WINTERBOURNE-WHITCHURCH, a parish in the hundred of COOMBSDITCH, Blandford (North) division of the county of DORSET, 5 miles (S. W.) from Blandford-Forum, containing 493 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Dorset, and diocese of Bristol, rated in the king's books af£7. 16. 10., endowed with £200 private benefaction, and £200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Bishop of Salisbury. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is a long narrow edifice, with a south transept, and a low embattled tower rising from the intersection; it contains a curious ancient font. The Rev. Samuel Wesley, father of John and Charles Wesley, founders of the sect of Methodists, and author of several poems on religious subjects, was born here, during the incum- bency of his father, who was non-conformity; he died in 1731.