Preface
In writing this book it has been my aim to present a simple, readable account of the life of Susanna Wesley. I have tried to slant it especially towards women readers. I have provided a brief account of her background, her girlhood and her marriage to Samuel Wesley. I have gone on to show a number of traits of her husband’s character: the two sides of his personality, his scholarly learning and clerical activities, together with his domineering manner and Susanna’s patience in bearing it. We also see how the fact that he was constantly in debt cast a shadow over his life and that of his family.
Since Susanna left no diary or daily journal the only record we have from her pen is found in her letters. These I have quoted frequently. But the letters of her husband and her children also shed much light on her life and therefore I have often drawn on their correspondence in the pages before us.
I have made particular use of an account that Samuel wrote depicting the first thirty years of his life and which I refer to as his Autobiography. The original is in the possession of the Bodleian Library, Oxford University. It is in Samuel’s handwriting and is very difficult to read. I have deciphered it all and it provides facts about his youth and his life as a young man that have not been mentioned by previous writers. I express my thanks to the Bodleian Library for photocopying this document for me.
For the first time in a biography of any of the Wesleys Samuel’s action in leaving Susanna for nearly half a year is fully reported, as is also the way in which he forced their brilliant and beautiful daughter Hetty into marriage with an ignorant and boorish man. The former of these events is documented by Susanna’s letters written at the time, and the latter by Hetty’s letters and poems.
I express my thanks to Dr Frank Baker, the Editor in Chief of the Oxford edition of the Works of John Wesley, for the help he has given me, particularly with regard to the Hetty Wesley affair. I am grateful also to Mr D. W. Riley, M.L.A., Keeper of Printed Books at the John Rylands University, Manchester, England. This library now houses the Methodist archives, from which Mr Riley has provided me with various copies of correspondence by the Wesley family.
This book is sent forth with the desire that it may not only bring Susanna Wesley to the attention of many people, but that the story of her life may move many to copy her example of prayerfulness, patience and piety.