Introduction

Biography

After serv­ing as pri­vate sec­re­ta­ry to Sir Tho­mas Fow­ell of Bux­ton, Wise­man was of­fered a free edu­ca­tion at Cam­bridge Uni­ver­si­ty if he would pre­pare for Ang­li­can or­ders. He de­clined, pre­fer­ring to stay in the Wes­ley­an com­mun­ion he grew up with.

In 1840, he be­gan stu­dy­ing for the Wes­ley­an min­is­try in the theo­lo­gic­al col­lege at Hoxton, and on com­plet­ing his edu­ca­tion, was suc­cess­ive­ly ap­point­ed to pas­tor­ates in Chelms­ford, Hast­ings, Dar­ling­ton, York, Man­ches­ter, Lam­beth, and Isl­ing­ton.

In 1861, in con­junc­tion with a few oth­ers, Wise­man helped start the Me­tho­dist Re­cor­der week­ly jour­nal, which he ed­it­ed un­til 1872.

In 1868, Wise­man left re­gu­lar pas­tor­al work and was put in charge of the Wes­ley­an For­eign Mis­sions De­part­ment. In 1871, he be­came Sec­re­ta­ry of the Wes­leyan Con­fer­ence.

On Ju­ly 31, 1872 he be­came pre­si­dent of the Wes­ley­an Con­ference, be­ing elect­ed by the largest vote ev­er record­ed for that of­fice.

Works

• Christ in the Wild­er­ness, Lon­don, 1857
• The Em­ploy­ment of Lei­sure Time, Lon­don, 1858
• Thoughts on Class-Meet­ings, and Their Im­prove­ment (Lon­don: John Ma­son, 1860)
• Men of Faith: Sketch­es from the Book of Judg­es (Lon­don: Hod­der & Stough­ton, 1870)
• Memoir of Mrs. Ben­ja­min Ag­ar, of York (Lon­don: Wes­ley­an Con­fer­ence Of­fice, 1872)