John Wesley was an 18th century Anglican evangelist and founder of the Wesleyan Tradition.

During the late Eighteenth Century, the pseudo-science of craniology attempted to explain the differences between saints and criminals (and other human differences) in terms of variations in the size, shape, and proportions of skulls. To advance this research, impressions of the faces of recently deceased persons were taken, producing what came to be called "death masks." Methodists prepared John Wesley's Death Mask, however, to insure that future statuary would represent him accurately. The mask is courtesy of the Drew University Methodist Collection (Madison, New Jersey).

Wesley died on Wednesday March 2, 1791, in his eighty-eighth year. As he lay dying, his friends gathered around him, Wesley grasped their hands and said repeatedly, "Farewell, farewell." At the end, summoning all his remaining strength, he cried out, "The best of all is, God is with us," lifted his arms and raised his feeble voice again, repeating the words, "The best of all is, God is with us."