Bartholomew Westley

Rev. Bartholomew Westley (1596 – 13 February 1680) was an English ejected minister.

Life

He was the third son of Sir Herbert Westley of Westleigh, Devon, and his wife Elizabeth de Wellesley of Dangan, County Meath. He studied physics, 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 practised 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 he died at about the age of eighty-five; he was buried there on 15 February 1680.

Family

He married (1619) Anne, daughter of Sir Henry Colley of Carbury, County Kildare, and granddaughter of Adam Loftus, primate of Ireland. They had one son, Rev. John Westley, also an ejected minister.

References

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Wesley, Samuel (1662-1735)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.