George Osborn

Who was George Osborn?

George Osborn, Rev. Dr., Wesleyan Methodist minister, president of the Wesleyan conference.

Osborn was born at Rochester in 1808. His father, George Osborn, was a draper in Rochester, a class-leader among the Wesleyan Methodists for twenty-one years, and a steward of the Rochester circuit. George was educated at Dr. Hulett's school at Brompton, and, entering the Wesleyan ministry in 1828, was in the following year appointed to the Brighton circuit, where he laboured successfully for two years.

He was conspicuous as a debater very early in life, and rose rapidly in the estimation of his co-religionists. London in 1836–42 and 1851–68, Manchester in 1842–5 and 1848–51, and Liverpool in 1845–48 had the benefit of his ministerial services. Although an enthusiastic Methodist, he was catholic in his sentiments, was friendly with the ministers of all evangelical denominations, and in 1845 was one of the founders of the evangelical alliance. In 1851 he was appointed one of the Wesleyan foreign missionary secretaries, and retained that office for seventeen years. The jubilee of the foreign missions took place in 1863.