In 1703, John Wesley was born at Epworth, Lincoln.
Apart from his disciplined upbringing, a rectory fire which occurred when Wesley was five years old, left an indelible impression. His parents managed to save all their children, except for John who was left stranded on an upper floor. With seemingly no escape route Wesley was lifted out of a window by a parishioner standing on another man’s shoulders. Wesley later used the phrase, “a brand plucked out of the fire”, quoting Zechariah 3:2, to describe the incident.
