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 with the additions (1846) of Coleridge's Notes, and Remarks by [q. v.], who knew Wesley from 1765. The Life (1831) by Richard Watson is a good compendium, with some new points. Southey's work left room for the valuable monographs, Wesley and Methodism, by (1787–1865) [q. v.], and John Wesley and the Evangelical Reaction of the Eighteenth Century (1870), by Julia Wedgwood. Luke Tyerman's Life and Times of Wesley (1870–1, 3 vols.) is a cyclopædia of materials, drawn from published and unpublished sources, throwing new light on nearly every phase of Wesley's career. Out of the multitude of briefer biographies, Dr. J. H. Rigg's The Living Wesley (1875), the Memoir by Green (1881), and Overton's John Wesley (1891) merit special attention. From different points of view, Nightingale's Portraiture of Methodism (1807) and Urlin's Wesley's Place in Church History (1870) will repay study. See also Myles's Chronological History of Methodists, 1799; Stevens's History of Methodism, ed. Willey, 1863–5; Stevenson's City Road Chapel, 1872; Stevenson's Memorials of the Wesley Family, 1876; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886. A complete collection of Wesley's Correspondence is still a desideratum. Masses of his manuscripts (some recently brought to light) are in the possession of the Wesleyan authorities. A number of early diaries and papers (used by the present writer) were acquired by the late J. J. Colman, esq., M.P., from William Gandy, executor of Henry Moore. The wills of Anthony Vazeille (dated 22 March 1745–6) and Mary Wesley have also been consulted. Other authorities are cited above.]

 WESLEY, SAMUEL (1662–1735), divine and poet, father of the great methodist leader, second son of John Wesley, was baptised on 17 Dec. 1662 at Winterborn-Whitchurch, Dorset. The family name was originally spelled Westley, and Samuel so wrote his name in 1694. His grandfather, Bartholomew Westley (1595?–1679?), was the third son of Sir Herbert Westley of Westleigh, Devonshire, by his wife Elizabeth de Wellesley of Dangan, co. Meath. He held the sequestered rectories of Charmouth (from 1640) and Catherston (from 1650), Dorset, from both of which he was ejected in 1662, subsequently practising as a physician; he married (1619) Anne, daughter of Sir Henry Colley of Carbury, co. Kildare, and granddaughter of (1533?–1605) [q. v.], primate of Ireland; the story that on 23 Sept. 1651 he gave information intended to secure the capture of Charles II, who had lodged at Charmouth after the battle of Worcester, seems authentic, in spite of some difficulty about details (see authorities in Samuel Wesley, pp. 29 sq.; also Miraculum basilicon, 1664, p. 49, by A[braham] J[enings]). His father, John Wesly (his own spelling), Westley, or Wesley (1635?–1678) of New Inn Hall, Oxford (matriculated on 23 April 1651, B.A. on 23 Jan. 1654–5, M.A. on 4 July 1657), was appointed to the vicarage of Winterborn-Whitchurch in May 1658; the report of his interview in 1661 with Gilbert Ironside the elder [q. v.], his diocesan, shows him to have been an independent; he was imprisoned for not using the common prayer-book, ejected in 1662, and died at Preston, near Weymouth, in 1678. His engraved portrait is in the ‘Methodist Magazine’ (1840). He married a daughter of (1574 [sic]–1648) [q. v.], and niece in some way of (1608–1661) [q. v.], the church historian; White married a sister of or Burgess [q. v.] Wesley's eldest son was Timothy (b. 1659); a younger son, Matthew Wesley, remained a nonconformist, became a London apothecary, and died on 10 June 1737, leaving a son, Matthew, in India; he provided for some of his brother Samuel's daughters.

Samuel Wesley, after passing through Dorchester grammar school, under Henry Dolling, was sent by the independents to be educated for their ministry under Theophilus Gale [q. v.] He reached London on 8 March 1678, shortly after Gale's death, and, after attending another grammar school, was placed (with an exhibition of 30l.) under or Veal [q. v.] at Stepney. Here he remained some two years, proceeding to the academy of Charles Morton (1627–1698) [q. v.] at Newington Green. Being ‘a dabbler in rhyme and faction,’ he was encouraged (but not by Morton) in writing ‘lampoons both on church and state,’ and ‘pasquils’ against [q. v.], head of a rival (presbyterian) academy. Among his forty or fifty fellow students were [q. v.], [q. v.], and [q. v.] A ‘reverend and worthy person,’ his relative, who visited him at the academy, first gave him ‘arguments against the dissenting schism.’ (1616–1683) [q. v.], believing that degrees would soon be open to nonconformists, wished him to study at a university; he went on foot to visit Oxford, ultimately entering as a servitor at Exeter College in August 1683, matriculating on 18 Nov. 1684 (when his age is wrongly given as eighteen), and graduating B.A. on 19 June 1688. While at Oxford he published anonymously through [q. v.] a volume of verse, dedicated to his old master, Dolling, and entitled ‘Maggots: or, Poems on Several Subjects, never before handled. By a Schollar’ (1685, 12mo; the frontispiece has