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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FIRE AND PERIL. 73<br />
ber as usual, we had all been lost. I threw myself<br />
out of bed, got on my waistcoat and nightgown, and<br />
looked out of the window; saw the reflection of the<br />
flame, but knew not where it was ;<br />
ran to my wife's<br />
chamber with one stocking on, and my breeches in<br />
my hand; would have broken open the door, which<br />
was bolted within, but could not. My two eldest<br />
children (<strong>Susanna</strong> and Emilia) were with her. They<br />
rose, and ran towards the staircase, to raise the rest<br />
of the house. Then I saw it was our own house, all<br />
in a light blaze, and nothing but a door between the<br />
flame and the staircase.<br />
" I ran back to my wife, who by this time had got<br />
out of bed naked and opened the door. I bade her<br />
fly for her life. We had a little silver and some gold<br />
about 20. She would have stayed for it, but I<br />
pushed her out ; got her and my two eldest children<br />
down-stairs (where two of the servants were now got)<br />
and asked for the keys. They knew nothing of them.<br />
I ran up-stairs and found them, came down and opened<br />
the street door. The thatch was fallen in all on fire.<br />
The north-east wind drove all the sheets of flame in<br />
my face, as if reverberated in a lamp. I got twice<br />
on the steps, and was drove down again. I ran to<br />
the garden door and opened<br />
it. The fire was there<br />
more moderate. I bade them all follow but found<br />
only two with me, and the maid with another<br />
(Charles) in her arms that cannot go, but all naked.<br />
I ran with them to my house of office in the garden,<br />
out of the reach of the flames; put the least in the<br />
other's lap; and, not finding my wife follow me, ran<br />
back into the house to seek her. The servants and<br />
two of the children were got out at the window.<br />
In the kitchen I found my eldest daughter, naked,
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