Bredin, John
1737-1819; e.m. 1769
Irish-born Roman Catholic schoolmaster, rescued from a drink problem by one of the Methodist preachers. He became one of Wesley's itinerants in Ireland, Scotland, England and the Channel Islands. He corresponded frequently with Wesley, who admired his preaching, but admonished him for failing to apply Methodist discipline. Poor health forced him to return to Ireland in 1791, where he had superannuated by 1792. He died in Belfast on 2 November 1819. His most notable achievement was to recognize the potential in Adam Clarke and commend him to Wesley. Clarke in his turn described him as 'an eminent minister of God'.
'James Everett … stated thet John Bredin was a man of considerable intellectual energy and shrewdness, and that he had a good command of language and a ready utterance. He combined with the whole a stout, well-proportioned figure and handsome features. "He passed with ministerial credit in the different circuits in which he travelled, and was extremely useful in his official character. But he suffered many years under a great bodily affliction; and this united to a temper naturally harsh. He was an occasional source of trial to his best friends, and on this account, justice was not always given to his various excellences. Severe however as he was, he was never known to speak to the disadvantage of an absent person." '
Quoted in Robert H. Gallagher, John Bredin (1960), p.66
- Robert H. Gallagher, John Bredin (1960)