James Relly

RELLY, James. b. Jeffreyston, near Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire, 1721/22; d. London, 25 April, 1778. He was educated at the local school, and apprenticed to a cow farrier. He was converted, perhaps by George Whitefield* or by one of Whitefield’s adherents, John Harris. He became a Calvinistic Methodist preacher at Narberth, South Wales, and later an itinerant preacher, mainly in the South West of England. He became a preacher at Whitefield’s Tabernacle, ca. 1746, but his belief in universal salvation led to his dismissal. Returning to Wales, he and his brother John founded a sect known as the Rellyites, with its own hymnbook, Christian Hymns, Poems and Spiritual Songs (1754). He published...

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