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Étienne-François, Comte de Stainville, duc de Choiseul (1719)

A French military officer, diplomat and statesman. Between 1758 and 1761, and 1766 and 1770, he was Foreign Minister of France and had a strong influence on France’s global strategy throughout the period. He is closely associated with France’s defeat in the Seven Years War and subsequent efforts to rebuild French prestige. Choiseul gained the favour of Madame de Pompadour and after a short time he was given the appointment of ambassador to Rome in 1753. He was one of the principal authors of the Second Treaty of Versailles signed in May 1757.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712)

A Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism of French expression. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought. His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise on the education of the whole person for citizenship. His sentimental novel Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse was of importance to the development of pre-romanticism and romanticism in fiction. Rousseau’s autobiographical writings — his Confessions, initiated the modern autobiography. His Discourse on the Origin of Inequality and his On the Social Contract are cornerstones in modern political and social thought.

John Wesley (1703)

Anglican cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield. In contrast to George Whitefield’s Calvinism, Wesley embraced the Arminian doctrines that were dominant in the 18th-century Church of England. Wesley’s teachings, known as Wesleyanism, provided the seeds for the modern Methodist movement, the Holiness movement, Pentecostalism, the Charismatic Movement, and Neo-charismatic churches, which encompass numerous denominations across the world.