Gideon Ouseley
Born24 February 1762 (1762-02-24)
Dunmore, Galway
Died13 May 1839 (1839-05-14) (aged 77)
Dublin, Ireland
OccupationMethodist missionary in Ireland

Gideon Ouseley (24 February 1762 – 13 May 1839)[1] was born into an Anglican gentry family in Dunmore, County Galway.

Biography

His father, although a deist, intended that his son enter the clergy,[1] but Ouseley spent much of his childhood in the cabins of peasant neighbours.[2] He was tutored with his cousins Gore and William, and all three had notable careers.[3]

Married at age 20, Ouseley led a wild life that dissipated both his own and his wife's fortunes. After losing an eye when shot in a tavern brawl, a loss that reputedly left him with a frightening appearance,[2] Ouseley left his wild ways behind him. In 1791 he was converted to Methodism by English soldiers stationed in Dunmore,[4] and he set out in turn, to convert and reform others. Ouseley preached the gospel, mostly in Ulster, until his death, preaching up to 20 sermons a week.[1] His knowledge of the Irish language and of peasant mores— not to mention his eccentric preaching astride a white horse— won him renown as Methodism's 'apostle to the Irish'.[2]

Works

Oliver St. John Gogarty wrote an autobiographical novel Tumbling in the Hay and two plays under the pseudonym Gideon Ouseley, A Serious Thing and The Enchanted Trousers.[5]

The writer John Mulvey Ousley was of a later generation of the same family.[6]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 "Ouseley, Gideon". Encyclopedia Americana, Canadian Edition. Vol. 21. 1950. p. 53.
  2. 1 2 3 Cunningham, John (2004). A Town Tormented by the sea: Galway, 1790-1914. Dublin: Geography Publications. p. 252. ISBN 0-906602-32-7.
  3. ↑ R. W. Ferrier, ‘Ouseley, Sir Gore, first baronet (1770–1844)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 10 Nov 2011
  4. ↑ Arthur, William (1876). The Life of Gideon Ouseley. Wesleyan Conference Office.
  5. ↑ Barger, Jorn. "Oliver St John Gogarty resources on the web". Archived from the original on 8 June 2007. Retrieved 10 June 2007.
  6. ↑ Kelly, Richard J. (June 1910). "The Name and Familey of Ouseley". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. 5th Series. 20 (2): 132–146.
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