Samuel Wesley (the Younger)


Samuel Wesley the Younger was a poet and a Church of England cleric.

Birth

Wesley was the eldest son of the cleric and poet Samuel Wesley and of Susanna Annesley Wesley. He was the brother of John Wesley and Charles Wesley. He was born in Spitalfields, London in either 1690 or 1691. He said he was 18 years old in 1711 and he wrote a letter in which he said he was born in 1690. His tombstone said he died in his 49th year, which would put his birth in 1691.

Education and career

Wesley was educated at Westminster School before entering Christ Church, Oxford in 1711 where he received a B.A. degree in 1715 and a M.A. in 1718. He was ordained and became head usher at Westminster School for 20 years. After that he was master of Blundell's School, Tiverton, Devon, where he died after a short illness on 6 November 1739. He is buried in the Tiverton churchyard.

Marriage

Wesley married Ursula Berry, daughter of the Reverend John Berry, vicar of Walton, Norfolk. They had six children, four of whom died in infancy. They were survived by two children: a daughter and a son Their son was Samuel II, not Thomas. Thomas was the son of Samuel II.

Religion

A high church Tory, Wesley was a friend of Bishop Francis Atterbury. He was never a Methodist and yet five hymns of several composed by him are in the Wesleyan Hymn Book of the present day.

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