Luke Tyerman Books: Martin Wellings Essay

Tyerman, Luke (1820-1889)

British Wesleyan Methodist, was a notable Methodist historian. He was bom on Feb. 26, 1820, at Osmotherley, near Thirsk, Yorkshire, and entered the Wesleyan Ministry in 1844. A Methodist preacher of the old school, he was particularly intense in his attacks on popery. Ill health forced him to superannuate in 1864, and he devoted the rest of his life to his scholarship. Although much had been written about eighteenth century Methodism before his time, Tyerman was the first historian to produce serious, scholarly biographies of John Wesley, George Whitefield, and John Fletcher (the "designated successor"). Tyerman's life of John Wesley has only been superseded in recent years, and there is still no other important study of Fletcher. He might properly be called the father of modem historical studies. His publications included: Life and Times of the Rev. Samuel Wesley, 1866; Life and Times of the Rev. John Wesley, 1871; The Oxford Methodists, 1873; Life of the Rev. George Whitefield, 1876-77; Wesley's Designated Successor, 1882. He died on March 30, 1889.
H. MORLEY Rattenbury in Encyclopedia of World Methodism 1974