Two hundred and fifty years ago, on Monday 12th May 1760, Rev John Wesley arrived in Moira on horseback and preached, as he had done on two previous occasions. But this third visit was to be the last time this famous preacher would speak to a congregation here. His reaction is noted in his journal. “I preached to a very civil congregation but there is no life in them.”

Wesley had been in the village just over a week earlier. "I rode to Moira. Soon after twelve, standing on a tombstone near the Church, I called a considerable number of people to 'know God and Jesus Christ whom He had sent'. We were just opposite to the Earl of Moira's house, the best furnished of any I have seen in Ireland. It stands on a hill with a large avenue in front, bounded by the Church on the opposite hill. The other three sides are covered with orchards, gardens and woods, in which are walks of various kinds".

Wesley enjoyed coming to Moira for he had a developed a close relationship with Sir John Rawdon. Rawdon was an Anglican; his father had built the Parish church in the village. He was a very hospitable and open-minded man and his home appeared to be open to a wide variety of people.

Thirty years previously, Rawdon had extended hospitality to Father Tighe of Magheralin parish. This was really illegal at the time for it contravened the Penal Laws. Later, Father Lavery from the same parish was also a welcome visitor and is described as an “intimate friend of Lord Moira.”

As Methodism grew, Sir John also had a welcoming attitude. One of Wesley's preachers had come to Ireland in 1755 but took ill with consumption while in this area. Sir John Rawdon took him in and treated him as his son but it was clear that he could not survive. Seccombe asked that the Methodists might come and receive his dying benediction. Seccombe addressed the people who came and lay down and passed away. Rawdon sent an account of his death to a nobleman friend in London adding, 'Now, my Lord, find me if you can a man that will die like a Methodist!'

John Wesley’s relationship with Sir John Rawdon began when he first visited Moira in 1756. He was on his first preaching tour of Ulster. In his journal entry on Tuesday 26th July, he describes the countryside between Lisburn and Lurgan and tells in some detail of his experiences of preaching in both towns. He does not tell us about Moira but that may be because of the personal nature of his visit. Although it is unlikely that John Wesley knew Sir John Rawdon before that time, he certainly knew Rawdon’s third wife Elizabeth. She was the daughter of the Countess of Huntingdon and as a girl growing up she was familiar with Wesley in her home and had often heard him preach. She herself told how she married John Rawdon and came to Ireland to get away from her mother’s Godly influence. It seems Wesley chose to come this way to visit Elizabeth and the story reveals Wesley as much more than a preacher. He had a deep concern for individuals and their relationship with God.

Wesley was warmly received at Moira Castle and he became quite a regular visitor there and in later years, at Moira House, the magnificent palatial home the Rawdons built in Dublin. In fact Sir John invited Wesley to preach in the church in the Moira. He sent a servant to the Clergyman to request the key of the church but the request was declined. Anne Lutton tells us that Sir John was “greatly annoyed at the Rector’s refusal, but determined that nothing should prevent Mr. Wesley from preaching; so he sent the bellman through the town, to summon all the people to the lawn before the Castle, and Mr. Wesley stood on the top of a long flight of steps before the grand entrance hall and preached to the people." For years the clergyman who refused to open the church boasted that, even to oblige a nobleman, he would not tolerate Methodists.

It was four years after that first visit that Wesley returned. He had come to preach once more but also to minister to Lady Moira. Her family has endured very grievous hurt when, at the beginning of the year, one of Elizabeth’s relatives had murdered his land steward. This brought great pain to the family, and Wesley had written personally to Elizabeth in March to comfort her and to encourage her to think about her poor grieving mother to whom she had not spoken for years. He was also deeply concerned about Elizabeth’s rejection of God. “Now God calls aloud! My dear Lady, now hear the voice of the Son of God, and live!” he wrote.

Between the two visits by Wesley in early May 1760, Elizabeth’s relative was taken from the Tower of London and hanged for his crime. As an acknowledgement of his high social status, a silk rope was used! Exactly one week after the hanging, Wesley returned to see Elizabeth and to preach in Moira for the last time. Perhaps he spent that night in the Castle and was refreshed, for the next day he rode 55 miles to Coot-hill in Monaghan. He preached on arrival and again the next morning at 5.00 a.m. and 11.00 a.m. Then with a fresh horse he rode to Belturbet! By 18th May he was in Sligo but Moira was still on his mind. From Sligo he wrote to Sir John about his spiritual communications with Lady Moira.

“My Lord, I have taken the liberty to speak to Lady Rawdon all that was in my heart, and doubt not that your Lordship will second it on every proper occasion. The late awful providence I trust will not pass over without a suitable improvement. God has spoken aloud, and happy are they that hear and understand His voice.”

But he also had some concerns to share with Lord Moira himself. “In one respect I have been under some apprehension on your Lordship's account also. I have been afraid lest you should exchange the simplicity of the gospel for a philosophical religion. O my Lord, why should we go one step farther than this, 'We love Him because He first loved us'? I am Your Lordship's most obedient servant.”

Wesley was in the area on several occasions during the following years but there is no record of ever again preaching in Moira. On 6th July 1771 he “spent two hours very agreeably in Mayra” on his journey between Ballinderry and Newry. His relationship with the Rawdons continued after they left Moira for Ballynahinch and Dublin.

But on this 250th anniversary of his last preaching visit, we are left with a lovely picture of a man who travelled extensively in these islands and in America to preach the gospel and found churches. But Moira will remember him as a man who cared about individuals and their souls.

Below, the original letter sent from Sligo to Sir John Rawdon

read the complete history of Moira