George Whitefield was a minister in the Church of England and one of the leaders of the Methodist movement. He was born on December 16, 1714 at the Bell Inn, Gloucester, and died in Newburyport, Massachusetts on September 30, 1770. In contemporary accounts, he, not John Wesley, is spoken of as the supreme figure and even as the founder of Methodism. He was famous for his preaching in America which was a significant part of the Great Awakening movement of Christian revivals.