Samuel Wesley (poet)

Samuel Wesley
Portrait of Wesley
Died	25 April 1735 (Aged 72 years)
Nationality	British
Education	Exeter College, Oxford
Occupation	Cleric, author
Spouse(s)	Susanna Wesley
Children	19
Religion	Anglicanism (Church of England)
Ordained	17 December 1662

Samuel Wesley (baptised 17 December 1662 – 25 April 1735) was a clergyman of the Church of England, as well as a poet and a writer of controversial prose. He was also the father of John Wesley and Charles Wesley, founders of Methodism.

The father of Samuel Wesley was the Rev. John Wesley, rector of Winterborne Whitechurch, Dorset. His mother was the daughter of John White, rector of Trinity Church, Dorchester, the so-called "Patriarch of Dorchester".

Following some grammar school education in Dorchester, Wesley was sent away from home to prepare for ministerial training under Theophilus Gale. Gale's death in 1678 forestalled this plan; instead, he attended another grammar school and then studied at dissenting academies under Edward Veel in Stepney and then Charles Morton in Newington Green, where Gale had lived. Daniel Defoe also attended Morton's school, situated "probably on the site of the current Unitarian church", contemporaneously with Wesley.

Samuel resigned his place and his annual scholarship among the Dissenters and walked all the way to Oxford, where he enrolled at Exeter College as a "poor scholar." He functioned as a "servitor", which means he sustained himself financially by waiting upon wealthy students. He also published a small book of poems, entitled Maggots: or Poems on Several Subjects never before Handled in 1685. The unusual title is explained in a few lines from the first page of the work:

In his own defense the author writes
Because when the foul maggot bites
He ne'er can rest in quiet:
Which makes him make so sad a face
He'd beg your worship or your grace
Unsight, unseen, to buy it