WESLEY BROTHERS. John Wesley, English clergyman (1703–1791), attempted to revive the spiritual life of the Church of England but instead founded Methodism, a worldwide family of independent churches. His father, Samuel (1662–1735), and his mother, Susanna Annesley (1669–1742), changed their allegiance to the Church of England quite independently of each other before their marriage in 1688. John was probably their fifteenth child, and his brother Charles (1708–1788) the eighteenth. John was educated at the Charterhouse School, London, going on to Christ Church, Oxford; Charles attended Westminster School, and also went on to Christ Church, as had their elder brother Samuel (1691–1739), an ordained clergyman, a schoolmaster at Westminster and Tiverton, and a competent minor poet.

John Wesley's preparations for ordination in 1725 led to a deepened spiritual awareness. He was elected fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1726, served two years as his father's curate at Epworth and Wroot in Lincolnshire, and returned to...