1728

Editor's Introductory Notes

There is now a gap of two years and nine months in the letters. The Rector sent an account of Mrs. Wesley's health in July 1727, which made her son write what his father describes as 'your compliments of condolence and congratulation to your mother on the supposition of her near approaching demise.' Her husband added: 'She has now and then some very sick fits, yet I hope the sight of you would revive her.' That letter has not survived. Wesley reached Epworth in August, and was his father's curate till he returned to Oxford in July 1728. After taking priest's orders in September, he went back to Lincolnshire, where he remained (save for two months in Oxford) as curate at Wroot until November 1729, when he came into residence at Lincoln College. See Stevenson's Wesley Family, p. 128; Moore's Wesley, i. 148-50.