JOHN CLAYTON. THOMAS BROUGHTON.
JAMES HERVEY.
BENJAMIN INGHAM. JOHN GAMBOLD.
HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK.
THE
OXFORD METHODISTS:
MEMOIRS OF THE
REV. MESSRS. CLAYTON, INGHAM, GAMBOLD,
HERVEY, AND BROUGHTON,
WITH BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF OTHERS.
BY THE
Rev. L. TYERMAN,
AUTHOR OF “THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE REV. JOHN WESLEY, M.A.,
FOUNDER OF THE METHODISTS.”
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
1873.
The present book is intended to serve as a companion volumeto “The Life and Times of Wesley;” and to assist in showingthe wide and gracious results of a revival of religion.
In compiling the work just mentioned, I was compelled, bywant of space, to lay aside a large amount of biographicalmaterial, some portions of which are embodied in the worknow submitted to the reader; and other portions of whichmay be published at a future time.
Memoirs of the two Wesleys and of Whitefield have beendesignedly omitted, on the ground, that, their Memoirs, inextenso, are already in existence. Still, those illustrious menare often noticed in the following pages; and, I hope, thefacts concerning them will be both interesting and instructive.Of the other Oxford Methodists, no biographies have beenpreviously written, with the exception of Hervey; and it isnot censorious to say, that the two principal ones of him,—Ryland’sand Brown’s—are far from satisfactory.
The information concerning some of the Oxford Brotherhoodis meagre. I have used all the diligence I could inobtaining materials; but brief notices, and scraps, and a fewletters are all that I have to give. Fragmentary, however,though they are, I trust, they will not be regarded as uselessand irrelevant. The biographical sketches of Clayton, Ingham,Gambold, Hervey, and Broughton, are more extended. Itwould have been a satisfaction to have left Westley Hall in[iv]the shades of oblivion; but, in telling the story of the OxfordMethodists, it was impossible not to notice him.
A marvellous work was accomplished by the Wesleybrothers and by Whitefield; but it is a great mistake, andnot a just acknowledgment of the grace of God, to regardthe results of the revival of religion in the Oxford University,as confined to Methodism. Contemporaneous Reformers,raised up by Providence, are seldom all employed in thesame kind of work. At the beginning of the Christian era,God “gave some, apostles, and some, prophets, and some,evangelists, and some, pastors, and teachers, for the perfecting