Susanna Wesley

Susanna Annesley was born on January 20, 1669, in London, the youngest of the twenty-five children of Samuel Annesley, a well-known Puritan minister, and his wife, Mary. Her father was a graduate of Oxford, who had been a chaplain in the Parliamentary navy, and who became the pastor of St. Giles, Cripplegate, in London. In 1662, he was ejected from the Church of England with two thousand other ministers who would not conform. He continued to preach to a gathering of Nonconformists, in his home and then in a meeting house. He was a man of learning and of piety, known for his wide charity. Susanna grew up in a large household, which was devout and busy. She was educated at home, by her father and her older sisters. She read the Bible and many of the works of the Puritans. She learned Latin, Greek and French, and she studied theology. By the age of thirteen, she was thinking for herself on the questions of faith and church order.

At that age, she left the Nonconformist church of her parents and joined the Church of England. She was strongly drawn to it, after a long study of the matter. Her father was not displeased, and he gave her his blessing. In 1688, at the age of nineteen, she married Samuel Wesley, a young clergyman, who had been brought up as a Nonconformist but who had joined the Church of England. He was a man of ability, a poet and a writer, and a High Churchman. He was also impractical, impulsive and poor at business. They settled for a time in London and then in the Lincolnshire parish of Epworth, where he became the rector in 1697. They lived in the large rectory, in the fens. Their stipend was small, and they were often in debt.

They had nineteen children, of whom nine died in infancy. Ten survived, among them Samuel, Hetty, Mary, Emilia, Anne, Martha, Kezia, John and Charles. She bore the loss of the children with a firm faith, though it caused her great sorrow. She taught all the children herself, as there was no school. She kept a strict system. Each child was taught to read at the age of five, in a single day, beginning with the alphabet. She chose the day of the child's birthday and began the lessons the day after. They learned their letters in the morning and then began to read the first chapter of Genesis. The school ran for six hours a day, in the rectory. She drew up a plan for the education of each child. She insisted on order, regular hours and obedience. She believed that the will of the child must be broken early, so that the child may be taught to obey God. She was firm and often severe, though she was also loving.

She also set aside time to talk with each child alone. She gave one hour each week to each, to speak of his spiritual state. John, who was one of the younger children, said that he had his mother's attention on Thursday evenings. She taught them the catechism and the creeds. She wrote a number of handbooks for the use of her children, including an exposition of the Apostles' Creed and of the Ten Commandments. She was in many ways a theologian. She wrote in letters to her sons about the questions of religion. She advised John, when he was at Oxford, on matters of conscience and of the Christian life. It is said that his later method of discipline and prayer was formed in her home.

Her life in Epworth was hard. The family was poor, and the people of the parish were rough. Samuel was often away, at the convocation, in London. In 1705, he was imprisoned for debt, at Lincoln Castle. She had to manage the household alone. In 1709, the rectory burned to the ground, probably set on fire by an arsonist. The family escaped, but the youngest, John, who was five, was left in an upstairs room. He was rescued at the last moment from a window, by a human ladder of neighbors. She saw it as a providence. She wrote that she was to be more particularly careful of the soul of this child, whom God had so mercifully provided for. John later spoke of himself as a brand plucked from the burning.

In 1712, while her husband was in London, she began to hold a Sunday evening meeting in the rectory kitchen, for her children and servants. She read sermons and prayed. The neighbors heard about it and asked to come. The numbers grew to about two hundred, more than were in the church. The curate objected, and her husband wrote to ask her to stop. She replied with courtesy and with firmness. She said that she would not stop unless he commanded it so that she could answer for it before God. He did not command it. The meeting went on. It was an early form of the small group, which later became the basis of Methodism.

Her marriage was not smooth. In 1701, she and Samuel quarreled over a political question, as she refused to say amen to a prayer for the king, William, because she held that he was not the lawful king. He left the home for a year. He returned after the fire in his study. She had a strong mind and spoke her thoughts. She was also a woman of the deepest loyalty. After Samuel's death in 1735, she lived with her children, and she moved to London, where she lived in the Foundery, the first Methodist meeting house, with her son John. She was a counselor to the young movement. In 1739, at the age of seventy, she had a spiritual experience in which she said that she received an assurance of her forgiveness.

She died on July 23, 1742, in London, at the age of seventy-three. Her sons John and Charles were at her bedside, and they sang a hymn of praise. She was buried in Bunhill Fields. She had told them to sing a psalm of praise to God when she was released. Her life shows the effect of a mother who put the best of herself into her children. Her sons carried the gospel across the world.