At the request of a small society formed by a soldier in 1745, John Cennick who had been one of Wesley’s preachers but was now a Moravian, came to Dublin in June 1746 and began to preach in a chapel in Skinner’s Alley hired from the Baptists.

Charles Wesley explained how the ‘Swaddler’ title originated (in his diary entry for 10th September 1747).

“One I observed crying, ‘Swaddler,swaddler!’ (our usual title here). ……. We dined with a gentleman, who explained our name to us. It seems we are beholden to Mr Cennick for it, who abounds in such like expressions as ‘I curse and blaspheme all the gods in heaven, but the babe that lay in the manger, the babe that lay in Mary’s lap, the babe that lay in swaddling clouts [clothes], etc’. Hence they nicknamed him ‘Swaddler, or Swaddling John’. And the word sticks to us all, not excepting the clergy.”