The New International Encyclopædia/Wesley, Samuel (junior)

WESLEY, Samuel (1691-1739). An English poet and clergyman, son of the preceding and elder brother of John and Charles Wesley. He was born in London, and educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1715. He was ordained not long after, and for the next twenty years was a master in Westminster School. In 1732 he became head master of Blundell's School at Tiverton, where he remained until his death. At Westminster he became acquainted with Pope, Swift, Prior, Harley, and other Tory poets and statesmen, who thought highly of his abilities in satiric and humorous verse. The first edition of his poems appeared in 1736; a second, with additions, in 1743; and a third, with biography by Nichols, in 1862. Some of his hymns are still in common use.