Gideon Ouseley
Irish Methodist missionary
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Gideon Ouseley (24 February 1762 – 13 May 1839)[1] was born into an Anglican gentry family in Dunmore, County Galway.[2]
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.[3] He was tutored with his cousins Gore and William, and all three had notable careers.[4]
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,[3] Ouseley left his wild ways behind him. In 1791 he was converted to Methodism by English soldiers stationed in Dunmore,[5] 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'.[3]
Works
- A Short Defence Of The Old Religion (1812, 2nd Ed. 1829)
- Rare discoveries (1823)
- Old Christianity (1827)
- Four letters (1829)
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.[6]
The writer John Mulvey Ousley was of a later generation of the same family.[7]
