John Wesley - the perpetual preacher - 1

The name John Wesley is familiar to people throughout the world because of the fundamental part he played during the Methodist Revival of the mid-eighteenth century. He is known for his outdoor preaching to thousands of people and for the way he methodically organised his converts into small gatherings, which led to his followers being given the nickname of ‘Methodists’. But it’s on John Wesley’s links with Lincolnshire that we will focus here.

In 1595, Samuel and Susannah Wesley (John’s parents) and their four children moved to the village of Epworth on the Isle of Axholme in the North of Lincolnshire, so that Samuel could take up the post of non-conformist rector of St Andrew’s church the following year.

This part of Lincolnshire was at that time very remote. There was no road to Epworth, and the village was often cut off by flooding. The locals, as a result, were generally rough and uneducated and were also very suspicious of outsiders. Epworth was far from the idyllic scene the visitor enjoys today.

Use the menu to find more about Wesley and others.