georgia as a missionary to the Indians. He began his labors in Savannah, preached and read the liturgy daily, forded rivers, crossed swamps, slept on the ground, fasted, and went barefooted among the children at school to encourage those who had no shoes. His preaching was at first successful, but his rigorous discipline became distasteful alike to settlers and Indians, and at length, on becoming the subject of enmity and persecution, through his attempt to influence the secular affairs of the colony, he relinquished his Work and returned to England in 1738. Shortly after his return he formed the first Methodist society in London, and in the following year, the established churches being closed against him, he joined George Whitefield in his open-air preaching. The number of societies increased, and in May he laid the foundation of the first Methodist chapel in the world at Bristol. At first there was no design to form a new denomination, his desire be-mg rather to promote a revival within the established church. About 1740 differences with Whitefield on doctrinal questions caused the division of the societies into the Calvinistic and Arminian Methodists. He employed laymen in 1741 to take charge of the societies during his travels, assigned them circuits, thus forming the Methodist itineracy, and convened the first annual conference on 25 June, 1744. In 1760 some of his followers sailed for America from Ireland, and became the pioneers of Methodism in the New World. (See EMBURY, PHILIP; HECK, BARBARA; and STRAWBRIDGE, ROBERT.) In 1769 Wesley, in response to an appeal from New York, sent over his first missionaries, who were followed by others in 1771. (See ASBURY, FRANCIS.) In 1780 Mr. Wesley, having been importuned by his missionaries for an ordained ministry, petitioned Bishop Lowth, of London, to ordain a presbyter to administer the sacraments in America. Being refused, he conferred with Thomas Coke, a presbyter of the Church of England, and with others, and on 2 September, 1784, he ordained Coke bishop, after ordaining Thomas Vasey and Richard What-coat as presbyters, with his assistance and that of another presbyter. Bishop Coke immediately sailed for this country, and established the Methodist Episcopal church. This same year Wesley issued his "Deed of Declaration," by which the government of the church was assigned to the conference of 100 members and their successors forever. Wesley had sent by Bishop Coke an abridgment of the English liturgy, entitled "The Sunday Services of the Methodists in North America " (London, 1784), with a " Collection of Psalms and Hymns for the Lord's Day," by John and Charles Wesley (1784). The liturgy soon fell into disuse. He abridged the " Articles of Religion " from the Forty-nine articles of the English church, and the " Discipline of American Methodism " (1785) from his" Large Minutes "; and his " General Rules" for membership was adopted by the conference. His works number about 200 volumes. Collections of his writings have appeared in London (32 vols., 1771-'4; 16 vols., 1806). The first American edition was published in Philadelphia (10 vols., 1826). The best is a corrected edition by Reverend Thomas Jackson, D. D. (7 vols., New York, 1831). His life was written by Dr. Thomas Coke and Henry Moore, to whom all "his manuscripts were left (London, 1792); by Robert Southey (2 vols., London, 1820) ; and by Reverend Luke Tyerman (3 vols., London, 1870-'1). See also "History of the Religious Movement of the Eighteenth Century," by Reverend Abel Stevens, D. D. (3 vols., New York, 1859-'62); "History of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America," by the same (4 vols., New York, 1864-'7 ; abridged ed., 1868); the " Living Wesley," by Dr. James Harrison Rigg (London, 1875); and " Journal of John Wesley," in his works, edited by John Emory (7 vols., New York, 1835).--His brother, Charles, clergyman, born in Epworth, England, 18 December, 1708; died in London, 29 March, 1788, was graduated at Oxford in 1732, and in 1729 was the founder of the society there which, under the leadership of John, was the beginning of Arminian Methodism. After being ordained, he sailed with his brother for Georgia, as General Oglethorpe's secretary, and preacher to the colonists. But the latter refused to conform to the severity of his discipline, and, after an unsuccessful effort in Frederica, he went to Savannah, thence to Charleston, and returned home in 1736. Two years later he joined his brother's itinerancy, meeting with great success, and spent the last years of his life in London. He is best known as a hymn-writer, standing second only to Dr. John Watts. He wrote 7,000 hymns, most of which possess great merit, 625 being in use by the Wesleyans. A volume of his sermons, with a memoir, was published in 1816; a "Journal," with notes, by Reverend Thomas Jackson (2 vols., London, 1841); and a " Poetical Version of the Psalms of David," edited by the Reverend Henry Fish (Nashville, Tennessee, 1854). See "Memorials of the Wesley Family " (London, 1876).

Edited Appletons Encyclopedia, Copyright © 2001 VirtualologyTM

Start your search on John Wesley.


 

 


 


Unauthorized Site: This site and its contents are not affiliated, connected, associated with or authorized by the individual, family, friends, or trademarked entities utilizing any part or the subject's entire name. Any official or affiliated sites that are related to this subject will be hyper linked below upon submission and Evisum, Inc. review.

Copyright© 2000 by Evisum Inc.TM. All rights reserved.
Evisum Inc.TM Privacy Policy

Search:

About Us

 

 

Image Use

Please join us in our mission to incorporate The Congressional Evolution of the United States of America discovery-based curriculum into the classroom of every primary and secondary school in the United States of America by July 2, 2026, the nation’s 250th birthday. , the United States of America: We The People Click Here

 

Historic Documents

Articles of Association

Articles of Confederation 1775

Articles of Confederation

Article the First

Coin Act

Declaration of Independence

Declaration of Independence

Emancipation Proclamation

Gettysburg Address

Monroe Doctrine

Northwest Ordinance

No Taxation Without Representation

Thanksgiving Proclamations

Mayflower Compact

Treaty of Paris 1763

Treaty of Paris 1783

Treaty of Versailles

United Nations Charter

United States In Congress Assembled

US Bill of Rights

United States Constitution

US Continental Congress

US Constitution of 1777

US Constitution of 1787

Virginia Declaration of Rights

 

Historic Events

Battle of New Orleans

Battle of Yorktown

Cabinet Room

Civil Rights Movement

Federalist Papers

Fort Duquesne

Fort Necessity

Fort Pitt

French and Indian War

Jumonville Glen

Manhattan Project

Stamp Act Congress

Underground Railroad

US Hospitality

US Presidency

Vietnam War

War of 1812

West Virginia Statehood

Woman Suffrage

World War I

World War II

 

Is it Real?



Declaration of
Independence

Digital Authentication
Click Here

 

America’s Four Republics
The More or Less United States

 
Continental Congress
U.C. Presidents

Peyton Randolph

Henry Middleton

Peyton Randolph

John Hancock

  

Continental Congress
U.S. Presidents

John Hancock

Henry Laurens

John Jay

Samuel Huntington

  

Constitution of 1777
U.S. Presidents

Samuel Huntington

Samuel Johnston
Elected but declined the office

Thomas McKean

John Hanson

Elias Boudinot

Thomas Mifflin

Richard Henry Lee

John Hancock
[
Chairman David Ramsay]

Nathaniel Gorham

Arthur St. Clair

Cyrus Griffin

  

Constitution of 1787
U.S. Presidents

George Washington 

John Adams
Federalist Party


Thomas Jefferson
Republican* Party

James Madison 
Republican* Party

James Monroe
Republican* Party

John Quincy Adams
Republican* Party
Whig Party

Andrew Jackson
Republican* Party
Democratic Party


Martin Van Buren
Democratic Party

William H. Harrison
Whig Party

John Tyler
Whig Party

James K. Polk
Democratic Party

David Atchison**
Democratic Party

Zachary Taylor
Whig Party

Millard Fillmore
Whig Party

Franklin Pierce
Democratic Party

James Buchanan
Democratic Party


Abraham Lincoln 
Republican Party

Jefferson Davis***
Democratic Party

Andrew Johnson
Republican Party

Ulysses S. Grant 
Republican Party

Rutherford B. Hayes
Republican Party

James A. Garfield
Republican Party

Chester Arthur 
Republican Party

Grover Cleveland
Democratic Party

Benjamin Harrison
Republican Party

Grover Cleveland 
Democratic Party

William McKinley
Republican Party

Theodore Roosevelt
Republican Party

William H. Taft 
Republican Party

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic Party

Warren G. Harding 
Republican Party

Calvin Coolidge
Republican Party

Herbert C. Hoover
Republican Party

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic Party

Harry S. Truman
Democratic Party

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican Party

John F. Kennedy
Democratic Party

Lyndon B. Johnson 
Democratic Party 

Richard M. Nixon 
Republican Party

Gerald R. Ford 
Republican Party

James Earl Carter, Jr. 
Democratic Party

Ronald Wilson Reagan 
Republican Party

George H. W. Bush
Republican Party 

William Jefferson Clinton
Democratic Party

George W. Bush 
Republican Party

Barack H. Obama
Democratic Party

Please Visit

Forgotten Founders
Norwich, CT

Annapolis Continental
Congress Society


U.S. Presidency
& Hospitality

© Stan Klos

 

 

 

 


Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum