A History of St. Andrew`s Church, Charmouth

Another claim to fame in the history of St. Andrews Church is the fact that we had as our Rector none other that the grandfather of John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church. Bartholomew Wesley became Rector in 1645. He was placed here by the Parliamentarians and supported their cause. His time as Rector coincided with the attempt by the future King Chales II escape by boat to France from the shores of Charmouth in 1651. It was Stephen Lymbry who was to have taken him in his boat. But his wife became very suspicious and locked him in their house, so he could not assist. Charles could not wait and went on to Bridport. In the early morning one of the kings horses was taken to be shod. The blacksmith declared that its shoes had been made in the north of England. When the Ostler said that a  party of strangers had sat up all night, suspicion was aroused. He ran to consult Mr. Wesley at the church, but as he was reading prayers, there was considerable delay and Charles was gone before any measures could be taken by him to prevent his escape.
Bartholomew Wesley and his son, John Wesley are shown as signing an indenture for their house sale in 1668. The property now called “Mill View” stands on the site of the former house where they lived. The deeds still exist in the Dorset Record Office and shortly after the Wesleys moved it was bought by the same Stephen Limbry who was involved in the attempted escape of the King. The former 17th Century Pulpit  Bartholomew preached from can be seen today in Bridport Museum following its removal from the former Church. Another reminder of this famous Gentleman is of course Wesley Close which was named after him in more recent times.

JOHN WESLEY was born at Epworth Parsonage on June 17th, 1703. A notable ancestry links the founder of Methodism to all the stirring scenes of Nonconformist persecution and controversy during the seventeenth century. Bartholomew Wesley, his great-grandfather, was the son of Sir Herbert Wesley, of Westleigh, Devonshire, and Elizabeth de Wellesley, of Dangan, county Meath, in Ireland. He studied medicine and divinity at Oxford, the university to which his son, grandson, and three great-grandsons afterwards followed him. He married the daughter of Sir Henry Colley, of Kildare, in 1619. Nothing is known about his history till 1640, when he became Rector of Catherston, a little village in the south-west of Dorsetshire. He also held the neighbouring living of Charmouth, but both together only yielded their incumbent an income of 35 10s.
The one event of historic interest in his life is connected with the flight of Charles II. after the battle of Worcester, in September, 1651. It was arranged that Charles should cross over to France from Charmouth. The boat in which he was to reach the vessel that lay waiting for him did not come at the appointed time, so that the party had to stay all night at an inn. In the early morning one of their horses was taken to be shod. The blacksmith declared that its shoes had been made in the north of England. When the ostler said that the party of strangers had sat up all night, suspicion was aroused. The ostler ran to consult Mr. Wesley at the church, but as he was reading prayers, there was considerable delay, and Charles was gone before any measures could be taken to prevent his escape. Bartholomew Wesley made no secret of his intention to capture the King. He told a friend in jest that if ever Charles came back, he would be certain to love long prayers, because “he would have surely snapt him” if the prayers had been over earlier. An account of this scene describes Wesley as the “puny parson.” The Rector of Char-mouth was therefore a little man, like all the Wesleys.
After the Restoration he was ejected from his living. This trouble fell upon him nearly six months before the general ejection on St. Bartholomew's Day, 1662. His skill in medicine, which had formerly enabled him to render signal service to his poor parishioners, now became his sole means of support. His great-grandson John Wesley inherited his love of medicine, and, as we shall see, found his skill of great service to himself and others. For some time after his ejection, Bartholomew Wesley lived quietly among his old parishioners in Charmouth. He cast in his lot with the persecuted Nonconformists, but no violence seems to have been used against a man who had won general respect by his benevolence and his blameless character. He was probably compelled to leave the district after the Five Mile Act was placed on the statute books; but we only know that he did not long survive his son, who died in 1678.
This son bore the name which afterwards became known in every corner of the kingdom—John Wesley, or Westley, as the name was spelled till Samuel Wesley, the Rector of Epworth, dropped the "t." His life forms a painful contrast to that of his illustrious grandson, but their spirit and their aims were one. The first John Wesley was born in 1636. As a schoolboy, he was under deep religious conviction. He had a diary, in which he described all the events of his outward life, as well as the workings of us own heart. This diary, which he kept almost to the :lose of his life, was entrusted by his widow to Dr. Calamy. All trace of it is now lost. It would have been no small rivilege to compare it with his grandson's famous journals.
1596-1680
He was the third son of Sir Herbert Westley of Westleigh , Devon , by his wife Elizabeth de Wellesley of Dangan , County Meath . He studied physics, [ 1 ] medicine and theology at Oxford . He lived for some time at Bridport and is known to have preached in the town's western suburb of Allington. (The pulpit which he used there is still preserved in the Wesleyan school-room at Bridport.)
He held the sequestered rectories of Charmouth (from 1640) and Catherston (from 1650), in Dorset , from both of which he was ejected in 1662. He continued to preach as a Nonconformist . He lived in Charmouth for some time where he practiced medicine and continued preaching in the West Dorset area. He was eventually forced to leave Charmouth by the Five Mile Act . He was dubbed a fanatic and a "puny parson," because of his small stature. The last years of his life were spent in seclusion at Lyme Regis where at about the age of eighty-five he died and was buried there on 15 February 1680.