Relly, James

RELLY, JAMES: Universalist; b. at Jeffreston (70 m. w.n.w. of Cardiff), Pembrokeshire, Wales, about 1722; d. at London Apr. 25, 1778. He attended the Pembroke grammar-school, came under the influence of George Whitefield, probably in the latter's first tour of Wales in 1741, and became one of his preachers. His first station was at Rhyddlangwraig near Narbeth, Pembrokeshire; and in 1747 he made a report of a missionary tour to Bristol, Bath, Gloucestershire, and Birmingham. He broke, however, with Whitefield on doctrinal grounds and is known to have been in controversy with John Wesley in 1756. About the same time he adopted Universalism and occupied meetinghouses in various parts of London until his death. One of his converts in 1770 was John Murray (q.v.), the founder of Universalist churches in America. His chief publications were: The Tryal of Spirits (London, 1756); Union; or a Treatise of the Consanguinity between Christ and His Church (1759); The Sadducee Detected (1754); and Epistles, or the Great Salvation Contemplated (1776).

Bibliography: W. Wilson. Hist. and Antiquities of Dissenting Churches in London, i. 358–359, iii. 184, 385, 4 vols., London, 1808–14; L. Tyerman, Life and Times of John Wesley, i. 536–537. ii. 240, 400, London, 1870–71; R. Eddy, in American Church History Series, x. 348, 392, 473. New York, 1894; DNB, xlviii. 7–8.