Who Was Alive
John Wesley
George Romney, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

John Wesley

British diarist

Born 17 June 1703 (Julian calendar) · died 2 March 1791, aged 87

Who was alive at the same time as John Wesley?

  1. John Locke, 1632 – 1704
  2. Isaac Newton, 1642 – 1727
  3. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, 1646 – 1716
  4. Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685 – 1750
  5. Voltaire, 1694 – 1778
  6. John Wesley, 1703 – 1791
  7. Benjamin Franklin, 1706 – 1790
  8. Leonhard Euler, 1707 – 1783
  9. Carl Linnaeus, 1707 – 1778
  10. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712 – 1778
  11. Adam Smith, 1723 – 1790
  12. Immanuel Kant, 1724 – 1804
  13. James Cook, 1728 – 1779
  14. George Washington, 1732 – 1799
  15. John Adams, 1735 – 1826
  16. Thomas Jefferson, 1743 – 1826
  17. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749 – 1832
  18. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1756 – 1791
  19. Ludwig van Beethoven, c. 1770 – 1827
  20. Napoleon, 1769 – 1821
  21. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1770 – 1831
  22. Jane Austen, 1775 – 1817
  23. Carl Friedrich Gauss, 1777 – 1855
  24. Lord Byron, 1788 – 1824

Drag across the timeline, or use the arrow keys, to see who was alive in any year and the age each person reached that year. Dashed lines mark world events. Faded ends mark uncertain dates.

When John Wesley was born, Isaac Newton was 60, Johann Sebastian Bach was 18, Voltaire was 8, John Locke was 70 and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was 56.

When John Wesley died, Napoleon was 21, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was 41, George Washington was 59, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was 35 and Immanuel Kant was 66.

Born during John Wesley’s lifetime: Napoleon, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, George Washington, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Immanuel Kant, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith.

Not quite contemporaries: Victor Hugo was born about 11 years after John Wesley died, Alexander Pushkin was born about 8 years after John Wesley died, Hans Christian Andersen was born about 14 years after John Wesley died and Matsuo Bashō died about 9 years before John Wesley was born.

What happened in John Wesley’s lifetime

Where John Wesley’s contemporaries were born

John Wesley is labelled; the others are the best-known people we track who lived at the same time. Each dot is a birthplace from Wikidata (81 of 81 placed); tap one to open that person.
Birthplaces as a list

Compare John Wesley

The 150 best-known contemporaries

365 of the people we track were surely alive at the same time as John Wesley. The 150 best known are listed here. See also everyone alive in 1747.

  1. Isaac Newton 1642 – 1727
  2. Napoleon 1769 – 1821
  3. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749 – 1832
  4. George Washington 1732 – 1799
  5. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756 – 1791
  6. Ludwig van Beethoven c. 1770 – 1827
  7. Johann Sebastian Bach 1685 – 1750
  8. Voltaire 1694 – 1778
  9. Immanuel Kant 1724 – 1804
  10. Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712 – 1778
  11. Adam Smith 1723 – 1790
  12. Thomas Jefferson 1743 – 1826
  13. Lord Byron 1788 – 1824
  14. Benjamin Franklin 1706 – 1790
  15. Carl Linnaeus 1707 – 1778
  16. John Locke 1632 – 1704
  17. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 1646 – 1716
  18. Jane Austen 1775 – 1817
  19. Carl Friedrich Gauss 1777 – 1855
  20. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 1770 – 1831
  21. Leonhard Euler 1707 – 1783
  22. John Adams 1735 – 1826
  23. James Cook 1728 – 1779
  24. Francisco Goya 1746 – 1828
  25. Louis XIV 1638 – 1715
  26. Friedrich Schiller 1759 – 1805
  27. Peter the Great 1672 – 1725
  28. Hokusai 1760 – 1849
  29. James Madison 1751 – 1836
  30. Simón Bolívar 1783 – 1830
  31. Arthur Schopenhauer 1788 – 1860
  32. Antonio Vivaldi 1678 – 1741
  33. John Quincy Adams 1767 – 1848
  34. Andrew Jackson 1767 – 1845
  35. Jonathan Swift 1667 – 1745
  36. William Blake 1757 – 1827
  37. Montesquieu 1689 – 1755
  38. George Frideric Handel 1685 – 1759
  39. James Watt 1736 – 1819
  40. David Hume 1711 – 1776
  41. Joseph Haydn 1732 – 1809
  42. James Monroe 1758 – 1831
  43. Catherine the Great 1729 – 1796
  44. Denis Diderot 1713 – 1784
  45. Martin Van Buren 1782 – 1862
  46. Daniel Defoe c. 1661 – 1731
  47. Zachary Taylor 1784 – 1850
  48. John Tyler 1790 – 1862
  49. Alexander von Humboldt 1769 – 1859
  50. William Wordsworth 1770 – 1850
  51. William Henry Harrison 1773 – 1841
  52. Walter Scott 1771 – 1832
  53. Stendhal 1783 – 1842
  54. Thomas Paine 1737 – 1809
  55. Samuel Johnson 1709 – 1784
  56. Marie Antoinette 1755 – 1793
  57. Maximilien Robespierre 1758 – 1794
  58. Joseph Fourier 1768 – 1830
  59. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres 1780 – 1867
  60. Mary Wollstonecraft 1759 – 1797
  61. Antoine Lavoisier 1743 – 1794
  62. Pierre-Simon Laplace 1749 – 1827
  63. Louis XVI 1754 – 1793
  64. Frederick the Great 1712 – 1786
  65. Edmund Burke 1729 – 1797
  66. Robert Burns 1759 – 1796
  67. Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772 – 1834
  68. Alexander Pope 1688 – 1744
  69. André-Marie Ampère 1775 – 1836
  70. Alessandro Volta 1745 – 1827
  71. Jean Le Rond d'Alembert 1717 – 1783
  72. William Herschel 1738 – 1822
  73. Edward Jenner 1749 – 1823
  74. Johann Gottlieb Fichte 1762 – 1814
  75. Novalis 1772 – 1801
  76. John Dalton 1766 – 1844
  77. Alexander I of Russia 1777 – 1825
  78. George Berkeley 1685 – 1753
  79. Mikhail Lomonosov 1711 – 1765
  80. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck 1744 – 1829
  81. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 1632 – 1723
  82. Washington Irving 1783 – 1859
  83. Alphonse de Lamartine 1790 – 1869
  84. George III 1738 – 1820
  85. Carl von Clausewitz 1780 – 1831
  86. Alessandro Manzoni 1785 – 1873
  87. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 1729 – 1781
  88. Louis XV 1710 – 1774
  89. Maria Theresa 1717 – 1780
  90. Giacomo Casanova 1725 – 1798
  91. Marquis de Sade 1740 – 1814
  92. Jeremy Bentham 1748 – 1832
  93. Thomas Robert Malthus 1766 – 1834
  94. Edward Gibbon 1737 – 1794
  95. Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson 1758 – 1805
  96. Joseph-Louis Lagrange 1736 – 1813
  97. Alexander Hamilton 1757 – 1804
  98. Niccolò Paganini 1782 – 1840
  99. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington 1769 – 1852
  100. Georg Ohm 1789 – 1854
  101. Johann Gottfried Herder 1744 – 1803
  102. Humphry Davy 1778 – 1829
  103. Charles-Augustin de Coulomb 1736 – 1806
  104. Shaka c. 1787 – 1828
  105. Edmond Halley 1656 – 1742
  106. Anders Celsius 1701 – 1744
  107. Hans Christian Ørsted 1777 – 1851
  108. Pope Gregory XVI 1765 – 1846
  109. Wilhelm von Humboldt 1767 – 1835
  110. David Ricardo 1772 – 1823
  111. Amedeo Avogadro 1776 – 1856
  112. Isabelle de Charrière 1740 – 1805
  113. Pope Pius VII 1742 – 1823
  114. William IV 1765 – 1837
  115. Friedrich Hölderlin 1770 – 1843
  116. Aurangzeb 1618 – 1707
  117. Pierre-Augustin de Beaumarchais 1732 – 1799
  118. Klemens von Metternich 1773 – 1859
  119. Carlo Goldoni 1707 – 1793
  120. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord 1754 – 1839
  121. Paul I of Russia 1754 – 1801
  122. Anne, Queen of Great Britain 1665 – 1714
  123. Jacques-Louis David 1748 – 1825
  124. George IV 1762 – 1830
  125. François-René de Chateaubriand 1768 – 1848
  126. Joseph Priestley 1733 – 1804
  127. James Fenimore Cooper 1789 – 1851
  128. Georges Danton 1759 – 1794
  129. Pope Leo XII 1760 – 1829
  130. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling 1775 – 1854
  131. E. T. A. Hoffmann 1776 – 1822
  132. Pope Benedict XIV 1675 – 1758
  133. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon 1707 – 1788
  134. Germaine de Staël 1766 – 1817
  135. Thomas Young 1773 – 1829
  136. Caspar David Friedrich 1774 – 1840
  137. Robert Walpole 1676 – 1745
  138. Pope Pius VI 1717 – 1799
  139. Alexander Suvorov 1730 – 1800
  140. Henry Cavendish 1731 – 1810
  141. Louis XVIII 1755 – 1824
  142. Pope Pius VIII 1761 – 1830
  143. Joseph Addison 1672 – 1719
  144. George II of Great Britain 1683 – 1760
  145. Daniel Bernoulli 1700 – 1782
  146. Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi 1746 – 1827
  147. Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor 1768 – 1835
  148. Ivan Krylov 1769 – 1844
  149. José de San Martín 1778 – 1850
  150. Jöns Jacob Berzelius 1779 – 1848