John Wesley

The frontispiece by John Michael Williams, R.A., is regarded as the best likeness of Wesley in early life. The original painted in 1742 is at Didsbury College, Manchester, and from it this photogravure has been specially prepared. Both hands rest on a book. In 1745 John Harley made a bust from the original canvas, where the bust only is shown.

Wesley’s Letter to Ambrose Eyre

The first letter of Wesley’s that has been preserved is treasured at the Charterhouse, and is a beautiful specimen of his handwriting, as well as an illustration of his high sense of honor.

A Memorable Friendship

Mrs. Pendarves and her sister Ann Granville fills a large place in the Oxford lives of the Wesleys, and these portraits show them at that period. The interest of this facsimile lies in Miss Granville’s reference to Charles Wesley’s poetry – ‘Is not Araspes’ hymn quite charming?’ – which shows he had begun to write verse whilst a student at Christ Church. The verses written in 1738 at Oxford, after his recovery from serious illness, were the earliest previously known.

Early Portraits of John and Charles Wesley

Wesley as a boy shows him about 1720, when he was a gown boy at Charterhouse. The two miniatures were discovered in Westminster in 1917 with Martha Wesley’s will, and are said to be portraits of Charles and John Wesley in their Oxford days, painted in 1720-30, or replicas of earlier portraits. The fact that they were associated with their surviving sister’s will gives them special claim to attention.