Editor's Introductory Notes: 1772

[1] The years 1772 and 1773 are not marked by any outstanding events. Wesley pursued his work with unflagging zeal. He writes to his brother on March 25, 1772: 'Oh what a thing it is to have curam animarum! You and I are called to this to save souls from death, to watch over them as those that must give account!' 'I am ashamed,' he adds, 'of my indolence and inactivity.' That was the spirit of the veteran evangelist.

The number of letters to Methodist women shows how they turned to him for counsel not only in spiritual things but in the concerns of their daily life. His anxiety about the health and well being of Nancy Bolton comes out strongly in several letters to her at this time. It must be remembered also that such devoted women as Mrs. Bennis and Hannah Ball were used as means to stir up and guide his preachers in many parts of their teaching and work.

The letters to Christopher Hopper, Joseph Benson, and Thomas Wride show how vigilant was Wesley's oversight of the work in the three kingdoms; and the important letter of December 4, 1773, to Thomas Rankin, who had gone to take charge in America, is perhaps the most sage and significant in the correspondence of this period. The renewal of intercourse with his old friend and convert James Hutton is a happy feature: and one sees Wesley's pleasant irony at the expense of Peter Jaco in the letter of October 7, 1773, which suggests that a camel or an elephant would be necessary for such an itinerant.

[2] Mrs. Pywell replied on February 28: 'I am always sensible of the presence of God, which is never interrupted by company or hurry of business, though I am often much exposed to both.... I sometimes find lowness of spirits, which I think came upon me first by grief, occasioned by a brother and sister leaving the good ways of God.' See letter of April 23, 1771.

[3] Miss Ball wrote to Wesley on February 19: 'I feel more power to live for God than ever. I believe He has given me the full assurance of hope; a confidence of receiving all His promises.... Blessed be God, His work prospers in this place.' See Mcmoir, p. 102.

[4] Miss Sparrow seems to have been the daughter of Samuel Sparrow: see next letter, and that of July 2 ('you and yours'). His Diary shows that on February 21, 1783, Wesley took the 'coach with Sister Sparrow, &c.'; and on July 31, 1785, he married her to someone whose name does not appear. See Journal, vi. 392, vii. 101.

[5] This is the first of four letters, given as an Appendix to Essays and Dialogues, Moral and Religious (Chesterfield, 1782): a small octavo volume containing Selections from Sparrow's papers, and a Memorial Sermon by Dr. Kippis preached in Princes Street Chapel, Westminster, on July 21, 1776. Sparrow was the author of Family Prayers, and Moral Essays in Prose and Verse, by a Merchant (London, 1769). A copy which he sent to Wesley led to this correspondence. See W.H.S. v. 85-6.

[6] On February 13, 1772, Miss Bolton tells him: 'Since I wrote last seven have received a clear witness that the blood of Jesus hath cleansed them from all sin; who now rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks.... Within these last four days five have received a clear sense of God's pardoning love. The hearts of our exhorters are much enlarged. With regard to myself, I am more established in the grace of God since He has brought others to enjoy like precious faith.' See Arminian Magazine, 1785, p. 277.

[7] In 1771 a stumbling horse threw Wesley forward on the pommel of his saddle, and in January 1774 a hydrocele was removed. On February 21, 1772, he met his friends, who had begun a subscription to provide a carriage, as he could not ride on horseback so well since his accident. See Journal, vi. 8; and letter of February 29.

[8] In answer to this letter Miss Newman gives Wesley on August 23 an account of her conversion and her receiving the witness of full sanctification in 1769. Her work in Cheltenham was undertaken with new zeal 'soon after I came from Bristol.' Probably it was then that Wesley talked with her. She kept a bookshop in Cheltenham, and was converted during one of Wesley's visits. She afterwards devoted herself wholly to the work of God, became a teacher, and visited adjacent towns and villages, where she gave public exhortations. Her mother was converted under her preaching, and also Jonathan Coussins, who became a preacher in 1780, and whom she married in October 1782. See Magazine, 1785, pp. 434-7; 1786, pp. 171-2; 1806, p. 289.

[9] On March 17 Mrs. Bennis told Wesley that she had 'had some opportunities of conversing with Mrs. Dawson: in her I see what I have often thought, that God has His hidden ones unknown to the world even among the rich and great. And surely she is one of them: she has living faith; and a tender feeling of her corruptions, but cannot yet comprehend a total deliverance from them. But oh my ignorance! What shall I do with her' She also reported: 'Mr. T---, of Waterford, seems now in earnest; I had two letters from him. He has bought an horse for Brother Christian and sent him out in the circuit. He has joined the Society, and prays at the prayermeeting. God does graciously throw in a rich person here and there to bear the needful expenses of His poor followers.' See letters of October 28, 1771, and June 16, 1772.

[10] Clark was a leader in the Dublin Society. Wesley wrote on August 10 to warn him of unfriendly feeling towards the preachers and as to whether one preacher could do the work in Dublin.

[11] Miss Bolton had said on May 15: 'I have thought, suppose I am speaking to one newly justified, who feels the love of God shed abroad in his heart, and who has no desire contrary to the will of God, whether it would be expedient to exhort such a one to hold fast what he has attained, and to tell him he never need feel evil more' See Arminian Magazine, 1785, pp.224-5; and letter of July 1 to her.

[12] Miss Ball wrote to Wesley on May 12, telling him that after her late sickness 'Mr. Wells called on me: our conversation was of a more general character than I desired. After a time, he seemed to intimate that he thought I was not what he expected to find me. I was tempted to despair while he talked with me.... Since then, though I have walked more in the spirit of true religion, yet I feel the need I have of being watered every moment, and of using all the means of grace, as ever. See letter of February 21 to her.

[13] Mrs. Bennis reports on May 26 that Mrs. Dawson's husband and children had been ill. But 'this affliction has been made a blessing to her; she is now preparing to go to the salt water.' God had sent a blessing by Mr. Christian to the Society, which was in 'a happy, prosperous condition.' This had been helped by James Glassbrook, of Cork, whose 'deportment has gained him the hearts of all; and his manner of enforcing holiness makes it desirable even to its opponents.' She continues: 'That sower of discord, James Deaves, is expected here! May God frustrate his coming, or the evil which I dread from his visit. His conduct to Brothers Glassbrook and Homer, of Waterford, was so inconsistent, and I saw such mischief likely to proceed from it, that at my instance they lay the whole before you (which I now enclose). In cases which so materially affect the Church of Christ, and the evils resulting from which you may prevent, the wounding your feelings must be a secondary matter! God knows I would not wound them by this or any other disagreeable information, did I not think it much more a breach of duty to screen these circumstances from you.' Deaves had been stationed in Limerick in 1767, and retired in 1768. See letters of March 31 and November 3.

[14] Smith, the fourth preacher at Enniskillen, had probably been betrayed into some imprudent conduct. In 1772 he was set free from circuit work to travel through Ireland as a general missionary, and in 1774 was attacked on his way to Charlemont and died from his injuries. A wonderful account of his success as a missionary is given in Crookshank's Methodism in Ireland, i. 141, 191-9.

Wride was Assistant at Armagh. Thomas Dixon (who was at Athlone) entered the itinerancy in 1769, became a supernumerary in 1804, and died in 1820. John Wittam (born at Sutton, Yorks, where he died in 1818) was converted under William Grimshaw; he became a preacher in 1767, and was now at Newry. The Conference was held at Leeds on August 4.

[15] Miss Ball wrote to Wesley on July 1, 'in consequence of doubts having arisen in her mind as to her experience, and requesting an interpretation of Revelation iii. 12.'

[16] This letter is addressed to Thomas Taylor, who was Bredin's colleague in Manchester. Bredin was a Roman Catholic schoolmaster at Tullyvin, who died in 1819 after fifty years in the itinerancy He was appointed to Yarm at this Conference, and in 1773 to Aberdeen. Wesley calls him 'a weak brother'; but he proved a zealous and useful preacher. See Crookshank's Methodism in Ireland, i. 337; and letter of March 12, 1775.

[17] Richard Hill, eldest brother of Rowland Hill, published A Review of all the Doctrines taught by the Rev. Mr. John Wesley. A copy was presented to Wesley on July 11, when he wrote in his Journal, v. 476, 'This is the third time he has fallen upon me without fear or wit.' The Conference met at Leeds on August 4. See Green's Anti-Methodist Publications, No. 449; Tyerman's Wesley's Designated Successor, p. 234.

Mark Davis, a well-educated person of a respectable Dublin family, became one of Wesley's preachers in 1756. He ceased from travelling in 1769, and probably entered the Church of England. Wesley would have welcomed him back if means could have been provided. He visited his 'old friend' on January 5, 1790. See Journal, iv. 275n., viii. 36; Crookshank's Methodism in Ireland, i. 108; and letter of May 30, 1773.

Dr. William Boyce, organist of the Chapel Royal, was master to Charles Wesley jun. John Wesley 'enriched' his nephew with Boyce's three volumes of cathedral music. When he died in 1779 Charles Wesley wrote some memorial verses, which are given in his Journal, ii. 410:

Thy generous, good, and upright heart,

Which sighed for a celestial lyre,

Was tuned on earth to bear a part

Symphonious with the heavenly choir,

Where Handel strikes the warbling strings

And plausive angels clap their wings.

[18] John Mason was assistant in Liverpool; Jeremiah Robertshaw was at Whitehaven.

[19] Jane Salkeld, to whom this letter is addressed at Blackdean, was a schoolmistress in Weardale; of whose work among the children Wesley gives an extended account in the Journal. Forty-three children had been gathered in, and thirty of them 'are rejoicing in the love of God. The chief instrument God has used among these is Jane Salkeld, a schoolmistress, a young woman that is a pattern to all that believe.' She sent Wesley a beautiful account of her religious experience. She married Mr. Rodham, whose son sent a copy of the letter to the Wesleyan on April 18, 1846. See Journal, v. 464-72; Arminian Magazine, 1785, p. 335.

[20] This spirited defence of the preachers shows Wesley's pride in them and his care for their welfare. Peter Jaco was the new preacher in Dublin. Patrick Geoghegan was a trustee of the Widows' Alms Houses adjoining Whitefriar Street Chapel. He did not approve the strict views as to doctrine and discipline, and made unwarranted charges against the treasurer of the Alms Houses. See Crookshank's Methodism in Ireland, i. 239, 312-13; compare letter of May 19.

[21] Charles Wesley's daughter was thirteen, and her uncle was anxious that she should have such a friend as Miss Bolton. This letter was resented by the descendants of the Rev. Barnabas Shaw to the Cape Town Circuit in 1897.

[22] Mrs. Bennis wrote on August 8 from Waterford: 'This Society is increased in number and grace since I was last here; I do meet a band and a class. We all speak with freedom. I love the people, and I believe they love me. There are three preachers in the circuit, and all have work enough. James Deaves is now in Limerick, but as yet quiet. Why did you not write to himself also' See letter of June 16 to her.

[23] Wesley says on Tuesday, September 12, 1780, 'At the invitation of that excellent woman, Mrs. Turner, I preached about noon in her chapel in Trowbridge. As most of the hearers were Dissenters, I did not expect to do much good. However, I have done my duty: God will look to the event.' Joanna Turner was a daughter of John Cook, clothier. One of her nieces married Dr. Adam Clarke, and another married Joseph Butterworth, M.P. In her early days she was 'the ringleader in all the vain amusements of the town.' She wrote to Wesley: 'I am not, my dear sir, one of your Society; nor do I see in all things as you do. But I dare not think lightly of you on that account.' She died on December 24, 1784, in her fifty-third year; and her husband sent Wesley a Memoir of her by Mary Wells. See Journal, vi. 294; Arminian Magazine, 1798, P. 47; W.H.S. iv. 57-9.

[24] This letter appeared in Wesley's Works, but with variations from the original as preserved at the Iliff School of Theology, Denver, Colorado, which are of special interest. Great liberties were taken with some letters when preparing them for the Works, as is shown in the series sent to Mary Bishop, and names were often omitted whilst those concerned were alive.

Mrs. Bennis writes on October 18: 'I left the Waterford Society in a prosperous situation; but have found this in a decline and in confusion: the sower of tares has got amongst them. Oh how is it that the followers of Christ cannot speak and think and act in love.... I have had some late opportunities of Mrs. Dawson, and think her in a happy state.'

They took Wesley's advice about Captain Webb. Mrs. Bennis says on December 1: 'Our Society is once more readjusted; we all seem to be in love and in earnest. Captain Webb's visit has proved a blessing; our house was not large enough for the congregations; many outward hearers seem under awakenings. If we could now have a succession of strange preachers from the neighbouring circuits, perhaps poor Limerick might once more raise its head.' See letter of March 2, 1773, to Joseph Benson.

[25] The long war and the poor harvests had caused much scarcity, and prices had risen to such an extent as to cause acute distress. Wesley spent part of December 31 in prayer, 'being greatly embarrassed by the necessities of the poor.' At Lewisham on January 20, 1773, he revised and enlarged this letter and published it as a pamphlet. The same letter was sent to the Leeds Mercury on December 29. See Journal, v. 495; and letter of January 21, 1773.

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