John Wesley
A man pursuing holy love
Here's a time line of Wesley's life:
- 1703 - Born in Epworth, Lincolnshire, England
- 1707 - Brother Charles Wesley born in Epworth, Lincolnshire, England
- 1709 - Rescued from a fire at Epworth Rectory and nicknamed "a brand plucked from the burning"
- 1714 - Admitted to Charterhouse School
- 1720 - John Wesley admitted to Christ Church College at Oxford University
- 1725 - Read The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis and Jeremy Taylor’s Rules and Exercises of Holy Living and Holy Dying; Wesley ordained deacon
- 1726 - Elected fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford
- 1727 - Takes up assistant pastorale of Wroote, Lines
- c.1729 - Wesley uncertain of his spiritual assurance; reads former Cambridge lecturer and Bishop William Law's The Christian Perfection (1726) and A Serious Call (1728)
- 1729 - Returns to Oxford, takes over leadership of Holy Club
- 1735 - Death of father Samuel. John meets the Reverend John Burton, a scholar from Corpus Christi College, Oxford, who introduces him to James Oglethorpe (the governor of the Georgia colony); John and Charles leave for Georgia to be missionaries to the Native Americans
- 1736 - Wesley (33) meets Sophia Hopkey ("Miss Sophy", 18).
- 1737 - John departs from America
- 1738 - John Wesley’s “conversion” Wednesday, May 24
- 1739 - Wesley’s first open-air sermon modeled after the style of George Whitefield
- 1740 - Separates from Moravians
- 1741 - Preaches in South Wales for first time
- 1742 - Preaches in the north of England for the first time with Charles. They establish an orphanage and Sunday School
- 1744 - First Methodist Conference at the Foundry, division of the country into Methodist districts
- 1746 - Wesley founds a dispensary for the poor
- 1747 - Preaches in Ireland for first time (first of 42 trips). Publishes Primitive Physic
- 1749 - Officiates at wedding of Charles Wesley and Sarah Gwynne. His friendship with Grace Murray
- 1751 - February 18 or 19, John marries a widow Mary ("Molly") Vazeille. Preaches in Scotland for first time (first of 22 trips)
- 1758 - Mary leaves John (first time)
- 1768 - Opening of Methodist Chapel in New York Founding of Lady Huntington’s College of Trevecca.
- 1771 - Mary leaves John (second time) "never to return;" Francis Asbury, later known as the “Wesley of America” sails across the Atlantic for America
- 1772 - June 30, Mary returns to John
- 1775 - John Wesley publishes A Calm Address to Our American Colonies, urging obedience to Britain
- 1778 - Mary leaves John (third and final time); Opening of City Road Chapel, London
- 1781 - October 8, Mary ("Molly"), Wesley's wife, dies; Wesley not informed for a day or two
- 1783 - John Wesley visits Holland
- 1784 - John Wesley ordains Thomas Coke and others for work in America which eventually and unintentionally leads to break with the Anglican Church: “ordination is separation”
- 1787 - Richard Allen forms African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia
- 1788 - March 29, Charles Wesley dies
- 1791 - March 2, John Wesley dies
"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."
-- John Wesley