# The New International Encyclopædia/Whitefield, George

Edition of 1905. See also George Whitefield on Wikipedia; and the disclaimer.
WHITEFIELD, whīt′fēld, George (1714-70). An English evangelist and founder of the Calvinistic Methodists. He was born at the Bell Inn, Gloucester, and was sent to a classical school for three years, where he distinguished himself more by his histrionic achievements than by zeal for study. In 1732 he was admitted as a servitor at Pembroke College, Oxford, and graduated B.A. in 1736. At Oxford he met the Wesleys and with them founded the ‘Holy Club.’ He was ordained deacon in 1736, and soon went to London. In 1738 he followed the Wesleys to the Georgia Plantations and remained four months, when he returned to England for his priest's orders and to collect money for an orphanage which he had founded in the colony. He found that his association with the Wesleys had raised prejudice against him; nevertheless he was ordained priest by Bishop Benson (1739). He began open-air preaching at Moorfields, Kensington, Blackheath, and elsewhere, and after this seems to have preached by preference in the open air. Great crowds came together to hear him. In 1739, having collected more than £1000 for his orphanage, he returned to America. He landed at New York and proceeded thence to Georgia, preaching with great success on the way. The first brick of the orphan asylum was laid in March, 1740, and the name of Bethesda was given to the institution. He preached to large audiences in Savannah and also in Philadelphia and Boston, which he visited in 1740. His as.sociation with dissenters and unconventional ways of preaching and conducting services brought him into strained relations with the Church, and about this time doctrinal differences led to his separation from Wesley. The two men differed widely in theology, Whitefield being a rigid Calvinist. Nevertheless they continued friends nearly all their lives. In 1741 Whitefield returned to England and preached with his usual zeal and eloquence, making tours into Wales and Scotland. He presided at the first conference of Calvinistic Methodists held at Watford in 1743, and at the second conference a few months later was chosen perpetual moderator in England.
In 1744 he again sailed for New York, and was again enthusiastically received in America, although his irregular ways stirred up opposition. Hoping to benefit his health, in 1748 he visited the Bermudas and preached twice each day on the various islands of the group. On his return to England in 1748 he found his congregation scattered. He was also in pecxmiary difficulties, as he had sold most of his property for the benefit of the Georgia orphanage. With the help of his friends, however, he gradually paid off his debts. About this time the Countess of Huntingdon (q.v.) made him her chaplain and gave him the opportunity of preaching to certain of the nobility at her house. She helped him materially in all his enterprises and built and endowed chapels to maintain his doctrines. In 1751 Whitefield visited Ireland and Scotland and made a fourth voyage to America. On his return to London he took up the project of a new tabernacle, which was opened June 10, 1753. After preaching in it a few times he went on another evangelistic tour, traveling 1200 miles and preaching many times. In 1754-55 he was again in America. In September, 1756, he opened a new chapel at Tottenham Court Road. He visited America for the sixth time in 1763-65. His
health was poor at this time and his power of preaching somewhat impaired. In October, 1765, he dedicated the Countess of Huntingdon's chapel at Bath, opened her college at Trevecca in August, 1768, and dedicated the chapel at Tunbridge Wells in July, 1769. Two or three months later he sailed for the seventh time for America. He went to Savannah, and preached much in Pennsylvania and New England. On September 29, 1770, after preaching for two hours at Exeter, N. H., he went to Newburyport, Mass., where he died the next morning. He is buried in the Church of Newburyport. Whitefield is said to have preached more than 18,000 sermons. His great power was due to his delivery rather than to the matter of his discourses, and his writings do not sustain the impression derived from the accounts of his preaching. He was not an organizer, and his congregations scattered as soon as he left them. Many of his converts united with the Methodists. A number of his sermons and journals were collected and published in six volumes, with a seventh volume of Memoirs by John Gillies (London, 1771-72). Of the many later biographies, that by Tyerman (London, 1876-77) is the most complete.