Like many other villages along the east coast, Wesley developed after Emancipation on hilly land along the boundary between the two estates as labourers sought to establish independent holdings for themselves away from the plantations where they had formerly lived and worked.

[2] The village of Wesley is situated in an area that was once called Quarte de La Soie when the French occupied Dominica in the early 1700s.

[3] In the mid-19th century, Charles Leatham, known as the “sugar king” of Dominica, was the owner of the Eden Estate.

In 1835, following emancipation of the British West Indies, Matthews and Gordon were awarded £1,766 10s 1d in compensation for the 89 enslaved people of Eden Estate.

Economic growth enabled villagers to improve their housing and send children to secondary schools in Roseau.

[citation needed] In October 2021, the gravestone of former owner of the Eden Estate, Joseph James Wells, was discovered in the Wesley community at the entrance road in an area that was being cleared for parking equipment that was to be used for the construction of an international airport.