George Vicesimus Wigram (28 March 1805 – 1 February 1879) was an English biblical scholar and theologian.
He spent an evening exploring the Waterloo battlefield and it was here he had a religious experience that changed his life.
It was as if some One, Infinite and Almighty, knowing everything, full of the deepest, tenderest interest in myself, though utterly and entirely abhorring everything in, and connected with me, made known to me that He pitied and loved myself".
[2] This led to his resigning his commission in the army and in 1826 he entered The Queen's College, Oxford, with the intention of becoming an Anglican clergyman.
After leaving Oxford University, Wigram, using his family wealth, in 1831 bought church premises in Plymouth and there established a Brethren assembly.
He also edited the influential Brethren periodical Present Testimony and Original Christian Witness for many years (from 1849 to his death with posthumous issues running to 1881).
Besides his literary work his oral ministry was considered to be marked by an attractive freshness: a contemporary remarked that his "very face became radiant as he spoke".
In 1845 he supported Darby in his doctrinal differences with Benjamin Wills Newton in the Brethren assembly at Plymouth.
He also helped Darby fend off accusations of heresy, also in regards to the sufferings of Christ, in articles written in 1858 and 1866, which some considered were very similar to Newton's errors two decades earlier.
18 years later (1856) Wigram compiled A Few Hymns and some Spiritual Songs for the Little Flock to replace the previous collection.
It has been said that the large concourse of people there sang a hymn in deference to his wish expressed in his lifetime, so that all might understand that he owed all to the sovereign mercy of God.