WHITFIELD. 
640 
memory and good elocution. Of his early years, he gives a 
very unfavourable account, so that there was nothing about 
him but a fitness to be damned, with occasional gleams of 
grace that afforded some indication of his future destination. 
About the age of 18, he was admitted a servitor at Pembroke 
college, Oxford, and associated with those young persons 
whose dispositions and habits resembled his own, and whose 
conversation and manners contributed to cherish that reli¬ 
gious enthusiasm to which he was strongly addicted. As 
soon as Dr. Benson, bishop of Gloucester, received informa¬ 
tion concerning the state of his mind and the course of his 
general conduct, he made him an offer of ordination, when 
he was about 21 years of age, and he was accordingly or¬ 
dained a deacon in 1736. Upon his return to Oxford, after 
preaching his first sermon at Gloucester, he took the degree 
of bachelor, and diligently employed himself in communi¬ 
cating instruction to the poor and the prisoners. During the 
two following years, he acquired a great degree of popularity 
by his public services in London, Bath, Bristol, and other 
places; collecting large auditories, and interesting the atten¬ 
tion of his hearers. His voice was strong and musical, his 
pronunciation clear and distinct, his imagination was lively, 
and his feelings were warm ; and to these natural powers of 
eloquence we may add his selection of subjects, which were 
adapted to rouse the inconsiderate, and to comfort those that 
were awakened to a sense of their guilt and danger: so that 
we need not wonder that he should command a numerous 
audience. Upon receiving information that the province of 
Georgia was likely to open to him an extensive field of use¬ 
fulness, he determined to visit it, and in May, 1738, arrived 
at Savannah. Here he met with much greater success than 
his predecessor Wesley; and in order to supply the defect of 
education which he was concerned to observe in this pro¬ 
vince, he resolved to found an orphan-house, and in 1739 
returned to England in order to collect money for this pur¬ 
pose. In England, few of his clerical brethren were dis¬ 
posed to take much notice of him; nevertheless, his original 
patron, the bishop of Gloucester, gave him priest’s orders: 
but upon afterwards visiting London, none of the churches 
into which he obtained admission were large enough to ac¬ 
commodate the crowds of people that assembled to hear him. 
It was about this time that he commenced his practice of 
preaching in the open fields, and the first scene of his exhi¬ 
bition in this way seems to have been Kingswood, near Bris¬ 
tol, where he collected thousands, chiefly of colliers, who, 
without doubt, derived benefit from his discourses. He also 
preached at Bristol in the open air, when he was refused 
access to the pulpits of the churches; and he likewise pur¬ 
sued the same practice in Moorfields and Kennington-com- 
mon, near London, where, amidst the immense multitude 
that attended him, some persons occasionally treated him 
with rudeness, but the greater number were commanded by 
his peculiar power of address into respectful attention. 
Having succeeded beyond his expectations in soliciting con¬ 
tributions for his projected orphan-house in Georgia, he 
returned to America in August, 1739; and in the following 
January laid the foundation of the building at Savannah. 
He then extended his tour as far as Boston, preaching to im¬ 
mense crowds, and collecting considerable sums for the com¬ 
pletion of his design; and upon his return to Savannah he 
found his orphan family comfortably settled in their house; 
and in January, 1741, he embarked for England. His ab¬ 
sence had occasioned a declension among his followers; 
some other circumstances, besides the intermission of his per¬ 
sonal labours amongst them, might probably have contri¬ 
buted to produce this effect. Whilst he was in America, he 
had written, as he himself acknowledges, “two well-meant 
but injudicious letters against England’s two great favourites, 
the Whole Duty of Man, and archbishop Tillotson, who, I 
said, knew no more of religion than Mahomet.” His so¬ 
ciety had suffered from the influence of the Moravians. Mr. 
Wesley had preached and printed in favour of ■perfection 
and universal redemption, and against the doctrine of elec¬ 
tion. He had written a reply, but he acknowledges that he 
had used expressions that were too strong in reference to ab¬ 
solute reprobation, which had offended numbers of his spi¬ 
ritual children. At this time, a separation had taken place 
between him and Wesley, and this had occasioned a decrease 
of his auditors. However, his zeal and perseverance over¬ 
came these difficulties. In order to counteract Wesley’s po¬ 
pularity, he built a shed near his chapel in Moorfields, which 
he called the Tabernacle; and in process of time this rose 
from a mean beginning to be a spacious edifice; and he also 
renewed his field-preaching. At this time he paid his first 
visit to Scotland; and though he was a clergyman of the 
church of England, which excited some prejudice against 
him, he was invited into the churches, and preached to large 
congregations, and made collections for his orphans. On 
his return by Wales, he married a Mrs. James, a widow lady 
of Abergavenny. His zeal for doing good, and for making 
proselytesj induced him, in the spring of 1742, to engage in 
a contest with the idle people who had booths in Moorfields, 
and where they frequented for their amusement on holidays. 
In 1748 he returned from a third voyage to America; and 
then commenced his acquaintance with the Countess of 
Huntingdon, who appointed him her chaplain, and excited 
the curiosity of some persons of rank to hear him: among 
these were the Earl of Chesterfield and Lord Bolingbroke. 
About this period, it is said, his sentiments became more 
rational; for on his third visit to Scotland, it was announced 
to a synod assembled at Glasgow to investigate certain 
charges against his opinions, that with regard to certain 
points which were considered as objectionable, his senti¬ 
ments had been altered for upwards of two years; and that 
he now seldom preached a sermon without guarding his 
hearers against impressions, and admonishing them that a 
holy life is the best evidence of a state of grace. From this 
time, he was fully employed by a visit to Ireland, two more 
voyages to America, and his English circuits, till the year 
1756, when his chapel in Tottenham-court-road was erected. 
His labours were incessant for many years; but at length, 
on a seventh visit to America, he was seized with an asth¬ 
matic complaint at Newbury-port, New England, which ter¬ 
minated his life in September, 1770, near the completion of 
his fifty-sixth year. 
With regard to his general character, we shall close this 
article with the reflections of a judicious and candid bio¬ 
grapher. “ That he had much enthusiasm and fanaticism in 
his composition is sufficiently evident from his own journal 
and letters; but whether these were accompanied, as they 
not unfrequentiy are, with craft and artifice, is a disputable 
point. There are, in his narratives, obvious marks of a dis¬ 
position to represent himself as under the special protection 
of Providence, and to magnify trifling incidents into little 
less than miracles in his favour; and much of what is com¬ 
monly called cant is apparent in his confessions and humi¬ 
liations. He has been charged with dishonesty and immo¬ 
rality; yet as it is certain that he obtained the esteem of 
many persons of worth, it may be coucluded that such accu¬ 
sations were destitute of proof. His intellectual qualities 
were well suited to the task he undertook; and if in the 
pulpit he occasionally intermixed buffoonery with his vehe¬ 
mence, the latter was not less effectual on that account. His 
learning and literary talents were mean, and he is a writer 
only for his own sect.” He published, at intervals, sermons, 
tracts, and letters, which, alter his death, were collected in 
six vols. 8vo.— Middleton's Biog. Evangel. Mosh. Eccl. 
Hist. Gen. Biog. 
WHITE FLAG BAY, a bay on the west coast of the 
island of St. Christopher; 2 miles north of Sandy Point. 
WHITEFORD, a hamlet of England, in Devonshire, near 
Lyme. 
WHITEGATE, or New Church, a parish of England, 
in Cheshire ; 3 miles south-west of Northwich. 
WHITEHALL, formerly Skenesborough, a post town¬ 
ship and village of the United States, in Washington county. 
New!;York, at the south end of Lake Champlain; 70 miles 
north of Albany, 170 north-west of Boston, and 25 south of 
Ticonderago. Population of the township 2110. 
WHITEHALL, a township of the United States, in Le¬ 
high 
