About this person
John Wesley was an English cleric, theologian and evangelist who became the principal leader of the religious revival movement known as Methodism. The societies he founded and organised formed the basis of the later independent Methodist movement.
He was born on 28 June 1703 in Epworth and studied at Christ Church, Oxford. In 1726, he became a fellow of Lincoln College and was later ordained as an Anglican priest. At Oxford, he led the so-called Holy Club, which focused on study, prayer and disciplined Christian living. After serving in the American colony of Georgia, he returned to England and began an extensive preaching ministry.
Wesley travelled throughout Britain and Ireland, often preached outdoors and built a network of small religious groups. Under his leadership, Methodists also joined the struggle against slavery and supported women in preaching. Wesley followed a vegetarian diet and later stopped drinking wine for health reasons; he claimed that his physical ailments subsided after he gave up meat dishes and wine. He died on 2 March 1791 in London.