George De Benneville

George de Benneville (1703-1793) was a physician and evangelist who became one of the earliest preachers of universal salvation in colonial America. Born in London to French Huguenot refugee parents, he preached to Protestants in France as a young man, was condemned to death and reprieved on the scaffold, and then spent nearly two decades among Pietist communities in Germany and Holland. Emigrating to Pennsylvania about 1741, he settled in Oley, Berks County, where he practiced medicine while teaching that God's love would ultimately restore all souls, helping prepare the way for the later Universalist ministries of John Murray and Elhanan Winchester. His autobiographical conversion narrative was translated and published by Winchester in 1791.

George de Benneville — French Huguenot exile, physician, and preacher — experienced near-death trance visions in which he saw the torments of the wicked ended and all souls restored. He emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1741 and quietly preached universal restoration among the German sectarians there a full generation before organized Universalism. This London printing of his account, translated by Elhanan Winchester, is the principal source for the man often counted the first Universalist preacher in America. British Library scan.

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