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Welcome to BOOK OF DAYS OF JOHN WESLEY.

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Section 24
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[Wesley's Parents 1/6]
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Samuel and Susanna Wesley were married November 12, 1688.

Samuel Wesley was the "son and grandson of clergy, converted to the Church of England while in Oxford and became a priest who served the parish at Epworth in the watery flats of Lincolnshire for over forty years." He was not either a great poet nor scholar but had a genuine love for poetry and academics. Most of his scholarly efforts were destroyed in the fire at the Epworth rectory.

Two major problems plagued his life: he was not a good manager of money, and sometimes ended up in debter's prison in Lincoln. He was overly strict with his parishioners and they resented it. From time to time they would "injure his animals, destroy his crops, and, it was suspected, even setting fire to the rectory in 1709."

            from  Charles Yrigoyen, Jr.  John Wesley:
                    Holiness of Heart and Life, 3-4.
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                Conrad Archer, Bishop Texas


 [Wesley's Parents 2/6]
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     "Susanna Annesley Wesley was an unusual person and is considered by many
the stronger of the two parents.  She was a committed Christian and
parson's wife. Her father, Samuel Annesley, was a dissenter with Puritan
and Presbyterian backgrounds.

    Susanna managed the household, bore and raised the children,
and gave them their education.  She read widely, expecially religious and
theological literature, and conducted prayer meetings in the rectory in
her husband's absence.  Susanna and Samuel did not always agree on matters
of religion and politics, which sometimes created serious tensions in the
rectory.  The family's poverty and the continual birth and deaths of
children were other sources of stress."
            from  Charles Yrigoyen, Jr.  John Wesley:
                    Holiness of Heart and Life, 4.
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                Conrad Archer, Bishop Texas

 [Wesley's Parents 3/6]
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     As a rector, Samuel was a policemen of morals, and Jack (John's
nickname) could remember times when his father had publicly
embarrassed parishioners who violated "the code."  But, the battle
of wills between his father and Hetty --- Jack's brilliant, vivacious,
and mischievous  sister, was a sad chapter.

     For a time after being ordained a priest, Jack had served as his
father's assistant at Epworth.  During those days, Hetty ran away
from home with the man she loved, after Samuel refused to let her
marry him.  Lovely Hetty returned home a few days later, broken
in spirit, agreeing to marry whomever her father chose.
Inexplicably, Samuel chose William Wright -- a man whose chief
ability in life was to put away huge amounts of gin.   It became the
plight of Hetty to sit at  home waiting for the arrival of her
drunken husband.  

     The old  man's rashness became the subject of a not-too-thinly
veiled sermon Jack soon preached,  "The Charity Due to Wicked
Persons."  Samuel understood and, to his credit, patched things up
with his daughter, but great damage had been done.   Soon Jack
would head back to London, but his love for Hetty and her situation
weighted his soul.
            --- from Lydel Sims,  The Burning Thirst
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                Conrad Archer, Bishop Texas

 [Wesley's Parents 4/6]
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A Prayer of Susanna Wesley:

You, O Lord, have called us to watch and pray.
Therefore, whatever may be the sin against which we pray,
make us careful to watch against it it,
and so have reason to expect that our prayers will be answered.
In order to perform this duty aright,
grant us grace to preserve a sober, equal temper,
and sincerety to pray for your assistance.  Amen.

        from Book of Worship, UMC, #528
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            Conrad Archer, Bishop Texas

 [Weslesy's Parents 5/6]
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    Samuel wrote this tribute to Susanna, date unknown.
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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.
Whate'er 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's households rarely she'd incline,
Her house her pleasure was, and she was mine.
Rarely abroad, or never but with me,
Or when my pity called, or charity.

        from Susan Pellowe's A WESLEY
            FAMILY BOOK OF DAYS
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         Conrad Archer; Bishop, Texas

[Wesley's Parents 6/6]
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   In 1697 Susanna and Samuel and four children moved to the
rectory at Epworth.  Rebecca Lamar Harmon has said that "Few
minister's wives have ever looked out on a more desolate landscape
that did Susanna as she viewed the environs of their new rectory
for the first time---dreary fenlands interspersed with narrow
ditches, a scattering of village dwellings, the church across the field
a little way, and a few trees bending in a relentless
wind."

   The parsonage had three stories with a thatched roof and a
small garden.  Certainly better than where they had been living in
South Ormsby, but very isolated from the world.  There was not a
road to Epworth, which sat some twenty or so miles inland from
the northwest English coast.  London lay over a 150 miles to the
south.  

    The countryside was subject to flooding which further isolated
Lincolnshire.  The fenland people there were rough, uneducated
and suspicious of new people and outsiders.  But the pay was 200
pounds, and offer some hope that Samuel might get out of debt.
from  Rebecca Lamar Harmon, SUSANNA MOTHER OF THE
    WESLEYS,  15.
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