Susanna Wesley
This is the story of Susanna Wesley, 1669-1742 Mother of Charles and John Wesley, who were founders of the Methodist Church. Susanna and her husband, Samuel, had nineteen children, ten of whom survived to adulthood. Her son Charles became a well-known hymn writer and her son John became the found of Methodism. Susanna was brought up in a Puritan home as the youngest of twenty-five children. As a teenager, she became a member of the Church of England. She became the wife of a chronically debt-ridden parish rector in an English village. She said, "I have had a large experience of what the world calls adverse fortune." Nonetheless, Susanna managed to pass down to her children Christian principles that stayed with them.
This is the story of Susanna Wesley, 1669-1742 Mother of Charles and John Wesley, who were founders of the Methodist Church. Susanna and her husband, Samuel, had nineteen children, ten of whom survived to adulthood. Her son Charles became a well-known hymn writer and her son John became the found of Methodism.
Susanna was brought up in a Puritan home as the youngest of twenty-five children. As a teenager, she became a member of the Church of England. She became the wife of a chronically debt-ridden parish rector in an English village. She said, "I have had a large experience of what the world calls adverse fortune." Nonetheless, Susanna managed to pass down to her children Christian principles that stayed with them.
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128 SUSANNA WESLEY.<br />
a favourable impression. In going out to India Mr.<br />
Annesley hoped to amass a fortune, and is<br />
supposed<br />
to have done so, though at the time he was expected<br />
to return to England he was lost sight of, and nointelligence<br />
of his fate, nor any of the money he had<br />
obtained, ever reached his relatives. About 1712-13<br />
he wrote to Mr. <strong>Wesley</strong>, requesting that he would act<br />
as his agent in England with the East India Company ;<br />
and after some hesitation Mr. <strong>Wesley</strong> accepted the<br />
post, hoping, with the assistance of his son at Westminster,<br />
to be able to do so satisfactorily. He was<br />
not, however, a man of business, and as soon as his<br />
brother-in-law discovered this, he transferred the<br />
agency to someone else. Mr. Annesley not unnaturally<br />
wrote to his sister, complaining of her husband's<br />
short-lived administration of his affairs, and she as<br />
naturally showed a wifely spirit in defending him.<br />
Letters in those days took a great while to go and<br />
come, and a long and interesting letter from Mrs.<br />
<strong>Wesley</strong> to her brother, was written on her birthday,<br />
and gives us one of the few glimpses we have at the<br />
then condition of her family<br />
:<br />
" " SIR, Epworth, Jan. 20th, 1721-2.<br />
"The unhappy differences between you and<br />
Mr. <strong>Wesley</strong> have prevented my writing for some<br />
years, not knowing whether a letter from me would<br />
be acceptable, and being unwilling to be troublesome.<br />
But feeling life ebb apace, and having a desire to be at<br />
peace with all men, especially you, before my exit, I<br />
have ventured to send one letter more, hoping you<br />
will give yourself the trouble to read it without prejudice.<br />
" I am, I believe, got on the right side of fifty,
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