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.
148 SUSANNA WESLEY. santly in his last dyke, wrote a short bright letter, probably with his left hand : " DEAR SON JOHN, "Wroote, July 18th, 1727. "We received last post your compliments of condolence and congratulation to your mother on the supposition of her near approaching demise, to which for she your sister Patty will by no means subscribe, says she is not so good a philosopher as you are, and that she can't spare her mother yet, if it please God, without very great inconveniency." Patty was the eighth daughter and seventeenth child, and had been looked upon in the family as a special favourite with her mother. She denied that she had any greater share of maternal love than the other girls, saying " What my sisters called : partiality was what they might all have enjoyed if they had wished it, which was permission to sit in my mother's chamber when disengaged, to listen to her conversation with others, and to her remarks on things and books out of school hours." The father's letter continues : " And, indeed, though she has now and then some very sick fits, yet I hope the sight of you would revive her. However, when you come you will see a new face of things, my family being now pretty well colonised, and all perfect harmony much happier, in no small straits, than perhaps we ever were before in our greatest affluence and (!) you will find a servant that ; will make us rich, if God gives us anything to work upon. I know not but it may be this prospect, together with my easiness in my family, which keeps my spirits from sinking, though they tell me I have lost some of
DISAPPOINTMENTS AND PERPLEXITIES. 149 my tallow between Wroote and Epworth ; but that I don't value, as long as I 've still strength to perform my office. . . . " I 'm weary, but your loving Father, " SAMUEL WESLEY." The two sons did come home, and found their mother better. On their way back to Oxford they stayed at Lincoln to see Emilia, who was assisting a Mrs. Taylor who kept a girls' school in that city, and Kezzy, the youngest of the family, who was also teaching there and probably receiving some instruction in return for her own and her sister's services. In the following year they both left, Emilia that she might nurse Mrs. Ellison, who was dangerously ill, and Kezzy because she could not remain without Emilia for lack of funds.
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DISAPPOINTMENTS AND PERPLEXITIES. 149<br />
my tallow between Wroote and Epworth ;<br />
but that I<br />
don't value, as long as I 've still strength to perform<br />
my office. . . .<br />
" I 'm weary, but your loving Father,<br />
" SAMUEL WESLEY."<br />
The two sons did come home, and found their<br />
mother better. On their way back to Oxford they<br />
stayed at Lincoln to see Emilia, who was assisting a<br />
Mrs. Taylor who kept a girls' school in that city,<br />
and<br />
Kezzy, the youngest of the family, who was also teaching<br />
there and probably receiving some instruction in<br />
return for her own and her sister's services. In the<br />
following year they both left, Emilia that she might<br />
nurse Mrs. Ellison, who was dangerously ill,<br />
and Kezzy<br />
because she could not remain without Emilia for lack<br />
of funds.
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