Wesley’s Letters: 1723

To his Mother [1]

CH. CH., OXON, September 23, 1723.

DEAR MOTHER, --I suppose my brother [Samuel Wesley. See next letter.] told you that Mr. Wigan [Wesley's first tutor (see Bliss's Reliquiae Hearnianae, if. 239, 279; iii. 83, 94). Thomas Hearne, of the Bodleinn Library, refers to George Wigan four times, and says ‘he was formerly Dr. Friend’s scholar.’ In 1725 (see letter of Nov. 22), when Dr. Gastrell was buried in Christ Church Cathedral, ‘Mr. George Wigan spoke the speech.’ In 1732 Hearne writes: ‘Mr. George Wigan was some time since student of Christ Church, where he was a great and a very good tutor. Leaving that place, he became Principal of New Inn Hall upon the death of Dr. Brabant; but, what hath been much wondered at, he hath not had so much as one gownsman entered at it ever since he had it, but shutting up the gate altogether he wholly lives in the country, whereas ’twas expected that he being a disciplinarian, and a sober, studious, and learned man, would have made it flourish in a most remarkable manner. He hath been a great while, as I hear, about a work concerning the types of Scripture, he being well versed in Hebrew. I hear he hath, since he hath been in the country, got considerable knowledge in the British language.’ On the suggestion that Wigan should be made Dean of Westminster, see Hearne's characteristic entry of March 8, I733. There are numerous contributions of G. Wigan to the Carmina Quadragesimalia, or Lent Verses, vol. i. 1723, Oxon (Wordsworth), and Hearne notes his work on the Septuagint according to the Alexandrian MS., or rather his completion of Dr. Grabe's work thereon. Mr. Wigan the tutor must not be confounded with the Mr. Wogan to whom Wesley wrote from Savannah: see heading to letter of March 28, 1737.] had resigned his pupils and was retired into the country to one of his livings. I was lately with Mr. Sherman, [ The Rev. Henry Sherman showed much kindness to the brothers. See Journal, i. 56, 62; Diary, if. 98, 99, 120; and letter of Dec. 18, 1724.] who is now my tutor, and who, asking me what Mr. Wigan had of me for tutorage, told me he would never take any more of me than he had done, but would rather add something to than take from what little I had. I heard lately from my brother, who then promised me to order Mr. Sherman to let me have the rent of his room, and this quarter's studentship, by which, together with my five 11b from the Charterhouse at Michaelmas Day, I hope to be very near out of debt everywhere.

The small-pox and fever are now very common in Oxford; of the latter a very ingenious young gentleman of our College died yesterday, being the fifth day from the beginning of his illness. There is not any other in the College sick at present, and it is hoped that the approach of winter will stop the spreading of the distemper.

I am very glad to hear that all at home are well; as I am, I thank God, at present, being seldom troubled with anything but bleeding at the nose, which I have frequently. A little while ago, it bled so violently while I was walking in the evening a mile or two from Oxford, that it almost choked me; nor did any method I could use at all abate it, till I stripped myself and leapt into the river, which happened luckily not to be far off.

I shall not want the notes of my entrance and a great while yet, but shall take care to write time enough them when I do; they can but be brought by the post at last if nobody comes this way or to London in the time. I should have been very glad to have heard my sister Suky or any other of my sisters; nor am I so poor, but that I can spare postage now and then for a letter or two.

I heard yesterday one of the most unaccountable stories [The story is told in the letter of Dec. 18, 1724. Wesley's interest in such stories never failed.] that I ever heard in my life; and the father of the person who told it me had it from the late Bishop of Raphoe in Ireland, who was concerned in it. It is too long and perhaps too impertinent to repeat now; but the most remarkable thing in it was that an actor in it, who by other circumstances pretty plainly appears to have been the devil, distinguished himself and was known to his fellows by a name (???????) [‘Wonderful God’: see Isa. ix. 6; compare Judg. xiii. 18.] which title can only belong to the great God.

I shall conclude with begging yours and my father's blessing on

Your dutiful Son.

Pray remember my love to all my sisters, and my service to Mr. Romley [Mr. and Mrs. William Romley of Burton, parents of the curate whose refusal to allow Wesley to preach in Epworth Church led to the famous churchyard services (Jeernat, iii. 18-19). Wesley visited Romley on April 13, 1759: ‘a lively, sensible man of eighty-three years old, by whom I was much comforted.’ Hetty Wesley tells John in 1725 she is ‘resolved not to marry yet, till I can forget Romley or see him again.’ This is probably the future curate.] and his wife.

For Mrs. Wesley, At Wroot. To be left at the Post-house in Bawtry.

[1] Susanna Annesley was born in Spiral Yard, London, on January 20, 1669, the twenty-fifth child of Dr. Samuel Annesley, ‘the St. Paul of the Nonconformists.’ She married Samuel Wesley in 1689, had nineteen sons and daughters, and died at her son John's house at the Foundery in 1743. The spiritual and intellectual debt of John Wesley to his mother was inestimable. She has been aptly called ‘the Mother of Methodism.’

This is the first of Wesley’s letters to his mother. They throw much light on the character of mother and son, and prove how sagacious a guide she was in his spiritual and theological perplexities. When he was Fellow of Lincoln, he wrote: ‘If you can spare me only that little part of Thursday evening which you formerly bestowed upon me in another manner, I doubt not but it would be as useful now for correcting my heart as it was then for forming my judgment.’ See letter of February 28, 1732.

Edited by Michael Mattei
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