The preaching of George Whitefield¹

George Whitefield (1714–1770) was the son of a Gloucester, England, inn keeper; educated at St. Mary de Crypt Grammar School, Gloucester, and at Oxford University; ordained a deacon of the Episcopal church in 1736; ordained minister in 1739; made first trip to America in 1738 as chaplain to Frederica, Georgia; made second trip to Colonies (November, 1739 to January, 1741) at time of Great Awakening; spent next thirty years in roving over British Isles and in visiting America five more times; died September 30, 1770, at Newburyport, Massachusetts; left no descendants. In addition to his preaching during the Awakening in America Whitefield is remembered especially for his work in helping the Wesleys stimulate the great Methodist revival in England during 1739 and the 1740's.

during the great awakening in America²

The “Great Awakening” refers here to the wave of religious emotionalism which, between 1739 and 1745, swept over New England, the Middle Colonies, and, to a much lesser extent, South Carolina and Georgia. According to historians the Awakening constituted the first great social movement in American history prior to the Revolution. See S. E. Morison and H. E. Commager, The Growth of the American Republic (New York, 1942), I, 110.

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Notes

George Whitefield (1714–1770) was the son of a Gloucester, England, inn keeper; educated at St. Mary de Crypt Grammar School, Gloucester, and at Oxford University; ordained a deacon of the Episcopal church in 1736; ordained minister in 1739; made first trip to America in 1738 as chaplain to Frederica, Georgia; made second trip to Colonies (November, 1739 to January, 1741) at time of Great Awakening; spent next thirty years in roving over British Isles and in visiting America five more times; died September 30, 1770, at Newburyport, Massachusetts; left no descendants. In addition to his preaching during the Awakening in America Whitefield is remembered especially for his work in helping the Wesleys stimulate the great Methodist revival in England during 1739 and the 1740's.

The “Great Awakening” refers here to the wave of religious emotionalism which, between 1739 and 1745, swept over New England, the Middle Colonies, and, to a much lesser extent, South Carolina and Georgia. According to historians the Awakening constituted the first great social movement in American history prior to the Revolution. See S. E. Morison and H. E. Commager, The Growth of the American Republic (New York, 1942), I, 110.