13. Samuel Wesley’s Last Years
Samuel Wesley’s Last Years
Samuel Wesley worked on his Latin commentary on the book of Job for many years — possibly as many as twenty-five. He was studying the text in several ancient languages, and believed that when the work was completed it would sell in such numbers as to bring him considerable financial returns. These would enable him to pay his debts and would give him something to leave to Susanna when he died.
There was, however, no prospect of selling a large number of copies of such a volume, for it was in Latin and Job was not the most popular book of the Bible. His daughter Emilia showed that she realized how false was this hope when she said, ‘My old belief yet remains, that my father will never be worth a groat. . . and we of the female part of the family left to get our bread or starve.’[1]
Samuel is seen at his best in his relationships with his sons. At the time when he had forced Hetty into marriage with William Wright, John was in Wroot and had spoken of his father as being ‘inconceivably exasperated’ with her. John, however, sided with Hetty and as we saw, had gone so far as to preach a sermon in his father’s hearing on ‘Showing charity to sinners’. This action only made his father even more exasperated and he complained to Charles that John was ‘taking her part’. But before long John showed that he was sorry for having offended his father and offered to work for him on the transcription of his manuscript. Samuel joyfully accepted his offer and told him he always knew he was good at heart.
Soon afterwards John returned to Oxford and his father wrote to him saying, ‘Dear son, I am so well pleased with your present behaviour, or at least with your letters, that I hope I shall have no occasion to remember any more some things that are passed. And since you have now for some time bit upon the bridle, I’ll take care hereafter to put a little honey on it as oft as I am able.’[2]
John was at that time considering entering holy orders and his father wrote to him about the serious nature of the ministerial office and urged him to broaden the scope of his studies to include such languages as Arabic and Chaldee, as well as the customary Greek and Hebrew.
Susanna also wrote to John in this regard. Her letter, written on 15 February 1725, begins, ‘Dear Jacky, I was much pleased with your letter to your father about taking orders, and like the proposal well; but it is an unhappiness almost peculiar to our family that your father and I seldom think alike.’[3] She went on to say that she differed from her husband on the question of what studies were most useful to a man entering the ministry, stating that she favoured practical divinity rather than forgotten languages. But her letter closed with the words: ‘I dare advise nothing.’
In 1725 John was entered as a candidate for election to a fellowship in Lincoln College and his father sought to use his influence to help him achieve it. He was also struggling to send John money to pay for his maintenance at Oxford and to meet the costs of his ordination. His self-denying actions are evident in the following letters:
Dear Son,
I was at Gainsborough last week to wait on Sir J. Thorold, and shall again, by God’s leave, be there tomorrow, and endeavour to make way for you in that quarter.[4]
Dear Son,
I came hither today because I cannot be at rest till I make you easier. I could not possibly manufacture any money for you here sooner than next Saturday. On Monday I. . . will try to prevail with your brother to return you £8 with interest. I will assist you in your charges for ordination, though I am just now struggling for life. This £8 you may depend on the next week, or the week after.[5]
Dear son John,
With much ado, you see I am for once as good as my word. . . I hope to send you more. . . God fit you for your great work! Fast — watch — pray — believe — love — endure — be happy; towards which you shall never want the prayers of
Your affectionate father,
In 1725 John was ordained and during the following year he was elected to the fellowship that he sought. This was more than just a recognition of his scholarship, for it afforded him an income that would average about £45 a year as long as he remained unmarried. His father was elated. But in a letter he first indicated the financial difficulties he had experienced in assisting John, saying, ‘The last £12 pinched me so hard that I am forced to beg time of your brother Sam till after harvest to pay him the £10 that you say he lent you. Nor shall I have so much as that (perhaps not £5) to keep my family till after harvest. . . What will be my own fate before the summer be over God only knows. . . Wherever I am, my Jack is Fellow of Lincoln.’[7]
Samuel understandably felt a great sense of relief and happiness in knowing that John now had an income of his own and that the financial burden of maintaining him no longer rested solely on his own shoulders.
By this time, 1726, Samuel was sixty-four and he suffered a partial stroke. Its full effects are not known, but it left him with his right hand paralysed. Of course, this proved a tremendous hindrance to a writer and made him almost totally dependent on the assistance of others. Besides using any of his daughters who were still at home, he employed John Whitelamb especially to help him in this.
Samuel also gives us an insight into Susanna’s condition at this time. It was worsening. Writing to John and Charles in 1727 Samuel said, ‘You will find your mother much altered. I believe what would kill a cat has almost killed her. I have observed of late little convulsions in her frequently, which I don’t like.’[8]
John assumed from his father’s correspondence that his mother was drawing near to the close of her earthly journey. He expressed his deep concern in a letter and Samuel replied, correcting him and saying, ‘We received your compliments of condolence and congratulations to your mother on the supposition of her near approaching demise, to which your sister Patty will by no means subscribe. . . though she has now and then some very sick fits, yet I hope the sight of you would revive her.’[9] Samuel also reported another daughter’s kindness to Susanna saying, ‘Mary miraculously gets money even in Wroot, and has given the first fruit of her earning to her mother, lending her money, and presenting her with a new cloak of her own buying and making. . .’[10] Susanna was in fact not yet approaching her demise, but still had several years of life before her.
Two years later, however, Samuel, who by then had reached the age of sixty-six, suffered two accidents, either of which could have cost him his life. He stated in a letter to John:
God has given me two fair escapes for life within these few weeks. The first was when my old nag fell with me, trailed me by my foot in the stirrups about six yards (when I was alone, all but God and my good angel), trod on my other foot, yet never hurt me.
The other escape was much greater. On Monday week, at Burringham Ferry, we were driven down with a fierce stream and fell foul with our broadside against a keel. The second shock threw two of our horses overboard, and filled the boat with water. I was just preparing to swim for life, when John Whitelamb’s long legs and arms swarmed up into the keel, and lugged me in after him. My mare was swimming a quarter of an hour, but at last we all got safe to land. Help to praise him who saves both man and beast.[11]
But although he had rescued Samuel Wesley on this occasion, Whitelamb also criticized him. In a letter to Susanna he said,
The constant struggling with my master’s temper, which they only can have a just notion of who have been shut up with whole days in his study. . . His satirical wit, especially in company, was more painful to me. . . If this would have been almost intolerable to another, much more to me who was conscious that I served him from a principle of generosity and love, and might have expected to be treated rather like a friend than one of the meanest of servants.
The poor and wretched condition I was reduced to for want of clothes, so much worse than what I had been used to, and the universal contempt it exposed me to . . . and notwithstanding my silent tears and private mourning for my wretched state, yet I never ceased heartily to pray for the prosperity and health of the family.[12]
None the less, despite Whitelamb’s complaints, Samuel Wesley showed his gratitude for being rescued by sending him to Oxford University.
Two years later Samuel suffered a further accident, and this proved more serious than either of the other two. It is reported by Susanna in a letter to her son John:
Dear Jacky,
The particulars of your father’s fall are as follows: On Friday, June 4th, I, your sister Martha and our maid, were going in our waggon to see the ground we hire of Mrs Knight. . . He sat on a chair at one end of the waggon, I in another at the other end, Matty between us, and the maid behind me. Just before we reached the close, going down a small hill, the horses took into a gallop and out flew your father and his chair. The maid seeing the horses run, hung all her weight on my chair, and kept me from keeping him company.
She cried out to William to stop the horses, and that her master was killed. The fellow leaped out of the seat and stayed the horses, then ran to Mr Wesley, but ere he got to him, two neighbours . . . raised his head, upon which he had pitched, and held him backward, by which means he began to respire; for it is certain, by the blackness of his face, that he had never drawn breath from the time of his fall till they helped him up.
By this time I was got to him, asked how he did, and persuaded him to drink a little ale, for we had brought a bottle with us. He looked prodigiously wild, but began to speak, and told me he ailed nothing. I informed him of his fall. He said he knew nothing of any fall. He was as well as ever he was in his life.
We bound up his head, which was very much bruised, and helped him into the waggon again, and set him at the bottom of it, while I supported his head between my hands, and the man led the horses softly home. I sent presently for Mr Harper who took a good quantity of blood from him; and then he began to feel pain in several parts, particularly in his side and shoulder. He had a very ill night, but, on Saturday morning Mr Harper came again to see him, dressed his head, and gave him something which much abated the pain in his side.
We repeated the dose at bedtime, and, on Sunday he preached twice, and gave the sacrament, which was too much for him to do, but nobody could persuade him from it. On Monday he was ill and slept almost all day. On Tuesday the gout came. . . We thought at first the waggon had gone over him; but it only went over his gown sleeve and the nails took a little skin off his knuckles, but did him no further hurt.’[13]
Although Samuel tried manfully to shake off the effects of this accident he was not able to do so. He was now nearly sixty-nine and following the fall from the waggon he increasingly recognized that he was getting old.
He then began to consider what could be done for Susanna in the event of his death. He had no possessions and he realized that on his passing she would be homeless, unless he could persuade one of his sons to apply for the rectorship of Epworth. The living was in the gift of the Lord Chancellor but Samuel had reason to believe that anyone whom he recommended would prove acceptable and if one of his sons applied Susanna could remain in the rectory.
Accordingly, in 1733 he wrote to his eldest son, saying, ‘Dear Samuel, For several reasons, I have earnestly desired, especially in and since my last sickness, that you might succeed me at Epworth. . . As for your aged and infirm mother, as soon as I drop, she must turn out, unless you succeed me; which, if you do, and she survives me, I know you will then immediately. . . continue her there, where your wife and and you will nourish her, till we meet again in heaven. . .’[14]
Samuel junior declined the offer, however. His voice was weak, he was not the preacher that his father and his brothers were, and he felt more at home in the classroom than in the pulpit. The refusal of this son proved a severe disappointment to his father and left Susanna facing a very bleak prospect.
Meanwhile, notwithstanding his incapacitated condition, Samuel was labouring to complete his commentary on Job. Several persons had already made a financial subscription to this work and he had had a considerable portion of the book printed in London. By now this project, to which he had devoted so many years and which had given him such delight, had become a constant burden.
In 1734, when Samuel was seventy-two, since his eldest son had rejected Epworth, he made the same offer to John. However, John was very comfortable in his work at Oxford. For one thing, he was leading the Holy Club — the little band of students that had first been gathered together by his brother Charles. These men met together frequently to encourage one another in their religious devotion, to provide assistance to any who needed it in their studies and to visit Oxford’s two prisons. John was also happy in his academic pursuits and his income from his fellowship was sufficient for him to live on without undue concern. Although his father wrote a lengthy letter urging him to apply for the living at Epworth, John added to the disappointment already felt by both his father and his mother by rejecting the offer.
During 1734 Samuel was laid aside by sickness. For six months he was confined to the rectory and was unable to preach or to perform many ministerial duties. Accordingly, he wrote again to John, seeking to persuade him to accept the parish, and he said of this letter, ‘I urged among other things the great precariousness of my own health, and the sensible decay of my strength, so that he would hardly know me if he saw me now.’[15]
Susanna confirmed this in a letter to John: ‘Your father is in a very bad state of health; he sleeps little and eats less. He seems not to have any apprehension of his approaching exit, but I fear he has but a short time to live.’[16] After having suffered constant poverty throughout her married life, she now faced the prospect of homelessness during the years of widowhood that she could see stretching before her.
Samuel’s second letter and Susanna’s added persuasions apparently convinced John that he should apply to succeed his father. He wrote to his friend Thomas Broughton, curate of the chapel at the Tower of London, asking that he use his influence to help him secure this position. But early in 1735 he learned from Broughton that his application had come before the Bishop of London and that the bishop had refused him because of his undue ‘strictness of life’.[17] Accordingly he now had to break this news to his dying father.
In April of the same year Susanna wrote to John and Charles urging them both to come to Epworth immediately. This, she said, would be their last opportunity to see their father alive. They hurried to Epworth and arrived to find him in his final hours of life.
John reported that, despite his very evident weakness his father frequently uttered the statement: ‘The inward witness, son, the inward witness, that is the proof, the strongest proof of Christianity.’ ‘I cannot therefore doubt,’ said John, that the Spirit of God bore an inward witness with his spirit that he was a child of God.’[18]
Charles, in a letter to his brother Samuel, reported, ‘The morning he was to communicate he was so exceeding weak and full of pain that he could not, without the utmost difficulty, receive the elements, often repeating, “Thou shakest me, thou shakest me”; but immediately after receiving there followed the most visible alteration. He appeared full of faith and peace. . . The fear of death he had entirely conquered, and at last gave up his latest human desires of finishing Job, paying his debts, and seeing you. He often laid his hand upon my head and said, “Be steady. The Christian faith will surely revive in this kingdom. You shall see it, though I shall not.”’
As the end approached, his wife and four of his children, Emilia, Sukey, John and Charles, gathered round his bed. John asked whether he was not near heaven. ‘He answered distinctly,’ said Charles, ‘and with the most of hope and triumph that could be expressed in sounds, “Yes, I am.” He spoke once more, just after my brother had used the commendatory prayer. His last words were, “Now you have done all.” This was about half an hour after six; from which time till sunset he made signs of offering up himself, till my brother having again used the prayer, the very moment it was finished he expired.’[19]
So died the Reverend Samuel Wesley, M.A., on 25 April 1735, at the age of seventy-three. Charles said, ‘He was buried very frugally, yet decently, in the churchyard. . .’, beside the church to which he had devoted thirty-eight years of his industrious life. And so Susanna, his long-suffering wife, began her years of impoverished, but uncomplaining widowhood.