In Februar}', 1738, the brothers W^esley were intro-
WESLEY
908
AVESLEY
1343 William de Wellesley,- Ist Barou of VVellesley, Co. Somerset.
Walroud, — 2d Bai'uu
PEDIGREE OF THE WESLEY FAMILY.
Married Alice,
-daiigliier of Sir Joliu
Trevelyau.
— Lady Geraldiue Fitzgerald.
Gerald, — :>d Uanin, ilepiived of liis title by Henry IV.
Artleuse—
Sir Hush-
-Anue Piirot. .
Jollll, a clergyman.
ofKildare, froiu whom the Duke of Wellington descends.
1
-Daughter of Sir Thomas Ogilvy.
Sir Hichard de Wfllesley — ' — Married to Joau
de Castlemartin,
and had issue. Arthur Wesley,
whose descend- ants took the name of Porter, from whom the celebrated writ- ers Ann and Jane Porter descended.
■Married to Jane U'estley ofWestley Hall, County Salop.
John, Rector of Langton Maltravers.
-Lady Grizelle de Talbot.
Richard D. S. P.
William — de Wellesley.
Walter Wesley. —
— Gwendaline de Courtenay.
—Daughter of Sir Paul Tracy.
Gwin, Sir W. Echliu.
France?, married to Robert Wellesley, of Dauaran.
Sir Herbert Wesley, — or Wellesley, of Westleigh, Co. Devon.
—Elizabeth de Wellesley of Daujrau.
William Harphan
Weslev, or— — D. of John Eden D. S. P. Wellesley. | of West Duckland.
Rev. Bartholomew Wesley of - Charmouth.
—Daughter of Sir Henry CoUey of Kildare.
Arthur D. S.P.I
William
Thomas B. A.
Francis Wesley,
died 1S54,
aged 90 years.
George
Ann, daughter
of Sir Thomas John Wesley — Pigott. of Winterborn, 1 Whitechnrch.
1st, Miss Pelham,
no issue. 2d, his kinswoman, daughter of Rev. S. Wesley of Epworlh.
Frederic
and
Mary.
—Miss White.
Timothy, y^^
Matthew.
—Miss Bamfylde.
Henry D. S. P.
Alfred-
William D. S. P.
—Anne Lillie.
1 M I I I I I ^Ll^li^L
cc t?3 > i^ 2^ 2 s; =* — > ? S W
C 3 -
►^ = s
^ ~ — .
s ^ i't-'
[All living.]
18 Rev. Charles-
Weslev, born
ITltT, died 1788.
Charles fg Wesley ^ 3 D. S. P. » g
c s- a (T ra s
"5 E'i 2 S 5 g "^j
J5 TC °
1 Samuel,
married
Miss Berry.
Died 1739.
C o
FOCNDEK
or Metuodism.
—Sarah Gwvnue of Garth, d. 1822, aged 96.
1 C. L. Martin, |_
2 Sarah Suter. i
Sarah, died at Bristol, 1828, aged 76.
Rev. D.D.,
Roy
Chas. Wesley, of the Chapel
al St. James. Died 1859.
KH
•^M
Eliza, still unm
Maria arried.
^~. John
grg William S 3
o D. S. P. 8 P
?" 1862. .">
Frederic Newcn- ham, and leaves Issue
William Dennis, Esq.
O g
— 1 S. Sabastian, Mus. Doc, m.
— 2 Rosalind, married to Glenn.
— 3 Eliza, unmarried. I — 4 .Mathias Erasmus, m. to
tH — 5 John, m. [Jeffreys.
—6 Thomasine, m. to Martin.
—7 Robert, m.
[All living, 1870.],
duced to Peter Biihler, the IMoravian. On the 20th, Charles began to instruct his friend in English, and Pe- ter in return taught him the plan of salvation by faith. It was on Whitsunday, May 21, 1738, his heart having been prepared by sickness, that this devout and labori- ous priest of the Church of England obtained the sense of pardon and adoption. It was just a week before his brother received the same blessing. Henceforth, what had been a labor of conscience and duty was to be one
also of joy and love. He at once commenced addressing small audiences in the houses of friends, having some- times as a devout hearer Robert Ainsworth, author of the Latin Dictionm-y. He was soon appointed curate of .St. Mary's, Islington, London, which was the only preferment Charles ^Yesley ever had in the Church of England, although to the end of his long life one of her firmest adherents. His faithful ministry speedily pro- cured his dismissal. " He was literally," says Dr. Ad-
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909
WESLEY
ams, " expelled by violence, and that violence received the sanction of the diocesan" (7'//e Poet Preacher, p. 67). In June, 1739, he was summoned to appear before the archbishop of Canterbury to answer the charge of preach- ing in churches to which he had no canonical ap[)oint- ment. The learned prelate angrily dismissed the youth- ful preacher, and forbade the clergy to permit the Wes- leys to preach in their churches. On tlic Sunday after Dr. Potter's interdiction, Charles Wesley preached to ten thousand people in Moortields from the words •' Come unto me, all ye that travail," etc. Henceforth this ar- dent Churchman, contrary to all the traditions of his training and life, baptized with the spirit of consecra- tion, entered upon that work which, under Wesley and Whitefield,and Cownley and Hopper, was to stir through and through the rotten society and dead churches of England from Land's End to the Tweed. From this time until 1756, Charles W^esley itinerated throughout England and Wales, in delicate health, and amid bodily iufirniities, but with a zeal which hardships never abated, and with a courage which opposition never quelled. Charles Wesley was no muscular, iron-hearted Cromwell ; his spirit was gentle, his sensibilities tender; yet, near to martyrdom, he over and over again faced mobs and held his ground "until his clothes were torn to tatters and the blood ran down his face in streams" (Daniels, III. Hist, of Meth. p. 3"26). For the thrilling but sicken- ing details of these adventures, see his biographers and the historj' of the early Methodist movement.
After 1756, it appears, according to Jackson, that Charles Wesley ceased the active itinerant life. His labors now became chiefly confined to London and Bris- tol, with visits to intermediate and surrounding places. The reasons for tliis change were, his marriage, the cares and attractions of domestic life, and the fact that, differ- ing so widely from his brother in points of Church or- der, he could not regulate the affairs of the societies sat- islactorily to all concerned. (The preachers and mem- bers almost invariably agreed with John.) He therefore thought it best to leave the oversight with John, whose unrivalled administrative ability he could not fail to gee, in fact acknowledged. (See Jackson, Life of C. Wesley, N. Y. ed., p. 548). " The effect of his retirement from the itinerancy was the reverse of favorable, so far as he was personally concerned. His mind was natu- rally inclined to view things in a gloomy aspect, but amid the excitement, the change, the toil of an itine- rant ministry, he had no time to be melancholy. . . . The manifest success which attended his preaching filled him with unutterable gratitude; and while all his pow- ers were engaged in this work, he enjoyed a heaven upon earth. When he ceased to travel, he was at leisure to cherish his painful forebodings; croakers and busy- bodies tormented him with letters complaining of the ambition of the preachers, and of the alienation of the people from the Church; and the pernicious leaven of mysticism which he had imbibed at Oxford, and from whicli his mind had never been thoroughly purged, re- gained its ascendency over him so as often to interfere with his spiritual enjoyments: yet his pietj' and integ- rity of purpose were unimpeachable. Often was he in agonies of fear lest the Methodists should leaVe the Church when he and his brother were dead, while John was as happy as an angel, flying through the three king- doms, sounding the trumpet of the world's jubilee and joyfully witnessing every successive year the steady ad- vancement of the work of God" (Jackson, ut sup., p. 549). He still remained with the Methodists, and still threw off his matchless hymns. In 1771-72 he finally removed to London. In 1777 he frequently visited the unfortu- nate Dr. Dodd, condemned to die for forgery, and from his pen came A Prayer for Br. Dodd under Condemna- lion. In 1780, in age and feebleness, he attended at Bristol his last Conference. Gradually he weakened un- til he quietly passed awa_v, at No. 1 Chesterfield Street, London, March 29, 1788. His body rests in the old Marylebone church-yard. •