May 28, 1752, Pan­ton House (near Wrag­by), Lin­coln­shire, Eng­land.

Au­gust 11, 1818, at his re­si­dence, Raith­by Hall, near Spils­by, Lin­coln­shire, Eng­land.

Raith­by Church, Lin­coln­shire, Eng­land.

Son of a wealthy Lin­coln­shire fam­i­ly, Brack­en­bu­ry a­ttend­ed Fel­sted School, and ma­tric­u­lat­ed at St. Ca­ther­ine’s Hall, Cam­bridge, but left with­out grad­u­at­ing. He joined the Wes­leys, and be­came a Meth­od­ist min­is­ter. In that ca­pa­ci­ty he vi­sit­ed Guern­sey, Jer­sey and Hol­land.

In 1779, Brackenbury built a Meth­od­ist cha­pel above the sta­bles in the grounds of his es­tate in Raith­by. He al­so con­struct­ed Raith­by Hall around this time. The cha­pel was com­pleted be­fore the house, which was just a shell when John Wes­ley vis­it­ed Brack­en­bury in Ju­ly 1779 to open the cha­pel. Wes­ley held Brack­en­bu­ry in high re­gard and, de­spite his ne­ver be­ing or­dained, ap­point­ed him to be part of the Le­gal Hun­dred, a con­fer­ence of es­teemed min­is­ters who ad­vised Wes­ley and gave guid­ance on the ap­point­ment of preach­ers.

Wesley writes of his vis­its to Raith­by and Brack­en­bu­ry’s home fond­ly. After a vis­it in 1779, he wrote that he could not but ob­serve, while the land­lord and his ten­ants were stand­ing to­ge­ther, how Love, like Death, mak­eth all dis­tinct­ions void.

Brackenbury re­tired in 1789. His works in­clude:

• Select Hymns in 2 Parts (Lon­don: 1795)
• Sac­red Po­ems, in 3 Parts (Lon­don: 1797)
• Sac­red Po­e­try; or Hymns on the Prin­ci­pal His­to­ries of the Old and New Test­a­ments and on All the Par­a­bles (Lon­don: 1800)

• Julian, pp. 168, 222, 955, 1581

1. Come, Ho­ly Spir­it, Raise Our Songs
2. My Son, Know Thou the Lord