WES'LEY, ClIARLES (1707-88). An English elerp-man, brother of John Wesley. with whom he was closely associated. lie was born at Ep worth, the eighteenth child of Samuel Wesley. At nine years of age he entered Westminster School, from which he went to Christ Church, Oxford, in 1720. Here, with some friends, he began the observance of a strict system of life, persuading them "to observe the method of study prescribed by the statutes of the university." "'Phis gained me," he says, "the harmless nick name of methodist"—which seems at first not to have had a religious significance. After tak ing his degree, he had pupils for a while, whom he influenced in the spiritual life• though at this time he had not decided to take orders. Ile was, however, ordained in. T735, just before joining his brother John in the Georgia mission. His sojourn in America was even shorter than John's; it was marked by unpopularity due to the same cause of what was thought excessive strictness in life and doctrine. Returning to England, he became curate of Saint ?Mary's, Islington• and threw himself vigorously into evangelistic work. In 1739, after some unfriend
liness and censure from the constituted authori ties of the Church, he entered definitely on the itinerant ministry, which he pursued with great earnestness for the next seventeen years. He was of a more cautious and conservative tem perament than John, and looked with distrust upon the development of a tendency in the Methodist societies to separate from the Church of England. and upon his brother's views of perfection, which lie thought must be at tained by a gradual process. lie died in Lon don. after a period of failing health, and was buried in Marylebone churchyard. He i* known chiefly for Ids hymns, of wde]) lie wrote over six thousand, many of them still in constant use. The poetical works of the brothers were pub lished in thirteen volumes by the Rev. G. Os borne (186S-72). For the biography of Charles, apart front what appears in the Lirrs of his brother, consult •Jackson (London, IS49) and Telford ISGfil.