Whitefield, George (1715–1770). British itinerant revivalist of the Great Awakening. Born in Gloucester, England, in 1734 Whitefield won admission to Oxford’s famed Pembroke College, where he earned his way by serving meals to wealthier fellow students. Among those students were the brothers John and Charles Wesley, whose renowned piety would transform Whitefield’s life. While parting company with these eventual founders of Methodism on the issue of free will and predestination (he remained a Calvinist),