John Wesly (his own spelling), Westley, or Wesley was probably born at Bridport, although some authorities claim he was born in Devon, the son of the Review Bartholomew Westley and Ann Colley, daughter of Sir Henry Colley of Carbery Castle.
He was educated at Dorchester Grammar School and as a student of New Inn Hall, Oxford, where he matriculated on 23 April 1651, and graduated Bachelor of Arts on 23 January 1655, and Master of Arts
On 4 July 1657. After his appointment as an evangelist, he preached at Melcombe Regis, Radipole, and other areas in Dorset. Never episcopally ordained, he became Vicar of Winterborne Whitechurch in 1658. The report of his interview in 1661 with Gilbert Ironside the elder, his diocesan, according to Alexander Gordon writing in the Dictionary of National Biography, shows him to have been an Independent.
He was imprisoned for not using the Book of Common Prayer, imprisoned again and ejected in 1662.
After the Conventicle Acting 1664 he continued to preach in small gatherings at Preston and then Poole, until his death at Preston in 1678. White, the "Patriarch of Dorchester", married a sister of Cornelius Burges.
Westley"s eldest son was Timothy (born 1659).
