Susanna Wesley

14 SUSANNA WESLEY.
read in their churches, while Archbishop Sancroft
and six of his suffragans protested, and were in
consequence imprisoned in the Tower. Thus it came
to pass that, in the enforced absence of the Bishop of
London, Samuel Wesley received deacon's orders at
the hands of Dr. Sprat, Bishop of Rochester. The
curacy that gave him a title was worth only twentyeight
pounds a year but he did not remain in it more
;
than twelve months, when he was ordained priest by
Dr. Compton, Bishop of London, at St. Andrew's,
Holborn, on the 24th of February 1689, exactly twelve
days after William and Mary had been declared sovereigns
of Great Britain. It is said that he wrote and
printed the first pamphlet that appeared in support of
the new government. It is possible that this procured
for him the appointment of chaplain on board a
man-of-war, where he was comparatively rich with
seventy pounds a year, and had leisure for a good deal
of writing, most of which he employed in the composition
of a curious poem on the Life of Christ.
He was most likely anxious to be in London, for he
soon resigned the chaplaincy, and became again a
curate in the metropolis, with an income of thirty
pounds, which he doubled by his pen. Money was
worth much more then than now, yet it was hardly
prudent to marry on so small a pittance; but lovers
have so much faith in one another, that he and
Susanna Annesley seem to have had no misgivings
but plighted their troth in the spring of 1689. It is
not known in what church they were married, nor
who married them, but it is believed that the bride's
new home was in apartments near Holborn.