George Whitefield
George Whitefield (1714-1770)
You can hear an audio recording of this post on episode 37 of the Methodical Methodist Podcast!
George Whitefield was an Anglican priest and one of the founders of the Methodist Movement – from all the way back to the early days at Oxford where he was an original member of the Holy Club. Whitefield was a leader in the Great Awakening and preached a series of revivals throughout England and in the American Colonies. He is credited with bringing thousands of people into the Christian faith. Although he was considered to be a Methodist, George Whitefield did break away from John and Charles Wesley over issues like Calvinism – where the Wesleys subscribed to Arminianism. Also, George Whitefield was a proponent of slavery, unlike the Wesley Brothers. Overall, we will see that Whitefield was a fairly unconventional, controversial, and popular figure in early Methodism.
George Whitefield was born on December 27, 1714, at The Bell Inn in Gloucester, England. He was the seventh child and fifth son of Thomas and Elizabeth Edwards Whitefield. He was the youngest child in the family. George’s father, Thomas, managed the Bell Inn which was a three-story structure that included a dining room, tavern, and a Great Room. The Whitefield family were upper-middle class, and they were among the more prominent citizens in Gloucester. Unfortunately, when George was only two years old, his father passed away. His mother, Elizabeth, then took over the family business, and managed the Inn.
The Old Bell Inn
in Gloucester
It’s been noted that as a boy, George “was regarded by his mother with a peculiar tenderness and educated with more than ordinary care.” He attended a school known as “The College” at Gloucester Cathedral. At twelve years old he enrolled at a school attached to his local church, St. Mary de Crypt.
George Whitefield describes his own childhood years, perhaps with some exaggerations of his sinfulness. He writes:
“I can truly say I was brutish from my mother’s womb. Lying, filthy talking, and foolish jesting I was much addicted to. Sometimes I used to curse, if not swear. Stealing from my mother I thought no theft at all. Numbers of Sabbaths have I broken, and generally used to behave myself very irreverently in God’s sanctuary. Much money have I spent in plays. Cards and reading romances were my heart’s delight. Often have I joined with others in playing roguish tricks.”
At the same time, though, he acknowledges the role that God’s grace has played in his life. He talks about times when he felt God’s Spirit on his heart, when he felt convictions of his sin. He talks about times when he knelt down, cried, and prayed. He even admits that some of the money he stole from his parents, he would give to the poor, and he says that some of the books he stole were actually books of devotion.
Overall, I think Whitefield was just a normal kid. One of the more mischievous things he did, however, was that he would run into the Independent Meeting House during church services and shout out the name of the pastor – “Old Cole, Old Cole.” Interestingly enough, when he was asked by one of the members in the congregation what he wanted to do with his life, he said he wanted to be a minister, but he added “I’ll take care not to tell stories in the pulpit like old Cole!”
Even at a young age, Whitefield felt a call to ministry. In fact, he once said: “I was always very fond of being a clergyman, and used to imitate the ministers reading prayers.”
His mother Elizabeth also believed that George was being called to the vocation of a minister. She had groomed most of her other children to continue working at the Inn, but she had different plans for Whitefield. She encouraged him to attend University, and it was her hope that he would indeed enter into the ministry.
At an early age, Whitefield found that he had a passion and talent for acting in the theater. He enjoyed reading plays and performing in them. Later on, we see how this passion would carry on in his preaching through theatrical re-enactments of Bible stories which he told during his sermons.
George Whitefield did have crossed-eyed vision (strabismus)
After George’s father had been gone for about eight years, his mother remarried a man named, Capel Longden. And that is when things started to go downhill a little bit. He started pushing his way into some of the management of the Inn, and because of his bad business strategy, it started to suffer. And by the time Whitefield was fifteen, his mother no longer had the funds to be able to send him to Oxford like they had hoped. So, at first, George started helping out his mother at the Inn. And this was challenging for him. He had a hard time watching his friends and school mates go by on their way to school each morning.
Whitefield soon heard about an opportunity to go to Oxford University as a servitor. In the fall of 1732, Whitefield entered Pembroke College in Oxford. There he was a servitor, where in exchange for his tuition and board, he did menial tasks for sons of well-to-do gentlemen. He would teach them in the morning, help them bathe, clean their rooms, carry their books, and assist them with work.
After about a year at Oxford, Charles Wesley had heard that Whitefield was religiously earnest, and so he invited him to breakfast. It didn’t take long before Whitefield had joined “The Holy Club which was a group of students that were also nicknamed “Bible Moths,” “Bible Bigots,” Sacramentarians,” and yes, “Methodists.” This group included about 9 people who met together and adhered to a strict monk-like lifestyle. John Wesley was the moderator and organizer of this group. The Holy Club, an illness (due to his rigid lifestyle), and a book by Henry Scougal called “The God in the Soul of Man, each had a tremendous impact on Whitefield’s spiritual development.
This eventually led to the moment that Whitefield called his conversion. It occurred a few weeks after Easter in 1735 when he was twenty years old. He had experienced his spiritual awakening, but he was in such poor health that he had to return home for about nine months to recuperate before going back to Oxford. He describes how his life had changed after his conversion when it came to reading the scriptures. He writes:
“My mind being now more open and enlarged, I began to read the Holy Scriptures upon my knees… This proved meat indeed and drink indeed to my soul. I daily received fresh life, light and power from above.”
Charles Wesley wrote about Whitefield’s zeal and dedication saying:
He now begins from every weight set free
To make full trial of his ministry;
Breaks forth on every side and runs and flies,
Like kindling flames that from the stubble rise;
Wherever the ministerial Spirit leads,
From house to house the heavenly fire he spreads;
Ranges through all the city-lanes and streets,
And seizes every prodigal he meets.
George finished up his education and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree. He then sought out ordination, returned to Gloucester and applied to the bishop, Dr. Benson. Bishop Dr. Benson agree and ordained the 21 year old George Whitfield on June 20, 1736 in Gloucester Cathedral.
Whitefield then preached his first sermon in his hometown in the church of St. Mary de Crypt, where he was baptized. It didn’t take long before people started growing fond of Whitefield and his preaching. He was a very good speaker – even that early on.
But Whitefield returned to Oxford where he became the leader of the Holy Club, because the Wesley brothers had gone over to the New World as missionaries in the colony of Georgia in 1735. But during this time, Whitfield continued his studies at Oxford and filled in at a few churches in London as a supply pastor – Chapel of the Tower of London as well as the supply pastor at the village of Dummer. And while he was in the village of Dummer, George Whitfield decided that he too wanted to become a missionary over in Georgia.
John had actually written to Whitefield urging him to come and help him – Charles had become very sick and was unable to go on in his pastoral role in Georgia… and John needed his assistance.
At this point Whitefield had taken the first ordination vows as a deacon, and he knew he would have to return to England be ordained a second time, as a priest… but he felt that this missionary trip to Georgia was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. He wanted to leave right away, but he ended up waiting for about a year – because he could not leave until Colonel Oglethorpe himself was ready to depart.
While he waited, Whitefield made good use of his time. He preached in Bristol, where people loved him so much that they asked him to preach every week and people were turned away because there wasn’t enough room. People were constantly seeking spiritual advice from him and trying to hear him preach. Whitefield also accepted an invitation to preach at Stonehouse in Gloucestershire. Then he returned to Bristol and finally London, preaching along the way.
One person wrote of Whitefield during this time saying:
“The preaching of Mr. Whitefield excited an unusual degree of attention among persons of all ranks. In many of the city churches he proclaimed the glad tidings of great joy to listening multitudes, who were powerfully affected by the fire which was displayed in the animated addresses of this mand of God. Lord and Lady Huntingdon constantly attended wherever he preached, and Lady Anne Frankland became one of the first fruits of his ministry among the nobility.”
Whitefield was extraordinarily popular among all sorts of people – rich and poor alike. He referred to himself as a Methodist, and he advocated a Methodism of joy and assurance. He preached in London for nearly four months as he gained more recognition and notoriety. But finally, he decided that he couldn’t wait for Oglethorpe any longer. So, on December 30, 1737, he climbed aboard the ship The Whitaker and headed to Georgia saying: “God give me a deep humility, a well-guided zeal, a burning love and a single eye, and then let men or devils do their worst.”
Meanwhile, John Wesley was aboard The Samuel as he was sailing back to England from America after a completely failed missionary trip. He had been caught in a messy love triangle and had even been sued for over 1,000 pounds. Wesley had no choice but to return home. As Wesley was wrapping up his trip, Whitefield was just beginning his.
While aboard the ship, Whitefield as the chaplain to all those sailing along with him – this included the crew, about 20 women and children, and around 100 soldiers. He taught catechism classes and preached daily, slowly wining over the folks onboard – despite suffering a fever himself for a period of time.
Whitefield appreciated his short time in Georgia, which only lasted about five months, but after seeing several settlers die and leave behind numerous orphans, he decided to return to England and establish an Orphan House for them. At his final worship service, one Colonel Stephens reported: “The congregation was so crowded that a great many stood without the doors and under the windows… pleased with nothing more than the assurance he gave of his intention to return as soon as possible.”
He returned home – facing a horrible storm that forced them to land in Ireland. He preached his way across the country, dining with mayors and bishops and the archbishop along the way until he finally reached the port of Parkgate in England on November 30, 1738.
Whitefield went in early January to Oxford to enter the second stage of his ordination as a priest in the Church of England. Bishop Benson had ordained him as a deacon and was now ordaining him the second time as a priest. And while Whitefield had been in Georgia, his notoriety had continued to grow as some of his sermons and writings had been published and circulated throughout the country. By the same token, many of the clergymen who had only tolerated him before, had grown intolerable of him.
Whitefield was barred from some churches, but permitted to speak in other churches. He preached any chance he could get. But Whitefield saw what was on the horizon for him and the Wesley brothers. He knew that soon, they would not be permitted to speak in most if not any churches. So, he made the decision to follow in the footsteps of a Welsh school teacher, Howell Harris, and take advantage of the great outdoors. So, that is what Whitfield did, he began his open-air ministry by preaching to the coal mining district, Kingswood in Bristol. He wrote about this experience saying:
“Blessed be God! I have broken the ice. I believe I was never more acceptable to my Master than when I was standing to teach those hearers in the open fields. Some may censure me, but if I thus pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”
Whitefield was preaching to thousands of people and was now holding around thirty meetings a week, in and around Bristol.
After a while, Whitefield wrote John Wesley and urged him to adopt this practice of open-air preaching in Bristol. He also recruited Charles Wesley to the practice of open-air preaching as well. It didn’t take long before John Wesley came to Bristol and kind of reluctantly took over the open-air preaching duties. Over time, Wesley began to really embrace this practice.
Meanwhile, Whitefield returned to London and preaching in a place called Moorfields as well as the Kennington Common. He kept up a rigorous preaching schedule, claiming to preach to over 30,000… 50,000… and even 80,000 people at a time. Apparently, when Whitefield later returned to America, Benjamin Franklin heard him preach and did an experiment saying: “I computed he might well be heard by more than thirty thousand.” I will say, there is some debate on whether or not these numbers are accurate.
About this time, we begin to see some doctrinal differences and division take place between George Whitefield and the Wesley Brothers. I talk about this some with a colleague of mine, Logan Murphy in Episode 36. George Whitefield had started adopting a more Calvinistic theology. He believed in Predestination which basically states that only those elected by God receive salvation. The Wesley Brothers were strict Arminians. They believe in free will.
John Wesley preached a sermon entitled “Free Grace” where he speaks against the doctrine of Predestination. This really upset George Whitefield who had asked Wesley if they could both simply be silent on this matter because it would only cause unnecessary division. In retaliation, Whitefield preached at a Methodist gathering in favor of Predestination, while Charles Wesley sat in the background fuming. While these division were nearing a boiling point, Whitefield took off for his second trip to America. After eleven weeks of sailing, he finally reached Lewistown in America on October 30, 1739. He was 24 years old.
John Wesley (left) and George Whitefield (right)
Whitefield had come to America a second time with two goals in mind. 1. He wanted to establish an Orphan House in Georgia. 2. He wanted to obtain knowledge of America. He first went to Philadelphia and met the Presbyterian and Baptist ministers. He began preaching there, and he quickly gained a great deal of popularity. He traveled down to Savannah, Georgia – preaching all the way. The trustees of Georgia had gifted him 500 acres of land for the Orphan House which he called “Bethseda” which means “A House of Mercy.”
While construction was going on, he rented the largest house in Savannah and filled it with orphaned children – offering them schooling, training, and Christian education. Meanwhile, he continued to preach and traveled back to Philadelphia. While on the way, he wrote to Elizabeth Delamotte (a woman whom he had grown fond of in England) and proposed marriage…. Which I guess back then would have been okay, but I don’t see a lot of women being happy about being proposed to in a letter. He actually wrote one letter to her parents asking their permission and attached the second letter for them to give to Elizabeth if they approved… yeah, super weird. Ultimately, Elizabeth ended up marrying another man named William Holland. This left Whitefield heartbroken.
While in Philadelphia, Whitfield became good friends with Benjamin Franklin. And Franklin supported Whitefield’s efforts in his Orphanage, and he actually became his chief American publisher.
While in America, George Whitefield wrote about the cruel practice of slavery. We see him initially speak out against the evils of slavery, but we come to see that he reverses his opinion.
In his article from the Christian Century entitled: “George Whitefield’s Troubled Relationship to Race and Slavery,” Thomas Kidd writes that George Whitefield – at first spoke out against “southern slave masters for their abuses of slaves in his published "Letter to the Inhabitants of Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina." Whitefield also demonstrated personal interest in African Americans who responded to his preaching, believing that they not only had an eternal fate, but that they could become serious (and educated) Christians.”
Thomas Kidd goes on to write, “By the mid-1740s, however, Whitefield became connected with slave masters who had converted under his ministry, and though he never publicly retracted his criticisms of the institution, he complied with his wealthy friends’ offers to give him slaves and a South Carolina plantation. More importantly, Whitefield became convinced that he needed slaves to work at a Georgia plantation to fund the operations of his Bethesda orphanage, outside of Savannah, which was the great charitable project of his career. The problem was that Georgia trustees had banned slavery from the colony. Whitefield thought the ban was silly and destined to be overturned, and thus he became arguably the colony’s leading proponent of slavery’s legalization. Georgia did eventually permit slavery, but evidence suggests that Whitefield had already allowed slaves to work on his Georgia property before the ban was lifted.”
Whitefield and Wesley continued to feud and fight – sending letters back and forth to one another. All the while Whitefield was preaching in New England and down into Georgia. Then, on January 16, 1741, Whitefield set sail for England after having been in America for fourteen and a half months.
The division between Whitefield and the Wesleys deepened, and Whitefield constructed a meeting place called “The Tabernacle” for his followers (The Calvinist Methodists) to meet together. Meanwhile, Wesley had constructed the New Room at Bristol as a meeting place.
The Welsh Calvinist Methodist, Howell Harris had made a covenant with God to never marry, but he had fallen in love with a Welsh widow named Elizabeth James. But Harris saw that George Whitfield was longing for a marriage, and he believed the two would make a great pair. So, he stepped aside. Whitefield was ready to marry her on the spot… but Elizabeth James was no so sure… but she eventually agreed. They had to search around for a minister who was willing to perform the ceremony because at this time, George Whitfield was a clerical outcast. But on November 14, 1741, the Rev. John Smith married the couple.
They had no honeymoon. He stayed with her for a week, preaching twice a day and then traveled on to Bristol, Gloucester, and London. He came home on Christmas Day, but then went right back out. After three months, she joined him in London and became active and involved in The Tabernacle.
Three years into their marriage, Elizabeth gave birth to their son, John. But while they were staying at the Bell Inn, which was operated by George’s brother, the baby became sick and died. This was devastating news, and Elizabeth was left to deal with a lot of the grief herself as George continued to travel around and preach.
Whitefield also busied himself with the organizing of Calvinist Methodism. He began forming societies and buildings. In addition to the Tabernacle, he built the Society Room. Folks met as bands and societies – exactly like John Wesley’s organization of Methodism. He also formed the Calvinist Methodist Association which actually met 18 months before Wesley held his first Methodist Conference. But by 1750, Whitefield pretty gave up his leadership in organizing Calvinist Methodism, because he wanted to spend more of his time on preaching. Still, many people considered Whitefield their leader.
But not everyone was a fan of the Methodists. John and Charles Wesley faced their fair share or criticism and mob violence. So too, George was almost murdered by an officer that was lodging in the same place as him. Whitefield writes about this encounter saying:
The man suddenly rose up, uttering the most abusive language, calling me dog, vogue, villain, and beat me most unmercifully with his gold-headed cane. But my hostess and her daughter hearing me cry murder, rushed into the room and seized him by the collar; however, he disengaged himself from them, and repeated his blows upon me.
A second attacker then appeared, but before they could manage to kill Whitefield, the noise of the assault awoken the towns people who ran the attackers away.
This attack did not keep him down for long, because on August 7, Whitefield and his wife Elizabeth embarked once again to America.
On October 26, 1744, at the age of 29, Whitefield arrived in York, New Hampshire. In America he was met with a lot of criticism and blame for fanaticism that had risen up from some of the preachers. Despite all of this, people still showed up to hear him preach. And he was happy to see that a great deal of progress had been made to the Orphan House in Georgia. Unfortunately, this is where we see George Whitefield actually become an owner of slaves. He did not oppose slavery and actually spoke out against Georgia’s banning of slavery at the time. He thought it was necessary for manual labor. This is definitely a big big dark spot on his ministry. It is surprising considering Wesley was adamantly against slavery and spoke out against it throughout his life.
In March 1748, Whitefield traveled to Bermuda after a doctor ordered him to this new climate because of his poor health. But of course Whitefield never slowed down. He began preaching two or three times a day in churches, meeting houses, homes, and in the open air. But Whitefield was called back to England due to a lack of leadership in Calvinist Methodism. He left his wife behind in America and returned home alone.
He had been out of England for four years, and the people were yearning for him to return. It was around this time that he met with Charles Wesley and was able to bring about some reconciliation. He even wrote to John in an attempt to mend some fences. Together, the Wesley Brothers, George Whitefield, and Howell Harris met in a conference to consider reconciliation. In the end, Whitefield decided to give over his position of Calvinist Methodists in order to retain a warmer fellowship with the Wesleys. This allowed George to be free to preach and John Wesley to move forward as the head of Methodism.
Whitefield went on to oversee the building of a second Tabernacle in London which increased his ministry. But by 1748, his health began to deteriorate. However, he continued to preach every chance he got. He preached in Holland. He traveled to America again. In fact, he went to America for the seventh and final time in 1769, and he even traveled up to Canada and preached.
In 1770, Whitefield continued preaching in spite of poor health. At the age of 55 he said, "I would rather wear out than rust out." His last sermon was preached in a field "atop a large barrel". The next morning Whitefield died in the parsonage of Old South Presbyterian Church in Newburyport, Massachusetts in America, on 30 September 1770. He was buried in a crypt under the pulpit of this church.
Benjamin Franklin said of Whitefield after his death: “I knew him intimately upwards of 30 years. His integrity, disinterestedness and indefatigable zeal in prosecuting every good work, I never seen equaled and shall never see excelled.”
George Whitefield (left) and Benjamin Franklin (right)
It was John Wesley who preached his official funeral sermon in London, at Whitefield's request. In his concluding statement, Wesley said: “Have we read or heard of any person, who called so many thousands, so many myriads of sinners to repentance.”
He is credited with preaching at least 18,000 times to approximately 10 million listeners in Great Britain and America.
