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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234 SUSANNA WESLEY.<br />
Sally, as she was called to distinguish her from her<br />
mother, was born at Bristol in 1759, and from the first<br />
was a great favourite with her father, who was a most<br />
affectionate parent. Busy as he was riding to and fro<br />
between London and Bristol, and fulfilling his brother's<br />
behests, which were neither few nor far between, he<br />
managed to write long letters to his wife about the<br />
children. The little girl must have been about a year<br />
old when "<br />
he wrote : She should take after me, as she<br />
is to be my child. One and another give me presents<br />
for Charley, but nobody seems to take any notice of<br />
poor Sally even her godmother seems to slight her."<br />
He was always thinking of his daughter, contriving<br />
surprises for her, and bidding her mother send her up<br />
the hill to Gotham from their home in Stoke's Croft,<br />
that she might be strengthened by the country breezes.<br />
She grew up to be a great reader, and early aimed<br />
at authorship, in verse of course, or she would not<br />
have been a <strong>Wesley</strong>. John <strong>Wesley</strong> was very fond of<br />
her, and, when she was about fifteen, promised to take<br />
her with him to Canterbury and Dover. A scandal<br />
arose which seemed to make it imperative that he<br />
should remain in London, and Charles urged him to<br />
postpone the "<br />
journey. Brother," said John, " when<br />
I devoted to God my ease, my time, my life, did I<br />
I will take<br />
except my reputation ? No. Tell Sally<br />
her to Canterbury to-morrow/'<br />
She was a clever woman, and wrote a very neat,<br />
clear hand, expressing<br />
herself always in pure English,<br />
such as might be written by a lady of the present day ;<br />
and her orthography was perfect. Every language she<br />
had the opportunity of learning came to her easily, as<br />
it had done to her father and grandfather ;<br />
and she<br />
added to her slender income by translating foreign
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