John Gibbon WRIGHT

WRIGHT, JOHN GIBBON (b. Scoulthorpe Norfolk, England, 30 April 1822; d. Adelaide, SA, 27 June 1904). Primitive Methodist minister.

Wright entered the Primitive Methodist ministry in 1845 and served in five English circuits prior to his emigration to South Australia in 1856. His ministry was shaped by his church's tradition of camp-meetings, open-air preaching and prayer for revival. Wright's first appointment in the colony was to Kooringa on the Burra copper field where the church had been closed following the exodus of miners to the gold fields. In 1856 he could find only two former members. He re-opened the church and began a program of vigorous evangelism. 'The arrows of conviction pierced many a hardened heart, penitential emotions swelled many a guilty bosom' (Petty, 1864:528). Within three years he had just under two hundred members. Wright had a long and fruitful ministry in eleven circuits in SA. A leading advocate of Methodist union, he was widely respected in the other Methodist churches. On six occasions he was elected president of the Primitive Methodist Assembly.

A D Hunt, This Side of Heaven: A History of Methodism in South Australia (Adelaide, 1985); J Petty, A History of the Primitive Methodist Connexion (London 1864); South Australian Methodist 8 July 1904

ARNOLD D HUNT