John Berridge

John Berridge (1716-93), evangelical Methodist vicar at Everton (1758-93), was a confidant of the Wesleys, Whitefield, and Newton. He was widely noted for his piety and religious convictions, even among dissenters, as this letter demonstrates. He was instrumental, through his village preaching, in establishing numerous chapels throughout the vicinity of Everton. Andrew Fuller met his on one occasion and related some particulars of the meeting to John Ryland, Jr., on 7 January 1791, overcome by Berridge's piety: 

. . . As to my Everton Journey, I wrote something as it was then fresh upon my mind better than I can now—I greatly admired that divine savour that all along mingled with his[2] facetiousness, and sufficiently chastised it—His conversation tended to produce a frequent, but guiltless smile, a smile accompanied with a tear of pleasure—His love to Xt appears to be intense. I requested him to give us a few of the outlines of his life & ministry. These were interesting, but too long to write—they will enrich an evenings conversation if I should some time come to Northampton—When he had gone thro’ I asked him to pray for us—he was so faint, he said he could not yet—he requested me to pray—I prayed, & concluded as usual by asking all in Xs name—He, without getting off his knees took up the prayer where I had left it, in some such manner as this “O Lord God! This prayer has been offered up in the name of Jesus, accept it I beseech thee . . . & so on, for five or six minutes in a most solemn & savory manner. We then took leave with solemn prayer for blessings on each other as if we had been acquainted for 40 years, & were never to see each other again in this world—The visit left a strong & lasting impression on my heart of the beauty of holiness, of holiness almost matured. . . .

Text: Eng. MS. 871, f. 21, John Rylands University Library of Manchester. This letter is included (with numerous punctuation changes, word alterations, additions and deletions, as well as the important substitution of “Mr Berridge” for “his” in the second sentence) in Ryland’s Life of Andrew Fuller. One of the chapters in the Life was titled, “Extracts from Mr. Fuller’s correspondence, chiefly with the author of these memoirs, for two-and-thirty years….”  John Sutcliff accompanied Fuller on his visit with Berridge, an account of which can be found in Morris's Memoirs of Fuller. See John Ryland, The Work of Faith, the Labour of Love, and the Patience of Hope, Illustrated; in the Life and Death of the Rev. Andrew Fuller (London: Button and Son, 1818), 225, 212; J. W. Morris, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Rev. Andrew Fuller, 2nd ed. (London: Wightman and Cramp, 1826), 47.