1752–1818

Introduction

Born: May 28, 1752, Pan­ton House (near Wrag­by), Lin­coln­shire, Eng­land.

Died: Au­gust 11, 1818, at his re­si­dence, Raith­by Hall (near Spils­by), Lin­coln­shire, Eng­land.

Buried: St. Pe­ter’s church­yard, Raith­by, Lin­coln­shire, Eng­land.

Biography

Son of a wealthy Lin­coln­shire fa­mi­ly, Brack­en­bu­ry at­tend­ed Fel­sted School, and ma­tri­cu­lat­ed at St. Cath­er­ine’s Hall (now St. Cath­er­ine’s College), Cam­bridge, but left with­out gra­du­at­ing.

He joined the Wes­leys, and be­came a Me­tho­dist min­is­ter. In that ca­pa­ci­ty he vi­sit­ed Guern­sey, Jer­sey and Hol­land.

In 1779, he built a Me­tho­dist chapel above the st­ables in the grounds of his es­tate in Raith­by. He al­so con­struct­ed Raith­by Hall around this time. The cha­pel was com­plet­ed be­fore the house, which was just a shell when John Wes­ley vi­sit­ed Brack­en­bu­ry in Ju­ly 1779 to open the cha­pel.

Wesley held Brack­en­bury in high re­gard and, de­spite his ne­ver be­ing or­dained, ap­point­ed him to be part of the Le­gal Hun­dred, a con­fer­ence of es­teemed min­is­ters who ad­vised Wes­ley and gave guid­ance on the ap­point­ment of preach­ers.

Wesley writes of his trips to Raith­by and Brack­en­bu­ry’s home fond­ly. After a vi­sit in 1779, he wrote that he could not but ob­serve, while the land­lord and his ten­ants were stand­ing to­ge­ther, how Love, like Death, mak­eth all dis­tinct­ions void.

Brackenbury re­tired in 1789.

Works

Sources

Lyrics

Help Needed

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Brack­en­bu­ry (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),