James Relly

Who was James Relly?

James Relly was a Welshman, Methodist minister and mentor of John Murray who spread Universalism in the United States.

Relly was born at Jeffreston, Pembrokeshire, Wales. He attended the Pembroke Grammar School, came under the influence of George Whitefield, probably in the latter's first tour of Wales in 1741, and became one of his preachers. His first station was at Rhyddlangwraig near Narbeth; and in 1747 he made a report of a missionary tour to Bristol, Bath, Gloucestershire, and Birmingham. He broke, however, with Whitefield on doctrinal grounds - his views on the certainty of salvation being regarded as antinomian - and is known to have been in controversy with John Wesley in 1756. In that year, at Carrickfergus, he delivered, in opposition to Wesley, a 'pointless harangue about hirelings and false prophets'. On 2 April 1761 Wesley writes of him and others as 'wretches' who 'call themselves Methodists' being really antinomian.

About the same time he adopted Universalism, which he viewed as a logical consequence of the universal efficacy of the death of Christ. He settled in London as a preacher at Coachmakers' Hall, Addle Street, Wood Street.