Susanna Wesley (Clarke 1886)/Chapter 3

by Eliza Clarke

CHAPTER III.

EARLY MARRIED LIFE.

Susanna Wesley must have been an economical woman and a good housekeeper, for she and her husband lived for two years in London lodgings, during which time their eldest son Samuel was born, and managed to pay their way and keep perfectly free from debt on their small income. The young husband now entered into a literary project, which he hoped would add considerably to his resources. He joined Mr. Dunton and a few others in establishing the Athenian Gazette, a weekly publication, that lived for some years. The meetings of the coadjutors were held at stated periods at Smith's Coffee-house in George Yard, now George Street, near the Mansion House. It is calculated that during the existence of this periodical Mr. Wesley contributed about two hun- dred articles to its pages, and it is from the pen of one of his fellow- workers, Charles Gildon who afterwards wrote a history of the "Athenian Society"-that we have the best sketch of what manner of man Susanna's husband was in his early prime.

"He was a man of profound knowledge, not only of the Holy Scriptures, of the Councils, and of the Fathers, but also of every other art that comes within those called liberal. His zeal and ability in giving spiritual directions were great. With invincible power he confirmed the wavering and confuted heretics. Beneath the genial warmth of his wit the most barren subject became fertile and divertive. His style was sweet and manly, soft without satiety, and learned without pedantry. His temper and conversation were affable. His compassion for the sufferings of his fellow-creatures was as great as his learning and his parts. Were it possible for any man to act the part of a universal priest, he would certainly deem it his duty to take care of the spiritual good of all mankind. In all his writings and actions he evinced a deep concern for all that bear the glorious image of their Maker, and was so apostolical in his spirit, that pains, labours, watchings, and prayers were far more delightful to him than honours to the ambitious, wealth to the miser, or pleasure to the voluptuous."

Looking back at this distance of time on Samuel Wesley's literary work, it is evident that he was a learned theologian, and had the gift of fluent versification. His mind and style were narrowed by being continually bent on controversial theology, and he wrote so much and so rapidly in one groove, in order to earn the wherewithal to bring up his large family, that he never attained the high standard of which his youth gave such fair promise. But he was a good man, and a faithful pastor of souls in the obscure corner of Lincolnshire where his lot was afterwards cast; although, had he remained in London, it is probable that he would have come more to the front, and have become one of the shining intellectual lights of his day. The Marquis of Normanby had in some way heard of the young divine and his straitened circumstances, and, in 1690, when the little parish of South Ormsby became vacant by the death of the rector, he mentioned Mr. Wesley to the Massingberds, who then, as now, were lords of the manor and patrons of the living. Their offer of it was at once made and readily accepted, and regarded as a step in advance. The stipend was fifty pounds a year ; there was a house to live in, though a very poor one, and, as the pastoral work was by no means onerous, there was the prospect of abundant leisure for writing. The new incumbent was just eight- and-twenty, his wife was in her twenty-second year, and their babe only four months old, when they left London for the country place that was to be their future home, and with which their memories are indelibly connected. The monotony of country life and the utter absence of the excitement to which Mr. Wesley had been accustomed must very soon have chafed his spirit, though he tried to be thankful, as may be seen from his own description : -

"In a mean cot, composed of reeds and clay,

Wasting in sighs the uncomfortable day:

Near where the inhospitable Humber roars,

Devouring by degrees the neighbouring shores.

Let earth go where it will, I'11 not repine,

Nor can unhappy be, while Heaven is mine.'

There were only thirty-six houses and about two hundred and sixty inhabitants in the parish, wherein the ancient church of St. Leonard stood on rising ground just above the parsonage. The young couple arrived in June, and got settled before the winter came. As the months passed, and little Samuel began to walk, his mother was distressed to observe that, though healthy and extremely intelligent, he showed no sign of talking. This made her very anxious, and the care of a child who she feared was dumb, as well as the very natural tenderness for a first-born son, caused " Sammy," as they called him, to be her favourite, a predilection which she, as well as others, fully recognised. In 1691 a little girl was born, and named after her mother, and in January of the following year Emilia made her appearance. In April 1693 the infant Susanna died, making the first break in the circle. In 1694 twin boys, Annesley and Jedediah, were born, but died in infancy, and a few months after their death came another girl, who was also named Susanna, and lived to a ripe old age. Mary, the last born at South Ormsby, through a fall became deformed and sickly ; so that it is evident that Mrs. Wesley's hands were always full and her strength sorely tried.

It might have been imagined that in this remote village no social difficulties were likely to arise; but it was not so. The Marquis of Normanby, like many others of his time, was a man of sadly loose morals, and kept a "lady" at a house in South Ormsby. She took a great fancy to the Rector's pretty wife, and would fain have been very intimate with her. Mrs. Wesley, secure in her own position as a happy wife and mother, does not seem to have harshly discouraged her fallen sister ; but her hot-tempered and high-handed husband was not going to endure it, and, it is averred, coming in one day when the peccant woman was sitting with his wife, he handed her out of the house in a sufficiently peremptory manner. John Wesley says that this conduct gave such offence to the Marquis as to necessitate his father's resignation of the living ; but this statement is not borne out by facts. If the story were absolutely correct, the Marquis must have recognised the natural indignation of a gentleman, and have respected him accordingly, for Mr. Wesley did not cease to be his private chaplain, nor to dedicate books to him and the Marchioness, nor did the nobleman forget to mention the Rector of South Ormsby at Court. The actual rencontre may very possibly have been with some woman connected with Lord Castleton, who rented the Hall and lived a very dissolute life there. It all happened long before John Wesley was born, so he may easily have been mistaken as to the facts.

When Samuel was between four and five years old his parents were relieved of all anxiety about his speech. He was very fond of the cat, and would carry it about and often get away with it into quiet corners, where we may presume that the other little ones did not follow to molest either pussy or her juvenile master. One day he was so long out of sight that his mother grew uneasy. She hunted all over the house and garden, and at length, while calling his name, she heard a voice saying, " Here am I, mother!" It came from under the table, and, stooping down, she saw Sammy and his cat. From this time forth he spoke as well as other children: Mrs. Wesley's thankfulness may be imagined.

It was in 1693 that Mr. Wesley published his heroic poem in ten books, entitled The Life of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and dedicated it to Queen Mary. It was not published by the friendly brother-in-law, Dunton, but "printed for Charles Harper, at the Flower-de-Luce, over against St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleet Street; and Benjamin Motte, Aldersgate Street." In truth, Dunton did not think it would improve its author's reputation, and denounced it as "intolerably dull," an opinion shared by Pope. The present generation would certainly endorse their views ; yet it went through a second edition in 1697, and was reprinted in a revised and abridged form a century later. The most interesting passage, and the only one it is desirable to quote here, is Mr. Wesley's sweet and appreciative portrait of the wife to whom he had then been married about four years :-

"She graced my humble roof and blest my life,

Blest me by a far greater name than wife;

Yet still I bore an undisputed sway,

Nor was 't her task, but pleasure to obey:

Scarce thought, much less could act, what I denied.

In our low house there was no room for pride;

Nor need I e'er direct what still was right,

She studied my convenience and delight.

Nor did I for her care ungrateful prove,

But only used my power to show my love:

Whatever she asked I gave without reproach or grudge,.

For still she reason asked, and I was judge.

All my commands requests at her fair hands,

And her requests to me were all commands.

To other thresholds rarely she'd incline:

Her house her pleasure was, and she was mine;

Rarely abroad, or never but with me,

Or when by pity called, or charity."

In 1694 the Marquis of Normanby did his best both with the Queen and Archbishop Tillotson to recommend Mr. Wesley for the Bishopric of an Irish diocese, two of which were then vacant. Considering how much Irish blood ran in the veins of the Wesleys, and also that their connections were people of position in the Emerald Isle, he would probably have been well placed in such a see, and the difference it would have made to his family would have been incalculable. Possibly neither Queen Mary nor the Archbishop knew of these circumstances, but simply thought that a clergyman at thirty-two years of age was too young, and the pastor of two hundred and fifty country people too inexperienced, for such a post. The Queen, however, did not forget him, and it is said that it was in consequence of a wish expressed shortly before her last illness that the living of Epworth was offered to him.

It was just before leaving South Ormsby that Mrs. Wesley had the grief of losing her father, Dr. Annesley, who died, after five months' illness, on the last day of 1696. The news, of course, did not travel very quickly, nor was it unexpected ; but it was none the less keenly felt. She was then twenty-seven, and expecting her eighth child, only one of her family having been seen by its grandfather. She was a strong believer in communion between the spirits of the departed and those dear to them who are still in the body, and throughout the remainder of her life loved to think that her father was far nearer to her than while she was in Lincolnshire and he in the flesh in Spital Yard.