Whitefield, George ___ 1714-1770 ___ British ___ priest

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Whitefield was born in Gloucester, the youngest of seven children, to an innkeeper. However, his father died when he was only two, and his mother struggled to make ends meet. Whitefield left school at 15 to earn money, but studied hard in his spare time and was accepted at Pembroke College, Oxford. There, he joined the Holy Club with John and Charles Wesley, and became known as one of the Oxford Methodists. Three years after the Wesleys went to Georgia, Whitefield followed. He was appointed minister at Savannah. Subsequently, he returned to England. In 1741, he married Elizabeth James, an older widow. A powerful speaker (often attracting tens of thousands of listeners to his outdoor sermons), he spent much of his life on preaching tours, in Britain and in the US. It is said that he gave more than 18,000 sermons. His work in the US led to the founding of many colleges, including the Princeton and Pennsylvania universities. In Britain, the Countess of Huntington appointed him chaplain, and she financed many new chapels for him. Whitefield was also a vigorous campaigner helping orphans, and setting up orphanages.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1736-1745 ___ religious social travel education US

WEB TEXT LINKS
about
a bit about

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
British Library, Manuscript Collections

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
George Whitefield's Journals
Memoirs of the Life of George Whitefield
A Journal of a Voyage from London to Savannah in Georgia
 

May 2005, August 2008
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.