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.
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
TRIALS AND TROUBLES. 53<br />
my reply to Palmer, which, whether I am in prison<br />
or out of I it, hope to get finished by the next session<br />
of Parliament, for I have no more regiments to lose.<br />
" S. WESLEY."<br />
But his worst trials were yet to come, and the<br />
manner in which they affected his wife and family are<br />
best told by himself. He was in debt to one of<br />
the people he had angered by his zeal at the recent<br />
Election, and, as he had not the wherewithal to pay,<br />
was speedily arrested, and sent to Lincoln jail. Here<br />
is the account given by his own hand to the Archbishop<br />
of York :<br />
4f MY LORD,<br />
" Lincoln Castle, June 25th, 1705.<br />
" Now I am at rest, for I am come to the haven<br />
where I 've long expected to be. On Friday last<br />
(June 23rd), when I had been, in christening a child,<br />
at Epworth, I was arrested in my churchyard by one<br />
who had been my servant, and gathered my<br />
tithe last<br />
year, at the suit of one of Mr. Whichcott's relations<br />
and zealous friends (Mr. Pinder), according to their<br />
promise when they were in the Isle before the Election.<br />
The sum was not thirty pounds, but it was as good as<br />
five hundred.<br />
Now they knew the burning of my flax,<br />
my London journey, and their throwing me out of my<br />
regiment, had both sunk my credit and exhausted my<br />
money. My adversary was sent to where I was on the<br />
road, to meet me, that I might make some proposals<br />
to him. But all his answer (which I have by me) was,<br />
that I must immediately pay the whole sum or go to<br />
prison. Thither I went with no great concern for<br />
myself, and find much more civility<br />
and satisfaction<br />
here than in brevibus gyaris of my own Epworth.
Change language