[Illustration: JOHN CLAYTON. THOMAS BROUGHTON. JAMES HERVEY. BENJAMIN INGHAM. JOHN GAMBOLD. HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK.] THE OXFORD METHODISTS: MEMOIRS OF THE REV. MESSRS. CLAYTON, INGHAM, GAMBOLD, HERVEY, AND BROUGHTON, WITH BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF OTHERS. BY THE REV. L. TYERMAN, AUTHOR OF “THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE REV. JOHN WESLEY, M.A., FOUNDER OF THE METHODISTS.” [Illustration] NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. 1873. PREFACE. The present book is intended to serve as a companion volume to “The Life and Times of Wesley;” and to assist in showing the wide and gracious results of a revival of religion. In compiling the work just mentioned, I was compelled, by want of space, to lay aside a large amount of biographical material, some portions of which are embodied in the work now submitted to the reader; and other portions of which may be published at a future time. Memoirs of the two Wesleys and of Whitefield have been designedly omitted, on the ground, that, their Memoirs, _in extenso_, are already in existence. Still, those illustrious men are often noticed in the following pages; and, I hope, the facts concerning them will be both interesting and instructive. Of the other Oxford Methodists, no biographies have been previously written, with the exception of Hervey; and it is not censorious to say, that the two principal ones of him,—Ryland’s and Brown’s—are far from satisfactory. The information concerning some of the Oxford Brotherhood is meagre. I have used all the diligence I could in obtaining materials; but brief notices, and scraps, and a few letters are all that I have to give. Fragmentary, however, though they are, I trust, they will not be regarded as useless and irrelevant. The biographical sketches of Clayton, Ingham, Gambold, Hervey, and Broughton, are more extended. It would have been a satisfaction to have left Westley Hall in the shades of oblivion; but, in telling the story of the Oxford Methodists, it was impossible not to notice him.