Rev. John Wesley

One of the twenty-one children of Samuel Wesley the elder, John Wesley attended Charterhouse School before entering Christ Church, Oxford in 1720, aged 16 (B.A. 1724, M.A. 1727; Fellow of Lincoln College Oxford 1726-51). He led his brother Charles's "methodist" society at Oxford before going on to found the Methodist movement proper. Wesley led a religious mission to Georgia (1733); in 1738 he began out-of-doors preaching in towns where churches were closed to him. He published twenty-three volumes of hymns, among many other writings.

TEXT RECORDS:

1744Moral and Sacred Poems: To the Honourable the Countess of Huntingdon.
1749A short Account of the School in Kingswood, near Bristol.

PUBLICATIONS:

A collection of psalms and hymns. 1737, etc.
A dialogue between a predestinarian and his friend. 1742.
An earnest appeal to men of reason and religion. 1743.
A farther appeal. 1745.
Advice to the people called Methodists. 1745.
A second dialogue between an antinomian and his friend. 1745
The principles of a Methodist. 1746.
Primitive physick: or an easy and natural method of curing most diseases. Bristol. 1747.
The character of a Methodist. 1747.
A letter to a person lately joined with the people called Quakers. 1748.
A plain account of the people called Methodists. 1749.
A short address to the inhabitants of Ireland. 1749.
The nature, design and general rules of the United Societies. 1750.
Serious thoughts upon the perseverance of saints. 1751.
Popery calmly considered. 1752.
Serious thoughts occasioned by the late earthquake at Lisbon. 1755.
Queries humbly proposed to Count Zinzendorff. 1755.
An address to the clergy. 1756.
The doctrine of original sin. 1757.
A preservative against unsettled notions in religion. 1758.
A blow at the root: or Christ stabbed in the house of his friends. 1762.
Thoughts on the imputed righteousness of Christ. 1762.
A survey of the wisdom of God in the Creation. 2 vols, 1763.
The complete English dictionary. 1764.
Explanatory notes upon the Old Testament. 1765.
The witness of the Spirit. 1767.
A plain account of Christian perfection as believed and taught by John Wesley from 1725 to 1765. 1770.
Free thoughts on the present state of public affairs. 1770.
Minutes of several conversations between the Rev. Messieurs John and Charles Wesley, and others. 1770.
Works. 32 vols, 1771-74.
Thoughts upon slavery. 1774.
A calm address to our American colonies. 1775.
A concise history of England. 4 vols, 1776.
Some observations on liberty. 1776.
A serious address to the people of England. 1778.
Reflections on the rise and progress of the American rebellion. 1780.
A concise ecclesiastical history. 4 vols, 1781.
A short account of the life and death of the Rev J. Fletcher. 1786.
Serious considerations concerning the doctrine of election and reprobation. 1790.
The Scripture doctrine concerning predestination. 1797.
Poetical works of John and Charles Wesley, ed. G. Osborn. 13 vols, 1868-72.
Journal, ed. N. Curnock. 8 vols, 1909-16.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

Charterhouse
Christ Church College Oxford
Bachelor of Arts
Master of Arts
Lincoln College Oxford
College Fellow

clergyman
schoolmaster
poet
essayist

Arminian Magazine

Walter Churchey
Rev. William Dodd
Rev. James Hervey
Rev. Walter Shirley
Rev. Samuel Wesley
Rev. Samuel Wesley the Younger

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL; DLB.

"Two letters from John Wesley to Samuel Wesley the Younger" Westminster Magazine 2 (April 1774) 180-83; Samuel Badcock, "Curious Anecdotes of the Family of John Wesley" Westminster Magazine 12 (Supplement, 1784) 695-700; Catalogue of five hundred Celebrated Authors (1788); "Memoirs of John Wesley" European Magazine 16 (July-September 1789) 11-14, 99-101, 164-66; "Memoirs of John Wesley" Walker's Hibernian Magazine (August 1789) 395-97; obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 61 (March 1791) 282-84; "John Wesley" European Magazine 19 (March 1791) [portrait]; "John Wesley" New London Magazine 7 (April 1791) 183-84; "Memoirs of John Wesley" The Bee 3 (29 June 1791) 270-77; John Hampson, Memoirs of John Wesley (1791); "Memoirs of John Wesley" Universal Magazine 91 (April 1791) 241-48 [portrait]; "Life of John Wesley" Literary Magazine and British Review 8 (February-March 1792) 81-89, 164-72 [portrait]; Lounger's Common-Place Book (1792; 1796) 2:257-60; John Whitehead, Life of John and Charles Wesley (1793, 1796); Anne Clarke, "Character of John Wesley" Gentleman's Magazine 80 (February 1810) 106-07; Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); Robert Southey, Life of John Wesley and the Rise and Progress of Methodism (1820); Reginald Heber, "Southey's Life of Wesley" Quarterly Review 24 (1820); "Memoir of the Rev. John Wesley" Imperial Magazine 6 (February 1824) 114-36 [portrait]; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34); G. A. Ellis, "John Wesley" Atlantic Monthly 27 (1871); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Foster, Alumni Oxon (1887-91); J. H. Overton, John Wesley (1891); Richard Green, Works of John and Charles Wesley: a Bibliography (1896); Augustine Birrell, "John Wesley" Scribners Magazine 26 (1899); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); Henry Bett, The Hymns of Methodism in Their Literary Relations (1920); Louis B. Wright, "John Wesley: Scholar and Critic" SAQ 29 (1930) 262-81; Brompton F. Harvey, "Methodism and the Romantic Movement" London Quarterly and Holborn Review (1934) 289-302; Alfred A. Body, John Wesley and Education (1936); Frederick C. Gill, The Romantic Movement and Methodism (1937); T. B. Shepherd, "John Wesley and Matthew Prior" London Quarterly 162 (July 1937) 368-73; Neil G. Smith, "The Literary Taste of John Wesley" Queen's Quarterly 45 (1938) 353-58; Thomas Walter Herbert, John Wesley as Editor and Author (1940); Fairchild, in Religious Trends in English Poetry (1942); M. Schmidt, John Wesley: a Theological Biography (1962, 1971); Valentine, British Establishment (1970); Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Rev. John Wesley:

1.	1739  Anonymous, "Verses to a Gentleman" London Daily Post (4 October 1739).
2.	1751  Anonymous, "On the Thirtieth of January" Newcastle Gazette (6 February 1751).
3.	1766  Horace Walpole to John Chute, 10 October 1766; Letters, ed. Cunningham (1906) 5:16-17.
4.	1775  Icaro-Menippus, "Extempore. On Mr. W—'s Calm Address" London Chronicle (1 December 1775) 544.
5.	1776  Anti-Medicaster, "Epigram. On Wesley's Primitive Physic" Morning Chronicle (13 August 1776).
6.	1778  Charles Graham, "On John Wesley's Address to the Americans" Graham, Miscellaneous Pieces (1778) 54.
7.	1791  Anonymous, "Epitaph on a Tombstone in the Burying-Ground in the City Road" Newcastle Chronicle (17 December 1791).
8.	1791  Anonymous, "In Memory of John Wesley. A Parody" Morning Chronicle (7 April 1791).
9.	1791  Anonymous, "On the Death of John Wesley" Public Advertiser (11 March 1791).
10.	1791  William Hamilton Reid, "A Monody on the late Rev. Mr. J. Wesley" European Magazine 20 (August 1791) 145-46.
11.	1798 ca.  William Cowper, in "Conversation" 1798 ca.; Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05) 4:113.
12.	1805  Henry John Todd, in Works of Spenser (1805) 1:clxviin.
13.	1819  Walter Scott to Robert Southey, 4 April 1819; Lockhart, Life of Scott (1837-38; 1902) 3:327.
14.	1820  Robert Southey, in Life of Wesley and the Rise and Progress of Methodism (1820) 589.
15.	1820  Reginald Heber to R. J. Wilmot Horton, 26 May 1820; Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05) 4:123.
16.	1820  A Lady, "Lines, written on seeing a Picture of the Rev. Mr. John Wesley" Imperial Magazine [Liverpool] 2 (July 1820) 527-28.
17.	1882  Epes Sargent, in Harper's Cyclopaedia of British and American Poetry (1882) 172.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Rev. John Wesley:

1.	1788  Anonymous, in Catalogue of five hundred Celebrated Authors (1788).
2.	1791  Anonymous, Obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 61 (March 1791) 282-84.
3.	1812  Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 31:299-311.
4.	1834  G. G. Cunningham, in Memoirs of Illustrious Englishmen (1834-37) 6:37-48.
5.	1844  Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 2:216-17.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1785  Rev. Samuel Wesley the Younger:   John Wesley, "Letter from Mr. J. Wesley" Gentleman's Magazine 55 (November 1785) 932.