Editor's Introductory Notes: 1770

[1] The storm aroused by the Doctrinal Minutes of the Conference in 1770 is the outstanding feature of these years, The Hon. and Rev. Walter Shirley, who was the prime mover in the onslaught made on Wesley, was convinced by the declaration of the ensuing Conference that he 'had mistaken the meaning of the doctrinal points in the Minutes.' Wesley's attitude is shown in his letters to his brother, to the Countess of Huntingdon, and to Mary Bishop. John Fletcher proved himself a masterly champion of Wesley's Minutes and a noble example of the Christian controversialist.

America takes its place in the correspondence of the period. Wesley was strongly urged to go over to see the work with his own eyes. The death of Whitefield on September 30, 1770, marks the close of the most memorable friendship and partnership of the Evangelical Revival; and the funeral sermon which Wesley preached on November 18 shows how deeply he loved his friend and gloried in his boundless influence.

The correspondence with Joseph Benson has special importance; and Wesley's affectionate care for young Christians is seen in letters to Ann Bolton and to the members of the Perronet family. Nor should the letter 'To a Nobleman' be overlooked. It is another illustration of Wesley's far-reaching influence over spiritually-minded men and women in all ranks of society. The straightforward candour of such letters as that to Mary Bosanquet on January 2, 1770, is characteristic. The letters to his preachers give a vivid picture of his vigilant oversight of all the work of Methodism.

[2] This letter is a beautiful illustration of Wesley's combination of courtesy with plainness and directness in dealing with men of rank and position. Compare the letters of April 10, 1761 (where he addresses his friend as 'Dear Sir'), and July 26, 1764.

[3] Miss Bosanquet's health was strained by three years' nursing of her friend Mrs. Ryan, and her way was 'strewed with many perplexities.' Mrs. Crosby was living with her in her Yorkshire home, and on Wednesday nights they had formed a meeting, the numbers of which increased to fifty. She had to be very careful whom she admitted as fixed members. See Moore's Mrs. Fletcher, p. 79; and letter of December 11, 1768. Wesley translated the Instructions from the French in 1768, and calls it 'one of the most useful tracts I ever saw for those who desire to be " fervent in spirit."' See Journal, v. 249; Green's Bibliography, No. 296.

[4] It was the time of the struggle between Wilkes and the House of Commons. The House had spent the Session of 1769 in fierce debates. Wilkes had been brought before the bar of the Commons on a charge of libel, expelled from Parliament, and at once re-elected for Middlesex. He was three times expelled and three times re-elected. The Commons gave his seat to Colonel Luttrell, and the City of London elected Wilkes an alderman. Sacheverell had been found guilty of seditious libel in 1709 by a small majority of the Peers; but 'the light sentence they inflicted was in effect an acquittal, and bonfires and illuminations over the whole country welcomed it as a Tory triumph.' See Green's Short History, p. 717; for Wesley's visit to Dr. Sacheverell when he was leaving Charterhouse for Oxford in 1720, see Telford's Wesley, p. 30; and for his thoughts on 'The Present State of Public Affairs,' the letter to a Friend in December 1768.

[5] On December 3, 1769, Wesley wrote, 'You told me you would stay at the school till March., This promise Benson kept. An entry in his Journal for November 27, 1769, runs: 'I have lately seen my way plain to leave Kingswood, and concluded on going to Trevecca.'

[6] John Whitehead had desisted from travelling at the Conference of 1769. The sentence at the end of the letter after January 2, 1769. 'Let John Whitehead learn all he can,' indicates that he was studying at Kingswood.

[7] Wesley says in his Journal, v. 290, that on October 14, 1768, he dined with Dr. Wrangel, one of the King of Sweden's chaplains, who had spent several years in Pennsylvania, and who strongly pleaded with Wesley to send some of his preachers to help the Americans, 'multitudes of whom are as sheep without a shepherd.' On his return to Stockholm he wrote to Wesley, and two of his letters are printed in the Arminian Magazine for 1784, pp. 330, 614. In the first, dated May 5, 1770, he says that on his return he had lodged with his old fellow chaplain, Dr. Lamberg, Bishop of Gothenburg. 'I found him to be a great friend of yours. He had heard you preach while on his travels in England. I sent him your books, and he was well pleased with what he read, and desired me to remember him to you.' (Compare Journal, v. 345n.) The King had on his death-bed made Dr. Wrangel a Privy Counsellor. 'When I spoke to him of the way of salvation, he received the word with gladness, and departed in the Lord, to the great edification and comfort of the whole family.' He refers to a Society for Propagating Practical Religion which he had proposed and which had been received with much favour. He was about to be made Almoner of His Majesty, and requested Wesley's prayers, as 'this office is of importance to religion in general.'

Wrangel writes again on October 10, 1771, and says, 'Your last and very affectionate letter gave me infinite pleasure.' The new King had appointed him 'Almoner, President of the Consistory at Court, and Chaplain to all his Orders,' 'a station of great trust, but, alas I a very perilous one.' He continues: 'I send you enclosed the Letter of Admission to our Society. The Rules are not yet printed in English; we send them in German, as I think you are master of that language.' He thanks Wesley for the kind present of his sermons and books by Mr. Charleson. This gift evidently included the Funeral Sermon for George Whitefield, preached on November 18, 1770. 'I presented a copy of your sermon to the Society, which was very acceptable. The Society will have the Life of Mr. Whitefield inserted in their "Pastoral Collections, or Account of the Work of God Abroad."' He says: 'I beg of you, sir, to remember me kindly to all your friends, not forgetting dear Kingswood.' A postscript is added: 'I have been greatly blessed in my labour amongst the great. I shall soon give you a particular account of it.' Wesley was elected Foreign Corresponding Member of the Society 'Pro Fide et Christianismo,' and acknowledged the honour in the letter of January 31, 1772.

The following letter was cut out of an album in the possession of Mr. H. W. Surtees, of Derby, and is printed in the Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, xvi. 127-8. It was evidently written to Dr. Wrangel soon after his return to Sweden. The thanks in Wrangel's letter of May 5, 1770, probably include the work mentioned in Wesley's postscript. The letter may be dated January 30, in time for the reply of May 5.

[8] Lady Glenorchy (see her Life, p. 128) writes on January 27, 1770: 'My mind has of late been distracted with various opinions insensibly imbibed from others, which have drawn me away from the simplicity of the gospel, which have led me to depreciate ordinances and to seek a useless speculative life. Blessed be God, who has in Lady Maxwell raised up for me a friend in time of need, who has been the instrument in His hand of bringing back my soul into a plain path.... Ever since my first interview with her, the Lord has been pleased to show me gradually from whence I have fallen, and has led me back to that singleness of heart with which He enabled me to set out some years ago.' The second paragraph of this letter shows how Lady Maxwell laid herself out to help her friend.

Lady Maxwell (Life, p. 56) had been confined to bed with pain and sickness. In July 1770 she established a school to give three years' training for poor children in Edinburgh; and before her death eight hundred had enjoyed its benefits. She was particular to have masters of undoubted piety.

[9] Robert Keen, woollen-draper in the Minories, was Whitefield's friend and correspondent, and one of the managers of his London chapels. It was he who suggested that Wesley should preach Whitefield's funeral sermon. Whitefield died on September 30, 1770. This was Wesley's last letter to him. See Tyerman's Whitefield, ii. 458, 578, 584, 614; and letter of November 18.

Whitefield added two wings to his Orphan House to provide a college for the sons of the respectable inhabitants of Georgia, Virginia, and the West Indies. He opened it on January 28, 1770. John Berridge of Everton shared Wesley's opinion. See letter of September 16, 1773.

[10] Wesley had spoken to Mrs. Marston at Worcester on March 14 or 15. On the 15th he met the select society, preached at Evesham at noon, rode on to Broadmarston 'through a furious shower of snow driven full in our faces,' and preached in the evening. See Journal, v. 355-6; and letter of April 1.

[11] Some Account of the Experience of E. J. was published in 1770. The little pamphlet, however, gives no clue to her identity; but the letter of May 2, 1771, calls her Sister Jackson. She says: 'In the hour that He convinced me of the necessity of it, before that hour was expired, I was justified. Thirteen months after, I was convinced of the necessity of full salvation. That night, before I slept, God gave me the blessing.' For ten years she had enjoyed the blessing. 'I never have had a tedious moment nor a murmuring thought.' She was 'banished from all that was near and dear to me, and driven from city to city'; yet she was able to rejoice in tribulation. See Arminian Magazine, 1783, pp. 46-7; Green's Bibliography, No. 262; W.H.S. iv. 59-60; and letter of May 2, 1771 to Philothea Briggs.

[12] Richard Bourke, who 'united the wisdom and calmness of age with the simplicity of childhood,' spent the year at Limerick, Waterford, and Cork. The Minutes of 1769 speak of many inconveniences arising from the present mode of providing for preachers' wives.

[13] The original of this letter was preserved by Thomas Robinson Allan, whose mother was a daughter of Thomas Robinson, with his note: 'A letter of Mr. Wesley's which I found among some papers which had belonged either to my grandfather Thomas or to his brother William Robinson.' Thomas died in February 1815; William on September 3, 1819, aged ninety-one. Their father was a merchant and shipowner at Bridlington, and had a farm at Helderthorp, a mile from Bridlington Quay, which Thomas, who had been a hardware merchant in Sheffield, afterwards occupied. William went to sea with their ships, but settled as a merchant in North Shields, and afterwards removed to Bridlington. See Methodist Magazine, 1819, p. 738; 1826, pp. 289, 361.

[14] On May 20, 1770, Mrs. Bennis wrote from Waterford, where she was visiting her daughter: 'Brother Saunderson is now in Limerick, the select band meet regular, and a few have lately been added to it. I have conversed freely with Brother Saunderson, and do now correspond with him (he seems athirst for sanctification); but I think I discern self in all I do and say, and this discourages my forwardness in speaking to others, and generally fills me with other distress. Brother Bourke is on this circuit. The people here go on at a poor rate; nor do I think it otherwise until they have a stationed preacher. They desired me to mention this, and would thank you to think of them.' She had spoken plainly to Hugh Saunderson whilst he was in Limerick; but ventured to write on December 4, 1771: 'Your youth, your natural propensity to gaiety and sprightliness, your unmarried state, and the pride of your own heart, will insensibly incline you to little fopperies in gesture and dress and little niceties about yourself; which will hurt your own soul, lessen your usefulness, and make you ridiculous to others, if not guarded against.' See headings to letters of April 24, 1769, and June 8, 1773

[15] In answer to Wesley's letter of June 13 Mrs. Bennis told him on July 8: 'I believe Brother L--met with trials in Waterford; the people are poor, and think the expense of a preacher's horse (and family) more than they can well bear; but if it were possible to let them have a single preacher resident in the city, or even to exchange monthly with the circuit preacher (without throwing any of the expense on them), I think it might answer a good end. As yet the circuit is best able to bear expense; indeed, I feel much for the city Society, a handful of poor simple souls that need every support and encouragement. Dear sir, I hope you will not think me presumptuous in dictating, but I find my soul knit to these poor sheep.' She added: 'Sister Ann S is lately married to Brother L--of Clonmel; Brother Bourke and I made up this match, and I think it is the Lord's doing; she is as usual all alive to God, and I trust will be the means of saving his soul. Brother Bourke, at my request, has taken Clonmel into the circuit, and doubt not but there will be good done there; but as this has caused an entire alteration in the circuit from the former plan, I have to request your forgiveness for my officiousness; if you disapprove, it can be re-altered.'

[16] Miss Yeoman was living in the Orphan House at Newcastle. She afterwards married Mr. Gair (not Gains, as printed in the Works), and died at Newcastle in 1827. She was a member of the Methodist Society seventy years. This letter is an answer to one she wrote to Wesley on July 20 telling him: 'I long to feel my soul all on fire to be dissolved in love, but I have not yet the victory over unbelief.... I feel much liberty in my bands.... Since you were here there has been a little shyness between Jane Johnson and me. Being both singers, I often, when in the room together, strove not to stand near her: the reason was, the hardness of her voice with my own hurt my head. But when going wrong with the tune, I would give her some signal; yet this she could not bear. There was also a stubbornness of temper, a mimicking of fine speaking, and other things, which wrought such prejudice in me as almost destroyed all the love that subsisted between us. I found I was hurting my own soul and wounding my sister. I was told that she was coming no more to the singing on my account. I am now convinced that I was more in fault than she, and thought I would go to her and own my fault, and endeavour in the Lord to love her as I ought, and persuade her back to the singing. O dear sir, you must forgive me in this. I am determined to look less at the failings of others, as I am not wanting in them myself.... Jenny Scott, whom you admitted into the band, and I are very helpful to each other. Sister Hall and Sister Strologer, with one or two more, are the only companions I have. See Christian Miscellany, 1846, p. 276; and letters of September 2, 1769, and February 5, 1772.

[17] Wesley was in London at the Conference, which met on the day he wrote this letter. James Oddie was appointed as supernumerary atYarm. Nelson, one of the noblest of Wesley's preachers, died in 1774. John Murlin (who went to London) became a preacher in 1754, died at High Wycombe in 1799, and was buried in Wesley's grave. He was so deeply affected with his message that he was called'The Weeping Prophet.' See Atmore's Memorial, pp. 288-91; Wesley's Veterans, ii. 160-1.

[18] Mrs. Marston told Wesley on July 26 that for some time past she had found 'a more deep, solid, and abiding happiness in God than ever,' but had been 'variously tried both from within and without. I should be glad if you would inform me which is the most excellent way to walk in, and what are the chief hindrances which I am likely to be exposed to.' See Arminian Magazine, 1784, pp. 332-3; and letter of April 1.

[19] Joseph Thompson, then Assistant at York, entered the itinerancy in 1759, and died at Barnard Castle in 1808. 'He was a man of sterling integrity, and a powerful preacher. His last words were, "I am nothing, but Christ is all--all is in Him and from Him, to whom be glory for ever."'

[20] The Conference at London in August had adopted some Doctrinal Minutes which gave great offence to Calvinistic Methodists. The Countess of Huntingdon declared that whoever did not wholly disavow them must quit her college. Joseph Benson defended them.

[21] Hopper was Assistant at Bradford with George Wadsworth, who had been admitted on trial that Conference. Robert Roberts was stationed at Birstall: see letter of September 3, 1763.

[22] Lowes was at Newcastle, suffering from the effects of two severe fevers and rheumatism. His boy had evidently shared in the revival at Kingswood. See letter of March 6, 1759, to him.

Andrew Wilson (1718-92), M.D. Edin. 1749, was the only son of the parish minister of Maxton, Roxburghshire. He began his professional life in Newcastle about 1764, and afterwards (before 1777) was physician to the Medical Asylum, London. In 1774 he published a tract On the Moving Powers in the Circulation of the Blood. Wesley had his eye on Wilson, and read it immediately. See Dictionary of National Biography; Journal, vi. 28, 147, 222.

[23] The three preachers were John Ellis (who was Assistant in Lincolnshire West), Isaac Waldron, and William Ellis. Waldron was the colleague of John Pawson and John Allen at Wednesbury in 1768, when they 'planted the gospel in fourteen new places.' See Wesley's Veterans, iv. 41-2; W.H.S. x. 154-5.

This letter was written on the Sunday when Wesley preached Whitefield's funeral sermon. He had retired to Lewisham on Monday the 12th to write it. At Tottenham Court Road in the morning 'an immense multitude was gathered together from all quarters of the town.' The time fixed for the service at the Tabernacle was half-past five; but the place was quite filled at three, so Wesley began at four. 'At first the noise was exceeding great; but it ceased when I began to speak; and my voice was again so strengthened that all who were within could hear, unless an accidental noise hindered here or there for a few moments.' At the request of the trustees Wesley preached the sermon at the Greenwich Tabernacle the following Friday; 'but neither would this house contain the congregation. Those who could not get in made some noise at first; but in a little while all were silent.' See Journal, v. 396-7; and Wesley's last letter to Whitefield, on February 21.

[24] Bardsley became an itinerant in 1768. He was attracted to a pious young lady, Mary Charlton. She was not strong, and had no money. He had the consent of Alexander Mather, but John Pawson opposed the marriage. Bardsley died a bachelor on August 19, 1818, after a devoted ministry, the oldest preacher in the Connexion.

[25] Churchey was a lawyer at Brecon, and a poet. There is a footnote in another hand about continuing Methodism at the Hay.

[26] Wesley wrote a letter of warning and advice to the Countess of Huntingdon on December 28. The letter refers to the funeral sermon for Whitefield, which he preached on November 18. Charles Hardy and Robert Keen had been trustees and managers of Whitefield's chapels in London, and were two of his four executors to whom he left mourning-rings. Torial Joss, the captain of a coasting vessel, was born near Aberdeen. He became one of Whitefield's assistants in 1766, and was a popular and awakening preacher. See Tyerman's Whitefield, ii. 501-2; and letter of February 21 to Whitefield.

[27] 'That good young man' was probably a brother of Rowland Hill, who wrote to Wesley from Hawkestone Park on October 24, 1768. He had met Wesley at Mrs. Glynne's in Shrewsbury, and says, 'Your Christian advice to persevere in the ways of godliness gave me great encouragement.' See Arminian Magazine, 1782, p. 552; W.H.S. iv. 218-9.

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