Susanna At The Foundery 153
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he owed you, that you may mark all the goods in the house as principal creditor." The family was always in debt to Sammy!
Samuel, Jr. took sister Kezzy home with him, and Susanna went to live for a time with Emilia at her school in nearby
Gainsborough. It is not illogical to suppose that Susanna readily entered into the life of Emilia's school. Certainly she herself had had long experience in teaching and had even taken a lively interest through letters in John's students at Oxford.
The year 1735 proved an eventful one for Susanna. In the summer of that year Martha was married to the Reverend
Westley Hall. She was then living with her uncle Dr. Matthew Wesley in London and was married from his home and with his blessing. This was before the true-character of Mr. Hall came to light. The happy couple took up residence in the rectory at Wooton.
One of the most notable events for Susanna during this year was the departure of her sons John and Charles for the colony of Georgia in America. This colony had been established by General Oglethorpe in 1733, primarily as a refuge for a group of his unfortunate countrymen who were languishing in English jails for debt. Samuel Wesley, as well as his oldest son, had been tremendously interested in this project; indeed, father Samuel had for many years expressed a longing to be a missionary himself. Both Samuels had made small personal contributions in money toward this enterprise and had sent as a gift the paten and chalice for administering the Sacrament in the new colony.
By 1735, General Oglethorpe had assembled a second group for emigration to Georgia, among them a company of perse cuted Protestants from Bavaria, including a goodly number of Moravian Brethren. John Wesley was asked to join the group as their chaplain. He refused the invitation because of his obligation to take care of his widowed mother, but the
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leaders of the company prevailed upon him to find out what was Mrs. Wesley's opinion on this matter.
Her answer was characteristic: "Had I twenty sons, I should rejoice that they were all so employed, though I should never see them more.'' Charles Wesley was asked to go also as secretary to General Oglethorpe—and a poor secretary he turned out to be. Charles, because of the urgency of the situation, was ordained immediately, first as deacon and then as priest, and the company sailed from Gravesend on October
14, 1735.
In September of 1736, Susanna went to live with Sammy at Tiverton where she enjoyed the company of her oldest son and his wife and daughter, and also that of Mrs. Berry, mother of Mrs. Samuel Wesley, Jr. It was understood that John Wesley was to send home from Georgia to Samuel the money for Kezzy's board, since Sammy was financially unable to support both his mother and sister. Whether this money was ever forthcoming is not known, but about this time Kezzy went to live with the Halls.
In early December, 1736, Charles returned from Georgia, discouraged over his mission and over his own spiritual state.
Shortly after his arrival he went to his brother Samuel's house at Tiverton, and despite the fact that he found his mother confined to her room because of illness, this home coming was a singularly happy one.
During these later years Susanna did more traveling than in all her married life put together. July of 1737 found her with the Halls at Wooton, and she later moved with them to Fisherton near Salisbury. These were pleasant months for Susanna. Her health was better, and Martha and her husband were most kind and hospitable to her. This was before Mr. Hall fell into his evil ways.
During the same year John Wesley came back from Georgia and, like Charles, he had a deep sense of failure. Though he and Charles were later urged to return to America, Susanna
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with her practical discernment saw that they were both better suited to be clergymen in England than missionaries to the Indians, and she persuaded them not to make a second journey to America.
The autumn of 1738 and the winter months following Susanna spent with Samuel. Little did she dream that this was to be her last stay with this beloved son on whom through many years she had relied more than upon her other children.
Susanna was becoming more and more infirm. In 1740, John took his mother to make her home with him in his newly established living quarters at the Methodist center in London known as the Foundery. Here she could be more comfortable than at any other place.
By this time the momentous event that Methodists call John Wesley's conversion had taken place in Aldersgate Street, and the Wesley who had come back from America discouraged and a failure was now the Wesley who was beginning to set all England on fire. The revival was already gathering momen tum, and societies of "the people called Methodists" were being founded all about, with John Wesley the organizing genius and unquestioned leader. Charles Wesley had been converted three days before his brother John, and at once became an essential member of this itinerant partnership. He proved a powerful preacher and at this period was beginning his long career as the hymn writer par excellence.
John soon felt it essential to establish a London headquarters for Methodist work, but he lacked the funds for erecting such a building. With his customary ingenuity he conceived the idea of refurbishing for this purpose an old foundery, which had been formerly used for the casting of cannon. In 1716, a terrific explosion had ripped open a side of this building; since then it had been left unused. With the help of subscriptions and loans, Wesley secured the property for very little and adapted it to his purposes. The Foundery, as it continued to be called, had a fine location on Windmill Hill adjacent to
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Moorfields, an expansive city park with lovely trees and grassy sward.
When Susanna came to the Foundery to live, she found an antiquated building ingeniously adapted to many uses. There was a crude chapel seating fifteen hundred people and a smaller meeting room with a capacity of three hundred seats. There was a Book Room also. In addition, the Foundery housed a Free School with two masters and sixty children; a Free
Dispensary, the first in London since the dissolution of the monasteries; and living quarters for lay workers. There was also a coach house with a stable. Above the room where the Methodist "bands" met was John Wesley's apartment. Here
Susanna lived for the remainder of her days, and here she died.
The Foundery offered Mrs. Wesley the happiest surround ings she had known for a long while. There was no longer the old struggle to provide food for a growing family, nor the eternal specter of debt. Here she had the companionship of John between the travels which his work required. Charles visited her often. Her daughters were all close by: Patty,
Hetty in Soho, Anne now at Hatfield, and Kezzy at Bexley, boarding on the bounty of John and Charles with the family of the vicar, the Reverend Henry Piers, formerly a member of the Holy Club.
In the very early days following the conversion of John and Charles, Samuel Wesley, Jr. had made it clear that he was not in sympathy with his brothers' activities. Susanna then shared his views to an extent, though she always kept an open mind. At that time neither Susanna nor Samuel, Jr. had firsthand knowledge about the Methodist movement. The extraordinary dreams and visions and the highly emotional reactions of some of the Methodist converts were alarming to them both, steeped as they were in High Church tradition, and there was a rather indignant interchange of letters be tween them on this subject. The following excerpt from a
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letter written by Susanna to her son Samuel is worthy of insertion. It is dated Thursday, March 8, 1738-39 (no place given) :
You have heard, I suppose, that Mr. Whitefield is taking a progress through these parts to make a collection for a house in Georgia for orphans and such of the natives' children as they will part with to learn our language and religion. He came hither to see me, and we talked about your brothers. I told him I did not like their way of living, wished them in some place of their own, wherein they might regularly preach, etc. He replied, "I could not conceive the good they did in London; that the greatest part of our clergy were asleep, and that there never was a greater need of itinerant preachers than now"; upon which a gentleman that came with him said that my son Charles had converted him, and that my sons spent their time in doing good. I then asked Mr.
Whitefield if my sons were not for making some innovations in the Church, which I much feared. He assured me they were so far from it that they endeavoured all they could to reconcile Dissenters to our communion; that my son John had baptized five adult
Presbyterians in our own way on St. Paul's day, and he believed would bring over many to our communion. His stay was short, so I could not talk with him so much as I desired. He seems to be a very good man, and one who truly desires the salvation of man kind. God grant that the wisdom of the serpent may be joined to the innocence of the dove! ^ But when Susanna took up residence at the Foundery, she had opportunity to talk at length with John and Charles about their new-found religious experiences and about the work to which they were now dedicated, heart and soul. And when she came into close contact with the Methodists of London and saw at first hand their remarkable accomplishments, she was won over to the Methodist movement and found herself enthusiastically a part of it.
Not so with her son Samuel. Because of the great distance between Tiverton and London, he was never able to discuss
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this whole matter with his brothers face-to-face, though the three carried on a voluminous correspondence on the subject.
Besides, Samuel was an entirely different type from his mother. He was more inflexible than she, and having once formed an opinion it was seldom that he could make any compromise whatever. He was intolerant of the Methodists till his dying day.
Mrs. Wesley is said to have taught classes of women at the Foundery. Certainly she was at the vortex of Methodist activity. Moreover, her sons as always continued to turn to their mother for advice and counsel on many phases of the tremendous undertaking to which they were now whole heartedly committed. Each day she watched the progress of the various activities all about her. She sat under the preach ing of her sons, and on one occasion accompanied John to Kennington Common and heard him preach to twenty thou sand people. (The estimate of twenty thousand was John's, and his biographers tell us that he was notoriously prone to overestimate his crowds.) Furthermore, she was able to wit ness the revival fires, kindled by her sons, spreading with in credible swiftness over the British Isles—the revival predicted by her beloved husband near the end of his life. He never dreamed that his own family would have such a prominent part in the fulfillment of his prophecy.
In her new environment at the Foundery, so different from the staid atmosphere of the Church of England parish to which she was accustomed, Susanna Wesley furnished a striking demonstration of the breadth of vision which had really characterized her all along. Though accustomed to the stately ritual of the Church of England and all its rigid tenets, she was able, when an old lady, to adjust to the outdoor preaching of the Methodists, their extempore prayers, and all the in novations of their evangelistic fervor. Nor was Susanna's attitude one of mere resignation to something she could not control. She came to be convinced that the movement was of
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God and a manifestation on a vast scale of that "inner witness" which her High Church husband had believed to be "the strongest proof of Christianity." After all, Susanna herself had made startling innovations when she thought such were right, her kitchen "preaching" not the least of them.
In late 1739, one of the greatest sorrows of Susanna's life came to her through the sudden death of her son Samuel.
Strangely enough, John upon learning the news of his brother's passing, set off post haste for Tiverton without informing his mother of what had happened. She was none too well herself, and perhaps he feared the effect upon her.
A letter to Charles, written by Susanna on November 29, 1739, reveals some of her feelings: '
Upon the first hearing of your brother's death, I did immediately acquiesce in the will of God, without the least reluctance. . . .
Your brother was exceeding dear to me in this life, and perhaps I have erred in loving him too well. I once .thought it impossible for me to bear his loss, but none know what they can bear till they are tried. . . . Surely the manifestation of His presence and favour is more than an adequate support under any suffering whatever.. ..
I rejoice in having a comfortable hope of my dear son's salva tion. . . . He hath reached the haven before me, but I shall soon follow him. ...
I thank you for your care of my temporal affairs. It was natural to think that I should be troubled for my dear son's death on that account, because so considerable a part of my support was cut off....
I cannot write much, being but weak. I have not been down stairs above ten weeks, though better than I was lately
This was a period of relative peace for Susanna. Regarding her own small financial needs, as she wrote her son Charles following Sammy's death : ". . • now our Heavenly Father seemed to have taken my cause more immediately into his own hand." And she was taking part in the activities at the
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Foundery too. Indeed, at this juncture she performed one of the finest missions of her life. It came about in this fashion:
John Wesley knew himself called of God to be an evangelist, and his dynamic preaching was a proof of his calling. He had now started his tireless travels over England, Ireland, Scot land, and Wales, by boat, on foot, and on horseback, preaching and organizing Methodist Societies as he went. But the nur turing of these groups after they were begun was a serious problem, since the clergy in the various parishes did not come up to what he expected them to do.
Whenever John and Charles Wesley were away from the Foundery on their evangelistic missions, a layman named
Thomas Maxfield was left in charge of the meetings of the Bands and of the Societies. Being a layman he was never permitted to preach; this right was reserved for the ordained clergy only. Maxfield might read the Scriptures and explain them. That was as far as he could go in the services. But on one occasion he dared to do an unprecedented thing: he preached to the congregation! When John Wesley got wind of this, he hurried back to London. The imperious leader of Methodism was in no good mood. Who was Thomas Maxfield to presume to take over the sacred function of preaching!
When John Wesley strode into the Foundery he was met by none other than Susanna. His face betrayed his marked displeasure, and his mother immediately inquired into the cause.
"Thomas Maxfield has turned preacher, I find," was his curt reply.
And here his mother took a stand which was to affect the whole course of Methodism. "John," she rejoined calmly,
"you know what my sentiments have been. You cannot suspect me of favoring readily anything of this kind. But take care what you do with respect to that young man; for he is as surely called of God to preach as you are. Examine what have been the fruits of his preaching, and hear him yourself."
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John was fair. He heard young Maxfield preach, and as he listened there remained no shadow of doubt in his mind but that his mother was right. "It is the Lord!" he said. "Let him do what seemeth him good. What am I that I should with stand God!"
Thus began lay preaching as a regularly constituted part of Methodist procedures. Its addition solved a difficult problem of organization in the fast multiplying Societies, for there were not nearly enough evangelistic preachers to go around.
Many of the lay preachers, to be sure, were unlettered men, but they brought into the Methodist movement a spiritual virility that did much toward the spread of Methodism over the world.
In 1740, Emilia with her trusted servant joined her mother to live in John's apartment at the Foundery. Historians are vague as to whether her husband had died by this time, but it is certain that he furnished her no support. It was a comfort to Susanna to have Emilia with her in these latter days; this daughter had been on many occasions a strong arm for her mother to lean upon. As it came about, for many long years
John took care of Emilia, first at the Foundery and later at the West Street Chapel after it had been added to the center.
Her living quarters opened directly into the gallery behind the pulpit.
Incidentally, Emilia's apartment in West Street Chapel was the only real home John Wesley knew during those unhappy years of his ill-fated marriage.
Emilia's life was enthusiastically dedicated to the work of the Methodists until the infirmities of age prevented her leaving her room. Even then she could open the door of her bedroom and listen to the services in the Chapel below.
On the ninth of March, 1741, another sorrow came to Susanna in the death of Kezzy at Bexley. She had always been frail and was only thirty-two years of age when she died. Her
SUSANNA—MOTHER OF THE WESLEYS
brother Charles was the only member of the family at her bedside when she passed away.
Susanna's frailty was now becoming increasingly apparent to those who were associated with her from day to day. She suffered from no specific disease except gout, but her weary body was gradually giving way. She had never been robust in constitution, and the many hardships of her life and her frequent childbearing were contributing factors to this gradual decline. During these last years of her life she craved* the companionship of her sons and daughters. Toward the end of 1739, she wrote to her son Charles that John's visits "are seldom and short, for which I never blame him, because I know he is well employed, and blessed be God, hath great success in his ministry. But, my dear Charles, still I want either him or you; for, indeed, in the most literal sense, I am become a little child and want continual succor."
More and more frequent now were the periods when she was confined to her bedroom. Here, alone, above the busy hum of the Foundery below, her room—had she wished it so— could have been peopled with poignant memories of those creative days in the Epworth Rectory—Samuel trudging off on his pastoral calls or incommunicado in his study, endlessly dictating the scholarly Dissertations on the Book of Job; baby
Kezzy patting her tiny feet to scare away the ghost; the chil dren in regimental order in the schoolroom, each at his ap pointed task; the tragic fire with John in the arms of the rescuing neighbor—John, the "brand plucked from the burn ing" for a mission that was now rapidly unfolding before her very eyes.
These were days of fulfillment for Susanna. Looking back over her eventful life, she could not fail to realize that the most important objective for which she had worked in the training of her children had been attained. She had always had a meticulous care for their education and their decorum, but the development of their character was the real goal of all
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her striving—and she had reached her goal. There was great misfortune for some of her children, especially her daughters, and tmrelenting tragedy for a few. This she would have given her very life blood to avoid. But as the years unfolded, each of her children had measured up to what life brought and found the faith which was sufficient for all needs.
By early summer of 1742, Susanna's children were quite aware that the sands were running out for their mother, and they visited her as often as possible. The end came for Susanna on July 23, 1742. She was seventy-three years of age. Charles was forced to leave London on urgent business as the end approached and was not present at the last. All the other children were with her in her final hour, and John repeated the commendatory prayer for his mother just as he had seven years before for his father. They dutifully carried out her final request; "Children, as soon as I am released, sing a psalm of praise to God."
Susanna Wesley was buried in the Dissenters' cemetery, Bunhill Fields, across City Road from the site of what was later Wesley's Chapel. John read the service of the Church of England and beside her grave delivered a sermon to "almost an innumerable company of people" who were there to do her honor. Not far from her resting place in Bunhill Fields lies the body of John Bunyan; Isaac Watts is buried in the same cemetery, and also Susanna's sister, Elizabeth Dunton.
The mistress of the Epworth parsonage would never have been remembered at all except for the renown of her sons; yet in her own right she occupies an honored niche in history's hall of fame. Her claim to this distinction is as the successful mother of many children; all her other achievements are subordinate to that supreme function.
If only before the end of her troublous life she could have
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had a look into the future to see a worldwide church whose founder was born to her, a poor parson's wife, in that modest parsonage on the dreary flats of Lincolnshire!
And if there could have been revealed to her the tremendous part played in all this by herself, Susanna Wesley, she would have refused to belieye it—that it was her disciplined regimen of life that through her son John gave the very name to the people called Methodists; that it was from her that he inherited the logical mind and the singleness of purpose that character ized .his leadership; that hers was, by all odds, the greatest influence in the life of that same son, John Wesley who, as William Fitchett expresses it, "represents the force which has most profoundly affected English history" in the eighteenth century.
No, the Susanna Wesley who wrote, "I am content to fill a little space if God be glorified," would never have deemed herself worthy of the place that history has accorded her.
SAYINGS of SUSANNA We must take the world as we find it, since it is a happiness permitted to very few to choose their company.
Take care of the world, lest it unawares steal away your heart.
Old age is the worst time we can choose to mend either our lives or our fortunes.
I am induced to believe that it is much easier to be contented without riches than with them.
You must not think to live like the rest of the world.
SUSANNA—MOTHER OF THE WESLEYS
(To John regarding his preaching) Be very cautious in giving nice distinctions in public assemblies; for it does not answer the true end of preaching which is to mend men's lives and not fill their heads with unprofitable speculations.
Do not live like the rest of mankind, who pass through the world like straws upon a river, which are carried which way the stream or wind drives them.
A Qiristian ought, and in general does, converse with the world like a stranger in an inn; he will use what is necessary for him, and cheerfully enjoy what he innocently can; but at sometime he knows it is but an inn, and he will be but little concerned with what he meets with there, because he takes it not for his home.
The best preparation I know of for suffering is a regular and exact performance of present duty.
Make poetry sometimes your diversion, tho' never your business.
Whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you (however innocent it may be in itself).
Give God the praise for any well-spent day.
I am content to fill a little space if God be glorified.
NOTES Chapter 1 1. The Wesleys arrived at Epworth early in the year 1697.
2. G. J. Stevenson, Memorials of the Wesley Family, pp. 71-72.
3. Living, or, more properly, benefice: art ecclesiastical post or office to which property or a determined revenue is attached
(a perpetual curacy). See Webster's New International Diction ary, in loc. Benefice; see also. New Schaff-Herzog, Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. Ed. Samuel Macaulay Jackson, 1908, in loc. Benefice.
4. John Cuming Walters, In Tennyson Land.
5. See Eliza Clarke, Susanna Wesley, p. 10.
6. John Kirk, The Mother of the Wesleys, p. 64.
Chapter 2 1. J. O. A. Clark, The Wesley Memorial Volume, p. 31.
2. Abel Stevens, The History of Methodism, I, 43.
3. Adam Clarke, Memoirs of the Wesley Family, I, 54-55.
4. Frances Rose-Troup, John White, Patriarch of Dorchester and the Founder of Massachusetts, 1575-1648, XII, 483.
SUSANNA—MOTHER OF THE WESLEYS
Chapter 3 1. Adam Clarke, Memoirs of the Wesley Family, I, 128.
2. Harvey Graham, Eternal Eve, the History of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Chap. XI, p. 269.
3. William H. Fitchett, Wesley and His Century, p. 141.
4. John Richard Green, Nations of the World: England, IV, 127.
5. William H. Fitchett, Wesley and His Century, p. 139.
6. Thomas Babington Macaulay, History of England, I, 305-7.
7. John Richard Green, Nations of the World: England, IV, 137.
Chapter 4 1. William H. Fitchett, Wesley and His Century, p. 31.
2. Adam Clarke, Memoirs of the Wesley Family, II, 132, 133.
3. V. H. H. Green, The Young Mr. Wesley, p. 50; quoting from John Wesley's Parents, by Robert Walmsley, in Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, XXIX, 50-57.
4. See John Kirk, The Mother of the Wesleys, p. 143.
5. Ibid., pp. 121-22.
Chapter 5 1. "Pilfering," says Dr. Maldwyn Edwards, probably meant "play ing;" obviously the word did not mean "stealing."
2. Eliza Clarke, Susanna Wesley, pp. 29-36. Adam Clarke also gives Susanna's "Method" in its entirety: Memoirs of the Wesley
Family, II, 9-15.
Chapter 6 1. Luke Tyerman, The Life and Times of the Reverend Samuel Wesley, p. 353.
2. Adam Clarke, Memoirs of the Wesley Family, I, 272.
3. Ibid., I, 265.
Chapter 7 1. Convocation: A national assembly of the clergy meeting by royal order contemporaneously with the sessions of Parliament. Each
Convocation had two Houses: the Upper House composed of bishops and the Lower House made up of deans, archbishops, and proctors representing the clergy of the various dioceses. The actions of these gatherings were formerly of great importance but were shorn of much of their power after the reign of Henry
VIII. It was Convocation that revised the Book of Common Prayer, completed in 1661, giving rise to the famous Act of Uniformity of 1662.
2. Maldwyn Edwards, Family Circle, pp. 5-6.
3. Adam Clarke, Memoirs of the Wesley Family, I, 389-90.
NOTES
Chapter 8 1. Luke Tyerman, The Life and Times of the Reverend Samuel Wesley, p. 402.
2. Eliza Clarke, Susanna Wesley, pp. 138-39.
3. Luke Tyerman, The Life and Times of the Reverend Samuel Wesley, p. 419.
4. Ihid., p. 391.
5. Eliza Clarke, Susanna Wesley, p. 143.
6. Adam Clarke, Memoirs of the Wesley Family, II,'79-80.
7. There were no examinations at Oxford in John Wesley's day for candidates for a Bachelor of Arts degree; so the College each year appointed a moderator of classes as well as a Greek lecturer.
The former presided over instruction in logic and philosophy.
8. Luke Tyerman, The Life and Times of the Reverend Samuel Wesley, p. 436.
Chapter 9 1. V. H. H. Green, The Young Mr. Wesley, p. 42.
2. Luke Tyerman, The Life and Times of the Reverend Samuel Wesley, p. 427.
3. See Adam Clarke, Memoirs of the Wesley Family, II, 262-64.
4. Ibid., II, 322.
Chapter 10 1. G. J. Stevenson, Memorials of the Wesley Family, p. 298.
2. Ibid., p. 302.
3. V. H. H. Green, The Young Mr. Wesley, p. 109.
4. Unfortunately, this letter has been lost. George Stephenson reports having seen it as well as an abridgment of it made by John
Wesley.
5. John Kirk, The Mother of the Wesleys, p. 202.
6. Eliza Clarke, Susanna Wesley, p. 12(6.
7. Adam Clarke, Memoirs of the Wesley Family, II, 290-93.
8. The Arminian Magazine, I, 187-88 (London ed. for the year 1778).
9. William H. Fitchett, Wesley and His Century, p. 36.
10. A. T. Quiller-Couch, Hetty Wesley, p. 142.
11. G. J. Stevenson, Memorials of the Wesley Family, p. 306.
12. Ibid., p. 315.
Chapter 11 1. Adam Clarke, Memoirs of the Wesley Family, II, 237.
2. Eliza Clarke, Susanna Wesley, p. 151.
Chapter 12 1. G. J. Stevenson, Memorials of the Wesley Family, p. 216.
2. Ibid., pp. 218-19.
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London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1959.
-, Illustrated English Social History. Vols. II & III. London:
Longmans, Green & Co., 1958.
Tyerman, Luke. The Life and Times of the Reverend John Wesley.
3 vols. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1872.
-, The Life and Tithes of the Reverend Samuel Wesley, M.A., Rector of Epworth. London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1866.
Walters, John Cuming. In Tennyson Land. London: George Redway, 1890.
Wesley, John The Journal of the Reverend John Wesley. Ed. Nehemiah Curnock. 8 vols. London: Epworth Press, 1938.
-, Letters of the Reverend John Wesley. Ed. John Telford.
London: Epworth Press, 1931.
Wilson, Woodrow. John Wesley's Place in History. New York & Cincinnati: Abingdon Press, 1915.
INDEX Atterbury, Bishop Francis, 146, 148 Attkins, Will, 119 Axholme, "Isle of," 15-16 Act of Uniformity, 26 Aldersgate Street, 155 Anglesea, Earl of, 27 Anne, Queen, 32 Annesley, Anne, 18 Annesley, Benjamin, 18 Annesley, Elizabeth (Dunton), 18, Baker, Frank, 10, 30, 122-23 Berkeley, Bishop George, 37 Berry, Mrs. John (mother-in-law of Samuel Wesley, Jr.), 154 Bexley, 115, 156, 161 Black Raven Printing Establish
Annesley, Judith, 18 Annesley, Dr. Samuel, 16, 18-19, ment, 22 Bristol, 136, 143; Charles Wesley 24-25; characterization of, 27-28 Annesley, Mrs. Samuel, 28 Annesley, Samuel, Jr., 17, 45, 54; settles there, 143 Brown, John, 99 Brown, Robin, 67, 70 Bunhill Fields, 163 Butler, Bishop Joseph, 37 mysterious disappearance of, 87-
Annesley, Sarah, 18 Anslye, John (grandfather of Su sanna), 24 Anslye, Judith (grandmother of Caroline, Queen, 100 Castleton, Lord, 42 Chamberlens (practitioners of ob Susanna), 24 Arminian Magazine, The, 71, 73, stetrics), 36 Charles I, King, 25
Athenian Gazette, The, 34, 41-42
SUSANNA—MOTHER OF THE WESLEYS
Lambert, John, 110 Ley bourne, Robert, 107 Lincoln Castle (prison), 49, 50 Lincoln, College of Oxford, 90-91, Charles II, King, 26; court of, 3233, 39 Charterhouse School, S6, 81 City Road Chapel, 143 Clarke, Adam, quoted, 24, 30, 44 Coffee houses, 33-34 Convocation, 46-47, 77, 80, 82
Lincolnshire, 39 Little St. Helen's, 17, 27 Louth, 121, 123-24 Divine right of kings, 82 Dorchester Free School, 21 Dunton, John, 21, 41 Macaulay, Lord, quoted, 38 Mary, Queen, 42-43 Marylebone churchyard, 144 Massy, Betty, 70 Maxfield, Thomas, 160-61 Method of education (Susanna's), Ellison, Richard, 108-9 Epworth Rectory, 51, 66; descrip tion of, 14-15; visit of Arch bishop Sharpe to, 50; burned, 51-54 Epworth, town of, 43, 48-49, 54, 65 57-65 Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley, 34 Normanby, Marquis of, 42-43 Five Mile Act, 29 Foundery, the, 155-58 Fuller, Thomas, 30 Oglethorpe, James, 153-54 Oxford, Lord, 147 Oxford Prison, 22, 140 Oxford University, 21, 82-83 Gainsborough, town of, 46, 153 Genealogical table of the Wesleys, Potter, John, Bishop of Oxford, 89 6-7 Gentleman's Magazine, The, 110 Georgia, Colony of, 143, 153-55 Grantham, Mr. and Mrs., 119 Romley, John, 111, 118 St. Andrews, parish of (Epworth), Hall, Westley, 112-13 Hall, Westley, Jr., 112-13, 140 Harper, Robert, 107-8 Haxey, parish register of, 123 Holborn (London), 41 Holy Club, 139, 141 Hoole, Joseph, 69
St. Bartholomew's Day, 27 St. Giles, Anglican parish of, 17 School, Mrs. Taylor's, 94 Sharpe, John, Archbishop of York, 46, 50 Soho (London), 126, 156 South Ormsby, 13, 15, 41-43 Spital Yard, 17 Sprat, Bishop Thomas, 145 Inman, The Rev. Mr. (curate), 77-78, 80 Job, Dissertations on the Book of, 93, 97-100 Tiverton, 148, 154 Johnson, Samuel, 65, 113 Vermuyden, Cornelius, 16, 48 Kelstein, 119 Kenning;ton Common, 158 KingsJvood School, 63 "Kitchen preaching," 78-80 Wesley, Anne or Nancy (Lam bert), 44, 88, no Wesley, Bartholomew, 28, 30
INDEX Wesley, Sally or Sarah (daughter Wesley, Charles, 51, 109, 126, 137, of Charles), 142 Wesley, Samuel (husband of Su 159, 162; characterization of, 14142; relation with John, 141-43; goes to Georgia, 153-54; as hymn writer, 144 Wesley, Charles (son of Charles), sanna), childhood, 20-21; student days, 18, 20-21, 40; characteriza tion of, 43-44, 47-48; imprisoned for debt, 49-51; unforgiveness toward Hetty, 120-21, 124-25, 131-33; death of, 100-101; writ ings of, 22, 41-42, 45, 76, 100 Wesley, Samuel, Jr., 90, 123; edu
Wesley, Elizabeth (Dyer), 20, 75 Wesley, Emilia (Harper), 54, 8384, 105, 106-8, 153, 161; opinion on the ghost, 71; bemoans father's impractical ways, 86-87 Wesley, Garrett, 90 Wesley, John, 44, 57, 100-101, 109; cation, 51, 55; 145-46; character ization of, 145-48; opposed to Methodism, 149-50, 156-58 Wesley, Samuel (son of Charles), saved from the fire, 53; interest in the ghost, 72-73; attends Charterhouse School, 81; or dained, 89; Fellow of Lincoln, 9091; assists father in parish, 9193; disagrees with father over Hetty, 124-25; characterization of, 139-41; brings mother to Foundery, 155; begpns Methodist movement, 155-56 Wesley, John (father of Samuel),
Wesley, Samuel Sebastian (grand son of Charles), 145 Wesley, Sarah (wife of Charles), 142-43 Wesley, Susanna or Sukey (Elli son, daughter of Susanna), 42, 54, 108-9 Wesley, Timothy, 20, 75 Wesley, Ursula (wife of Samuel, 20, 29-30 Wesley, Mrs. John (mother of Jr.), 133, 146 Westminster School, 51, 56, 145 Whitchurch, 20, 29 White, John (grandfather of Su Samuel), 30, 75 Wesley, Kezziah or Kezzy, 54, 75, 114-15, 161-62 Wesley, Martha or Patty (Hall), sanna), 24 White, John (grandfather of Sam 51, 110-14, 153 _ Wesley, Mary or Molly (Whiteuel), 30 Whitefield, George, 142, 157 Whitelamb, John, 97-98 William of Orange, King, 47 Wright, Amelia, 134 Wright, William, 121, 124, 126-30, lamb), 42, 97-98, 109-10, 120 Wesley, Matthew, 20, 30, 37, 39, 54; visits Epworth, 94-96 Wesley, Mehetabel or Hetty (Wright), 52, 54, 110, 117-37; connection with the ghost, 70; elopement, 88; correspondence with father, 131-33 Wesley, Phil (daughter of Samuel, 135, 137 Writings of Susanna, 15, 20, 76, 82, 92-93 Wroot, 85-86 Jr.), 149
BIOGRAPHY
T cLL he hand that rocks the cradle rules the world! No woman better exemplified this statement than Susanna Wesley. In this classic biography, you will meet that remarkable woman not only as the mother of John and Charles Wesley, but as a courageous, talented person in her own right.
Into the bleak world of eighteenth-century England came "beautiful, indomitable" Susanna. The spiritual principles which she taught each of her nineteen children would shake England and the entire world.
"Appealing and intensely human. . . . This definitive biography gives Susanna's name a place of merit among the eminent women of the world."
—Review and Expositor H "Not only tells us much about an unusual family but about Kighteenth-century life as well. "
—New York Times Book Review "An attractive biography of Susanna Wesley which should help many people in this country appreciate that wonderful wonuin as they might not have done before. "
—Duke Divinity School REBECCA LAMAR HARMON devoted more than eight years to researching this biography. She visited Epworth parsonage.
Susanna's home for neaif"" figured in her life. as the other sites that
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Rw ^ f^ancy O. Jokitstem