Robert Carr Brackenbury

BRACKENBURY, Robert Carr. b. Panton House, Panton, Lincolnshire, 1752; d. Raithby Hall, near Spilsby, Lincolnshire, 11 August 1818. Born into a wealthy Lincolnshire family, he was educated at Felsted School and St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. At Cambridge he was ‘convinced of sin, though not by any outward means, and soon after justified.’ He met with a Methodist preacher in Hull, and became ‘clearly convinced that it was his duty to be joined with the people called Methodists’ (Smith, 1859, pp. 4-5, quoting from John Wesley’s Journal). He met John Wesley* in 1776, and travelled with him to Scotland in 1779 and the Netherlands in 1783 and 1787. In 1782 he volunteered to go to the...