Disturbances, Supposed to Be Preternatural, at the Parsonage-House in Epworth
MR. SAMUEL WESLEY’S JOURNAL.
u .in Account of Noises and Disturbances in my House at Epworth, Lincolnshire, in December and January, 1716.
“From the first of December, my children and servants heard many strange noises, groans, knockings, &c. in every story, and most of the rooms of my house. But 1 hearing nothing of it myself, they would not tell me for some time, because, according to the vulgar opinion, if it boded any ill to me, I could not hear it. When it increased, and the family could not easily conceal it, they told me of it.
“My daughters Susannah and Ann were below stairs in the dining room; and heard first at the doors, then over their heads, and the night after a knocking under their feet, though nobody was in the chambers or below them. The like they and my servants heard in both the kitchens, at the door against the partition, and over them. The maid servant heard groans as of a dying man. My daughter Emilia coming down stairs to draw up the clock, and lock the doors at ten at night, as usual, heard under the staircase a sound among some bottles there, as if they had been all dashed to pieces; but when she looked all was safe.
“Something, like the steps of a man, was heard going up and down stairs, at all hours of the night, and vast rumblings below stairs, and in the garrets. My man, who lay in the garret, heard some one come slaring through the garret to his chamber, rattling by his side, as if against his shoes, though he had none there; at other times walking up and down stairs, when all the house were in bed, and goblihg like a turkey-cock. Noises were heard in the nursery, and all the other chambers; knocking first at the feet of the bed and behind it; and a sound like that of dancing in a matted chamber, next the nursery, when the door was locked, and nobody in it.
“My wife would have persuaded them it was rats within doors, and some unlucky people knocking without; till at last we heard several loud knocks in our own chamber, on my side of the bed; but till, I think, the 21st at night, I heard nothing of it. That night I was waked a little before one by nine distinct very loud knocks, which seemed to be in the next room to our’s, with a sort of a pause at every third stroke. I thought it might be somebody without the house; and having got a stout mastiff, hoped he would soon rid me of it.
“The next night I heard six knocks, but not so loud as the former I know not whether it was in the morning after Sunday the 23d. when about seven my daughter Emily called her mother into the nursery, and told her she might now hear the noises there. She went in, and heard it at the bedstead, then under the bed, then at the head of it. She knocked, and it answered her. She looked under the bed, and thought something ran from thence, but could not well tell of what shape, but thought it most like a badger.
il The next night but one we were awakedaabout one by the noises, which were so violent, it was in vain to think of sleep while they continued. I rose, and my wife would rise with me. We went into every chamber, and down stairs; and generally as we went into one room, we heard it in that behind us, though all the family had been in bed several hours. When we were going down stairs, and at the bottom of them, we heard, as Emily had done before, a clashing among the bottles, as if they had been broke all to pieces, and another sound distinct from it, as if a peck of money had been thrown down before us. The same, three of my daughters heard at another time.
“We went through the hall into the kitchen, when our mastiff came whining to us, as he did always after the first night of its coming; for then he barked violently at it, but was silent afterwards, and seemed more afraid than any of the children. We still heard it rattle and thunder in every room above or behind us, locked as well as open, except my study, where as yet it never came. After two, we went to bed, and were pretty quiet the rest of the night.
“Wednesday night, December 26, after or a little before ten, my daughter Emilia heard the signal of its beginning to play, with which she was perfectly acquainted; it was like the strong winding up of a jack. She called us; and I went into the nursery, where it used to be most violent. The rest of the children were asleep. It began with knocking in the kitchen underneath, then seemed to be at the bed’s feet, then under the bed, at last at the head of it. I went down stairs, and knocked with my stick against the joists of the kitchen. It answered me as often and as loud as I knocked; but then I knocked as I usually do at my door, 1 — 2 3 4 5 6 — 7, but this puzzled it, and it did not answer, or not in the same method; though the children heard it do the same exactly twice or thrice after
“I went up stairs, and found it still knocking hard, though with some respite, sometimes under the bed, sometimes at the bed’s head. I observed my children that they were frighted in their sleep, and trembled very much till it waked them. I stayed there alone, bid them go to sleep, and sat at the bed’s feet by them, when the noise began again. I asked it what it was, and why it disturbed innocent children, and did not come to me in my study, if it had any thing to say to me. Soon after it gave one knock on the outside of Lie house. All the rest were within, and knocked off for that night.
“I went out of doors, sometimes alone, at others with company, and walked round the house, but could see or hear nothing. Several nights the latch of our lodging chamber would be lifted up very often, when all were in bed. One night, when the noise was great in the kitchen, and on a deal partition, and the door in the yard, the latch whereof was often lifted up, my daughter Emilia went and held it fast on the inside: but it was still lifted up, and the door pushed violently against her, though nothing was to be seen on the outside.
“When we were at prayers, and came to the prayers for King George and the Prince, it would make a great noise over our heads constantly, whence some of the family called it a Jacobite. I have been thrice pushed by an invisible power, once against the corner of my desk in the study, a second time against the door of the matted chamber, a third time against the right side of the frame of - my study door, as I was going in.
“1 followed the noise into almost every room in the house, both by day and by night, with lights and without, and have sat alone for some time, and when I heard the noise, spoke to it to tell me what it was, but never heard any articulate voice, and only once or twice two or three feeble squeaks, a little louder than the chirping cf a bird: but not like the noise of rats, which I have often heard.
“I had designed on Friday, December the 28th, to make a visit to a friend, Mr. Downs, at Normandy, and stay some days with him: but the noises were so boisterous on Thursday night, that I did not care to leave my family. So I went to Mr. Hoole, of Haxey, and desired his company on Friday night. He came; and it began after ten, a little later than ordinary. The younger children were gone to bed, the rest of the family and Mr. Hoole were together in the matted chamber. I sent the servants down to fetch in some fuel, went with them, and staid in the kitchen till they came in. When they were gone, I heard loud noises against the doors and partition; and at length the usual signal, though somewhat after the time. I had never heard it before: but knew it by the description my daughter had given me. It was much like the turning about of a windmill when the wind changes. When the servants returned, I went up to the company, who had heard the other noises below, but not the signal. We heard all the knocking as usual, from one chamber to another, but at its going off, like the rubbing of a beast against the wall: but from that tirae’tiU January the 24th, we were quiet op mr. wesley’s ancestors.
“Having received a letter from Samuel the day before relating to it, I read what I had written of it to my family; and this day at morning prayer the family heard the usual knocks at the prayer for the King. At night they were more distinct, both in the prayer tor the King, and that for the Prince; and one very loud knock at the amen was heard by my wife, and most of my children, at the inside of my bed. I heard nothing myself. After nine, Robert Brown sitting alone by the fire in the back kitchen, something came out of the copper hole like a rabbit, but less, and turned round five times very swiftly. Its ears lay flat upon its neck, and its little scut stood straight up. He ran after it with the tongs in his hands; but when he could find nothing, he was frighted, and went to the maid in the parlour.
u On Friday, the 23th, having prayers at Church, I shortened, as usual, those in the family at morning, omitting the confession, absolution, and Prayers for the King and Prince. I observed, when this is done, there is no knocking. I therefore used them one morning for a trial; at the name of King George, it began to knock, and did the same when I prayed for the Prince. Two knocks I heard, but took no notice after prayers, till after all who were in the room, ten persons besides me, spoke of it, and said they heard it. No noise at all the rest of the Prayers.
“Sunday, January 27. Two soft strokes at the morning Prayers for King George, above stairs.
“Addenda.
u Friday, December 21. Knocking I heard first, I think, this night; to which disturbances, I hope, God will in His good time put an end.
u Sunday, December 23. Not much disturbed with the noises that are now grown customary to me.
“Wednesday, December 26. Sat up to hear noises. Strange! spoke to it, knocked off.
“Friday 28. The noises very boisterous and disturbing this night.
“Saturday 29- Not frighted, with the continued disturbance of my family.
“Tuesday, January 1, 1717. My family have had no disturbance since I went.”
NARRATIVE drawn up by Mr. John Wesley, and published by him in the Arminian Magazine.
When I was very young, I heard several letters read, wrote to my elder brother by my father, giving an account of strange Disturbances, which were in his house at Epworth, in Lincolnshire.
When I went down thither, in the year 1720, 1 carefully inquired into the particulars. I spoke to each of the persons who were then in the house, and took down what each could testify of his or her own knowledge. The sum of which was this.
On Dec. 2. 1716, while Robert Brown, my father’s servant, was sitting with one of the maids a little before ten at night, in the dining room which opened into the garden, they both heard one knocking at the door. Robert rose and opened it, but could see nobody. Quickly it knocked again, and groaned. “It is Mr. Turpine,” said Robert: “he has the stone, and uses to groan so.” He opened the door again twice or thrice, the knocking being twice or thrice repeated. But still seeing nothing, and being a little startled, they rose and went up to bed. When Robert came to the top of the garret stairs, he saw a handmill, which was at a little distance, whirled about very swiftly. When he related this he said, “Nought vexed me, but that it was empty. I thought, if it had but been full of malt he might have ground his heart out for me.” When he was in bed, he heard as it were the gobbling of a turkey-cock, close to the bedside: and soon after, the sound of one stumbling over his shoes and boots, but there were none there; he had them left below. The next day, he and the maid related these things to the other maid, who laughed heartily, and said, u What a couple of fools are you! I defy any thing to fright me.” After churning in the evening, she put the butter in the tray, and had no sooner carried it into the dairy, than she heard a knocking on the shelf where several puncheons of milk stood, first above the shelf, then below. She took the candle, and searched both above and below; but being able to find nothing, threw down butter, tray and all, and run away for life. The next evening between five and six o’clock my sister Molly, then about twenty years of age, sitting in the dining room, reading, heard as if it were the door that led into the hall open, and a person walking in, that seemed to have on a silk night-gown, rustling and trailing along. It seemed to walk round her, then to the door, then round again: but she could see nothing. She thought, “it signifies nothing to run away; for whatever it is, it can run faster than me.” So she rose, put her book under her arm, and walked slowly away. After sup-OP MR. WESLEv/s ANCESTORS.
per, she was sitting with my sister Sukey, (about a year older than her,) in one of the chambers, and telling her what had happened, she quite made light of it; telling her, “I wonder you are so easily frighted; I would fain see what would fright me.” Presently a knocking began under the table. She took the candle and looked, but could find nothing. Then the iron casement began to clatter, and the lid of a warming pan. Next the latch of the door moved up and down without ceasing. She started up, leaped into the bed without undressing, pulled the bed clothes over her head, and never ventured to look up till next morning. A night or two after, my sister Hetty, a year younger than my sister Molly, was waiting as usual between nine and ten, to take away my father’s candle, when she heard one coming down the garret stairs, walking slowly by her, then going down the best stairs, then up the back stnirs, and up the garret stairs. And at every step it seemed the house shook from top to bottom. Just then my father knocked. She went in, took his candle, and got to bed as fast as possible. In the morning she told this to my eldest sister, who told her. “You know, I believe none of these things. Pray let me take away the candle to-night, and I will find out the trick.” She accordingly took my sister Hetty’s place; and had no sooner taken away the candle, than she heard a noise below. She hastened down stairs to the hall, where the noise was. But it was then in the kitchen. She ran into the kitchen, where it was drumming on the inside of the screen. When she went round it was drumming on the outside, and so always on the side opposite to her. Then she heard a knocking at the back kitchen door. She ran to it; unlocked it softly; and when the knocking was repeated, suddenly opened it: but nothing was to be seen. As soon as she had shut it, the knocking began aijain. She opened it again, but could see nothing: when she went to shut the door, it was violently thrust against her; she let it fly open, but nothing appeared. She went again to shut it, and it was again thrust against her; but she set her knee and her shoulder to the door, forced it too, and turned the key. Then the knocking began again; but she let it go on, and went up to bed. However, from that time she was thoroughly convinced that there was no imposture in the affair.
The next morning my sister telling my mother what had happened, she said, “If I hear any thing myself, I shall know how to judge.” Soon after, she begged her to come into the nursery. She did, and heard in the corner of the room, as it were the violent rocking of a cradle; but no cradle had been there for some years. She was convinced it was preternatural, and earnestly prayed it might not disturb her in her own chamber at the hours of retirement; and it never did. She now thought it was proper to tell my father. But he was extremely angry, and said, “Sukey, I am ashamed of you: these boys and girls fright one another: but you are a woman of sense and should know better. Let me hear of it no more.”
At six in the evening, he had family prayers as usual. When he’ began the prayer for the king, a knocking began all round the room; and a thundering knock attended the Amen. The same was heard from this time every morning and evening, while the prayer for the king was repeated. As both my father and mother are now at rest, and incapable of being pained thereby, I think it my duty to furnish the serious reader with a key to this circumstance.
The year before King William died, my father observed my mother did not say Amen to the prayer for the king. She said she could not; for she did not believe the Prince of Orange was King. He vowed he never would cohabit with her till she did. He then took his horse, and rode away; nor did she hear any thing of him for a twelvemonth. He then came back, and lived with her as before. But I fear his vow was not forgotten before God.
Being informed that Mr. Hoole, the vicar of Haxey (an eminently pious and sensible man,) could give me some farther information, I walked over to him. He said, “Robert Brown came over to me, and told me, your father desired my company. Wrhen I came, he gave me an account of all that had happened; particularly the knocking during family prayer. But that evening (to my great satisfaction) we had no knocking at all. But between nine and ten a servant came in and said, ‘Old Jeffries is coming, (that was the name of one that died in the house,) ’ for I hear the signal.’ This they inform me was heard every night about a quarter before ten. it was toward the top of the house on the outside, at the north-east corner, resembling the loud creaking of a saw; or rather that of a windmill, when the body of it is turned about, in order to shift the sails to the wind. We then heard a knocking over our heads; and Mr. Wesley catching up a candle, said, ‘Come, Sir, now you shall hear for yourself.’ We went up stairs; he with much hope, and I (to say the truth”) with much fear. When we came into the nursery, it was knocking in the next room; when we were there, it was knocking in the nursery. And there it continued to knock, though we came in, particularly at the head of the bed (which was of wood) in which Miss Hetty and two of her younger sisters lay. Mr. Wesley, observing that they were much affected though asleep, sweating, and trembling exceedingly, was very angry; and pulling out a pistol, was going to fire at the place from whence the sound came. But I catched him by the arm, and said, ‘Sir you are convinced this is something of mr. wesley’s ancestors.
preternatural. If so, you cannot hurt it: but you give it power to hurt you.’ He then went close to the place, and said sternly, Thou deaf and dumb devil, why dost thou fright these children, that cannot answer for themselves? Come to me in my study that am a “man?’ Instantly it knocked his knock (the particular knock which he always used at the gate) as if it would shiver the board in pieces, and we heard nothing more that night.” Till this time, my father had never heard the least disturbances in his study. But the next evening, as he attempted to go into his study (of which none had any key but himself,) when he opened the door, it was thrust back with such violence, as had like to have thrown him down. However, he thrust the door open, and went in. Presently there was knocking first on one side, then on the other; and after a time, in the next room wherein my sister Nancy was. He went into that room, and (the noise continuing) adjured it to speak; but in vain. He then said, “These spirits love darkness: put out the candle, and perhaps it will speak.” She did so: and he repeated his adjuration; but still there was only knocking, and no articulate sound. Upon this he said, i( Nancy, two Christians are an overmatch for the devil. Go all of you down stairs; it may be, when I am alone, he will have courage to speak.’ When she was gone a thought came in, and he said, “If thou art the spirit of my son Samuel, I pray knock three knocks, and no more.” Immediately all was silence; and there was no more knocking at all that night. I asked my sister Nancy (then about fifteen years old) whether she was not afraid, when my father used that adjuration? She answered, she was sadly afraid it would speak, when she put out the candle; but she was not at all afraid in the day-time, when it walked after her, as she swept the chambers, as it constantly did, and seemed to sweep after her. Only ?lie thought he might have done it for her and saved her the trouble. By this time all my sisters were so accustomed to these noises, that they gave them little disturbance. A gentle tapping at their bed-head usually began between nine and ten at night. They then commonly said to each other, “JefTery is coming: it is time to go to sleep.” And if they heard a noise in the day, and said to my youngest sister, “Hark, Kezzy. JefTery is knocking above,” she would run up stairs, and pursue it from room to room, saying, she desired no better diversion.
A few nights after, my father and mother were just gone to bed, and the candle was not taken away, when they heard three blows, and a second, and a third three, as it were with a large oaken staff, struck upon a chest which stood by the bed-side. My father immediately arose, put on his night-gown, and hearing great noises below, took the candle and went down: my mother walked by his side. As they went down the broad stairs, they heard as if a vessel of silver was poured upon my mother’s breast, and ran jingling down to her feet. Quickly after there was a sound, as if a large iron ball was thrown among many bottles under the stairs; but nothing was hurt. Soon after, our large mastiff dog came and ran to shelter himself between them. While the disturbances continued, he used to bark and leap, and snap on one side and the other; and that frequently before any person in the room heard any noise at all. But after two on three days, he used to tremble, and creep away before the noise bgflfc. And by this the family knew it was at hand; nor did the * otpervation ever fail. A little before my father and mother came into & the hall, it seemed as if a very large coal was violently thrown upon the floor and dashed all in pieces: but nothing was seen. My father then cried out, “Sukey, do you not hear? All the pewter is thrown about the kitchen.” But when they looked, all the pewter stood in its place. There then was a loud knocking at the back-door. My father opened it, but saw nothing. It was then at the fore-door. — - He opened that, but it was still lost labour. After opening first the one, then other several times, he turned and went up to bed. But the noises were so violent all over the house, that he could not sleep till four in the morning.
Several gentlemen and clergymen now earnestly advised my father to quit the house. But he constantly answered, “No; let the devil flee from me: I will never flee from the devil.” But he wrote to my eldest brother at London to come down. He was preparing so to do, when another letter came, informing him the disturbances were over; after they had continued (the latter part of the time day and night) from the second of December to the end of January,
LETTERS
CONCERNING SOME SUPERNATURAL DISTURBANCES AT THE PAR-SON AGE-HOUSE AT EPWORTH, IN LINCOLNSHIRE.
Letter I. — To Mr. Samuel Wesley, from his Mother.
“January 12, 171 6-7.
“Dear Sam,
“This evening we were agreeably surprised with your pacquet, which brought the welcome news of your being alive, after we had been in the greatest panic imaginable, almost a month, thinking either you was dead, or one of your brothers by some misfortune been killed.
“The reason of our fears is as follows: — On the first of December our maid heard at the door of the dining-room, several dismal groans, like a person in extremes, at the point of death. We gave little heed to her relation, and endeavoured to laugh her out of her fears. Some nights (two or three) after, several of the family heard a strange knocking in divers places, usually three or four knocks at a time, and then stayed a little. This continued every night for a fortnight: sometimes it was in the garret, but most commonly in the nursery, or green chamber. We all heard it but your father, and I was not willing he should be informed of it lest he should fancy it was against his own death, which, indeed, we all apprehended. But when it began to be so troublesome, both day and night, that few or none, of the family durst be alone, I resolved to tell him of it, being minded he should speak to it. At first he would not believe but somebody did it to alarm us; but the night after, as soon as he was in bed, it knocked loudly nine times, just by his bed-side. He rose, and went to see if he could find out what it was, but could see nothing. Afterwards he heard it as the rest.
“One night it made such a noise in the room over our heads as if several people were walking, then run up and dawn stairs, and was so outrageous that we thought the children would be frighted; so your father and I rose, and went down in the dark to light a candle. Just as we came to the bottom of the broad stairs, having hold of each other, on my side there seemed as if somebody had emptied a bag of money at my feet; and on his, as if all the bottles under the stairs (which were many) had been dashed in a thousand pieces. We passed through the hall into the kitchen, and got a candle, and went to see the children, whom we found asleep.
“The next night your father would get Mr. Hoole to lie at our house, and we all sat together till one or two o’clock in the morning, and heard the knocking as usual. Sometimes it would make a noise like the winding up of a jack, at other times, as that night Mr. Hoole was with us, like a carpenter planing deals; but most commonly ir knocked thrice and stopped, and then thrice again, and so many hours together. We persuaded your father to speak, and try if any voice would be heard. One night about six o’clock he went into the nursery in the dark, and at first heard several deep groans, then knocking. He adjured it to speak if it had power, and tell him why it troubled his house, but no voice was heard, but it knocked thrice aloud. Then he questioned it if it were Sammy; and bid it, if it were and could not speak, knock again, but it knocked no more that night, which made us hope it was not against your death.
“Thms it continued till the 28th of December, when it loudly knocked (as your father used to do at the gate) in the nursery, and departed. We have various conjectures what this may mean. For my own part, I fear nothing now you are safe at London hitherto, and 1 hope God will still preserve you. Though sometimes I am inclined to think my brother is dead. Let me know your thoughts on it.
«S. W.”
Letter II. — From Mr. S. Wesley to his Father.
“January 30, Saturday.
“Honoured Sir,
“My mother tells me a very strange story of disturbances in your house. I wish I could have some more particulars from you. I would thank Mr. Hoole if he would favour me with a letter concerning it. Not that I want to be confirmed myself in the belief of it, but for any other person’s satisfaction. My mother sends to me to know my thoughts of it, and I cannot think at all of any interpretation. Wit, I fancy, might find many, but wisdom none.” Your dutiful and loving Son,
“S. Wesley.”
Letter III. — From Mr. S. Wesley to his Mother.
“‘Dear Mother,
“Those who are so wise as not to believe any supernatural occurrences, though ever so well attested, could find a hundred questions to ask about those strange noises you wrote me an account of; but for my part, I know not what question to put, which, if answered, would confirm me more in the belief of what you tell me. Two or three I have heard from others. Was there never a new maid, or man in the house that might play tricks? Was there nobody above in the garrets when the walking was there? Did all the family hear it together when they were in one room, or at one time? Did it seem to all to be in the same place, at the same time? Could not cats, or rats, or dogs, be the sprights? Was the whole family asleep when my father and you went down stairs? Such doubts as these being replied to, though they could not, as God himself assures us, convince them who believe not Moses and the Prophets, yet would strengthen such as do believe. As to my particular opinion concerning the events foreboded by these noises, I cannot, I must confess, form any; — I think since it was not permitted to speak, all guesses must be vain. The end of spirits-’ actions is yet more hidden than that of men, and even this latter puzzles the most subtle politicians. That
we may be struck so as to prepare seriously for any ill, may, it is possible, be one design of Providence. It is surely our duty and wisdom to do so.
“Dear mother,
I beg your blessing
on your dutiful and affectionate Son,
S. Wesley.
Jan. 19, 1716-7, Saturday, )
Dean’s Yard, Westminster. 3
“I expect a particular account from every one.”
Letter IV. — From Mrs. Wesley to her son Samuel.
“Jan. 25, or 27, 1716-7-
“Dear Sam,
“Though I am not one of those that will believe nothing supernatural, but I am rather inclined to think there would be frequent intercourse between good spirits and us did not our deep lapse into sensuality prevent it; yet I was a great while e’er I could credit any thing of what the children and servants reported concerning the noises they heard in several parts of our house. Nay, after I had heard them myself, I was willing to persuade myself and them that it was only rats or weasels that disturbed us; and having been formerly troubled with rats, which were frighted away by sounding a horn, I caused a horn to be procured, and made them blow it all over the house. But from that night they began to blow, the noises were more loud and distinct, both day and night, than before, and that night we rose and went down I was entirely convinced that it was beyond the power of any human creature to make such strange and various noises.
u As to your questions, I will answer them particularly: but withal I desire my answers may satisfy none but yourself; for I would not have the matter imparted to any. We had both man and maid new this last Martinmas, yet I do not believe either of them occasioned the disturbance, both for the reason above mentioned, and because they were more affrighted than any body else. Besides, we have often heard the noises when they were in the room by us; and the maid particularly was in such a panic that she was almost incapable of all business, nor durst ever go from one room to another, or stay by herself a minute after it began to be dark.
“The man, Robert Brown, whom you well know, was most visited by it lying in the garret, and has been often frighted down bareloot, and almost naked, not daring to stay alone to put on his clothes; nor do 1 think, if he had power, he would be guilty of such villany. When the walking was heard in the garret, Robert was in bed in the next room, in a sleep so sound, that he never heard your father and me walk up and down, though we walked not softly I am sure. All the family has heard it together, in the same room, at the same time, particularly at family prayers. It always seemed to all present in the same place at the same time; though often before any could say it is here, it would remove to another place.
“All the family as well as Robin were asleep when your father and I went down stairs, nor did they wake in the nursery when we held the candle close by them; only we observed that Hetty trembled exceedingly in her sleep, as she always did, before the noise awaked her. It commonly was nearer her than the rest, which she took notice of; and was much frightened, because she thought it had a particular spite at her. I could multiply particular instances, but I forbear. I believe your father will write to you about it shortly. Whatever may be the design of Providence in permitting these things, I cannot say. Secret things belong to God: but I entirely agree with you, that, it is our wisdom and duty to prepare seriously for all events.
S. Wesley,”
Letter V. — From Miss Susannah Wesley to her Brother Samuel.
“Epworth, Jan. 24.
“Dear Brother,
“About the first of December, a most terrible and astonishing noise was heard by a maid-servant, as at the dining room door, which caused the up-starting of her hair, and made her ears prick forth at an unusual rate. She said it was like the groans of one expiring. These so frighted her, that for a great while she durst not go out of one room into another, after it began to be dark, without company. But, to lay aside jesting, which should not be done in serious matters, I assure you that from the first to the last of a lunar month, the groans, squeaks, tinglings, and knOckings, were frightful enough.
“Though it is needless for me to send you any account of what we all heard, my father himself having a larger account of the matter than I am able to give, which he designs to send you; yet, in compliance with your desire, I will tell you as briefly as I can, what I heard of it. The first night I ever heard it, my sister Nancy and I were set in the dining room. We heard something rush on the outside of the doors that opened into the garden; then three loud knocks, immediately after other three, and in half a minute the same of mr. wesley’s ancestors.
number over our heads. We inquired whether any body had been in the garden, or in the room above us: but there was nobody. Soon after my sister Molly and I were up after all the family were a-bed, except my sister Nancy, about some business. We heard three bouncing thumps under our feet, which soon made us throw away our work, and tumble into bed. Afterwards the tingling of the latch and warming pan, and so it took its leave that night.
“Soon after the above mentioned, we heard a noise as if a great piece of sounding metal was thrown down on the outside of our chamber. We, lying in the quietest part of the house, heard less than the rest for a pretty while: but the latter end of the night that Mr. Hoole sat up on, I lay in the nursery, where it was very violent. I then heard frequent knocks over and under the room where I lay, and at the children’s bed head, which was made of boards. It seemed to rap against it very hard and loud, so that the bed shook under them. I heard something walk by my bedside, like a man in a long night-gown. The knocks were so loud, that Mr. Hoole came out of their chamber to us. It still continued. My father spoke, but nothing answered. It ended that night with my father’s particular knock, very fierce.
“It is now pretty quiet; only at our repeating the prayers for the king and prince, when it usually begins, especially when my father says, 6 Our most gracious Sovereign Lord,” &c. This my father is angry at, and designs to say three instead of two for the royal family. We all heard the same noise, and at the same time, and as coming from the same place. To conclude this, it now makes its personal appearance: but of this more heareafter. Do not say one word of this to our folks, nor give the least hint.
“I am,
Your sincere friend and affectionate Sister,
Susannah Wesley.”
Letter VI. — Mr. S. Wesley in Answer.
Dean’s Yard, Feb. 9, 1716-7-
u Dear Sister Sukey,” Your telling me the spirit has made its personal appearance, without saying how, or to whom, or when, or how long, has excited my curiosity very much. I long mightily for a farther account of every circumstance by your next letter. Do not keep me any longer in the dark. Why need you write the less, because my father is to send me the whole story. Has the disturbance continued since the 28th of December? I understand my father did not hear it all; but a fortnight after the rest. What did he say remarkable to any of you when he did hear it? As to the devil’s being an enemy to King George, were I the King myself, I should rather old Nick should be my enemy, than my friend. I do not like the noise of the night gown sweeping along the ground, nor its knocking like my father. Write when you receive this, though nobody else should, to your loving brother,
S. W.”
.Letter VII. — Mr. S. Wesley to his Mother.
” Dear Mother,
“You say you could multiply particular instances of the spirit’s noises: but I want to know whether nothing was ever seen by any. For though it is hard to conceive, nay, morally impossible, that the hearing of so many people could be deceived, yet the truth will be still more manifest and undeniable, if it is grounded on the testimony of two senses. Has it never at all disturbed you since the 28th of December? Did no circumstance give any light into the design of the whole?
“Your obedient and loving Son,
“Feb. 12. S. Wesley.”
“Have you dug in the place where the money seemed poured at your feet?”
Letter VIII. — Mr. S. Wesley to his Father.
“Honoured Sir,
“I have not yet received any answer to the letter I wrote some time ago; and my mother in her last seems to say, that as yet I know but a very small part of the whole story of strange noises in our house. I shall be exceedingly glad to have the entire account from you. Whatever may be the main design of such wonders, I cannot think they were ever meant to be kept secret. If they bode any thing remarkable to our family, I am sure I am a party concerned.” Your dutiful Son,
“Feb. 12. S. Wesley.”
Letter IX. — From Mr. S. Wesley to his Sister Emily.
“Dear Sister Emily,” I wish you would let me have a letter from you about the spirh% as indeed from every one of my sisters. I cannot think any of you of mr. wesley’s ancestors.
very superstitious, unless you are much changed since I saw you. My sister Hetty, I find, was more particularly troubled. Let me know all. Did any thing appear to her?
“i am,
Your affectionate Brother,
“Feb. 12. S. Wesley.”
Letter X. — From old Mr. Wesley to his Son Samuel.
“Feb. 11, 1716-T.
te Dear Sam,
“As for the noises, &c. in our family, I thank God we are now all quiet. There were some surprising circumstances in that affair. Your mother has not written you a third part of it. When I see you here, you shall see the whole account, which I wrote down. It would make a glorious penny book for Jack, Duntcn: but while I live I am not ambitious for any thing of that nature. I think that’s all, but blessings from
“Your loving Father,
Sam. Wesley.’”
[The following Letter was received at the same time, though it has no date.]
Letter XI. — From Miss Emily Wesley to her Brother Samuel” Dear Brother,
“I thank you for your last; and shall give you what satisfaction is in my power, concerning what has happened in our family. I am so far from being superstitious, that I was too much inclined to infidelity, so that I heartily rejoice at having such an opportunity of convincing myself, past doubt or scruple, of the existence of some beings besides those we see. A whole month was sufficient to convince any body of the reality of the thing; and to try all ways of discovering any trick, had it been possible for any such to have been used. I shall only tell you what I myself heard, and leave the rest to others.
“My sisters in the paper chamber had heard noises, and told me of them: but I did not much believe, till one night, about a week after the first groans were heard, which was the beginning, just after the clock had struck ten, I went down stairs to lock the doors, which I always do. Scarce had I got up the best stairs, when I heard a noise, like a person throwing down a vast coal in the middle
15S
of the fore kitchen, and all the splinters seemed to fly about from it. I was not much frighted, but went to my sister Sukey, and we together went all over the low rooms, but there was nothing out of order.
“Our dog was fast asleep, and our only cat in the other end of the house. No sooner was I got up stairs, and undressing for bed, but I heard a noise among many bottles that stand under the best stairs, just like the throwing of a great stone among them, which had broke them all to pieces. This made me hasten to bed: but my sister Hetty, who sits always to wait on my father going to bed, was still sitting on the lowest step on the garret stairs, the door being shut at her back, when soon after there came down the stairs behind her something like a man, in a loose night-gown trailing after him, which made her fly rather than run to me in the nursery.
“All this time we never told our father of it: but soon after we did. He smiled, and gave no answer, but was more careful than usual, from that time, to see us in bed, imagining it to be some of us young women, that sat up late and made a noise. His incredulity, and especially his imputing it to us, or our lovers, made me, I own, desirous of its continuance till he was convinced. As for my mother, she firmly believed it to be rats, and sent for a horn to blow them away. I laughed to think how wisely they were employed, who were striving half a day to fright away Jeffrey, for that name I gave it, with a horn.
But whatever it was, I perceived it could be made angry. For from that time it was so outrageous, there was no quiet for us after ten at night. I heard frequently between ten and eleven something like the quick winding up of a jack, at the corner of the room by my bed’s head, just like the running of the wheels and the creaking of the iron work. This was the common signal of its coming. Then it would knock on the floor three times, then at my sister’s bed’s head in the same room, almost always three together, and then stay. The sound was hollow, and loud, so as none of us could ever imitate.
“It would answer to my mother, if she stamped on the floor, and bid it. It would knock when I was putting the children to bed, just under me where I sat. One time little Kesy, pretending to scare Patty, as I was undressing them, stamped with her foot on the floor, and immediately it answered with three knocks, just in the same place. It was more loud and fierce if any one said it was rats, or any thing natural.
“I could tell you abundance more of it: but the rest will write, and therefore it would be needless. I was not much frighted at first, and very little at last: but it was never near me, except two or three times; and never followed me, as it did my sister Hetty. I have of mr. wesley’s ancestors.
been with her when it has knocked under her, and when she has removed has followed, and still kept just under her feet, which was enough to terrify a stouter person.
ec If you would know my opinion of the reason of this, I shall briefly tell you. I believe it to be witchcraft, for these reasons, About a year since, there was a disturbance at a town near us, that was undoubtedly witches; and if so near, why may they not reach us? Then my father had for several Sundays before its coming preached warmly against consulting those that are called cunning men, which our people are given to; and it had a particular spite at my father.
“Besides, something was thrice seen. The first time by my mother, under my sister’s bed, like a badger, only without any head that was discernible. The same creature was sat by the dining-room fire one evening; when our man went into the room, it run by him, through the hall under the stairs. He followed with a candle, and searched, but it was departed. The last time he saw it in the kitchen, like a white rabbit, which seems likely to be some witch: and I do so really believe it to be one, that I would venture to fire a pistol at it, if I saw it long enough. It has been heard by me and others since December. I have filled up all my room, and have only time to tell you,
“I am,
Your loving sister,
Emilia Wesley.”
Letter XII. — Miss Susannah Wesley to her Brother Samuel
“March 27-
“Dear Brother Wesley,” I should farther satisfy you concerning the disturbances! but it is needless, because my sisters Emilia and Hetty write so particularly about it. One thing I believe you do not know, that is, last Sunday, to my father’s no small amazement, his trencher danced upon the table a pretty while, without any body’s stirring the table. When, io! an adventurous wretch took it up, and spoiled the sport, for it remained still ever after. How glad should I be to talk with you about it. Send me some news, for we are secluded from the sight, or hearing, of any versal thing except Jeffrey.
Susannah Wesley.”
A passage in a Letter from my Mother to me, dated March
27, 1717.
“I cannot imagine how you should be so curious about our unwelcome guest. For my part, I am quite tired with hearing or speaking of it: but if you come among us, you will find enough to satisfy all your scruples, and perhaps may hear or see it yourself.
S. Wesley.”
A passage in a Letter from my Sister Emily to Mr. N. Berry, dated Apr il 1.
“Tell my brother the sprite was with us last night; and heard by many of our family, especially by our maid and myself. She sat up with drink; and it came just at one o’clock, and opened the dining room door. After some time it shut again. She saw as well as heard it both shut and open; then it began to knock as usual. But I dare write no longer, lest I should hear it.
Emilia Wesley.”
My Mother’s Account to Jack.
“Aug. 27, ,1726.
“About ten days after Nanny Marshall had heard unusual groans at the dining-room door, Emily came and told me, that the servants and children had been several times frighted with strange groans and knockings about the house. I answered, that the rats John Maw had frightened from his house, by blowing a horn there, were come into ours, and ordered that one should be sent for. Molly was much displeased at it; and said, if it was any thing supernatural, it certainly would be very angry, and more troublesome. However, the horn was blown in the garrets; and the effect was, that whereas before the noises were always in the night, from this time they were heard at all hours, day and night.
“Soon after, about seven in the morning, Emily came and desired me to go into the nursery, where I should be convinced they were not startled at nothing. On my coming thither, I heard a knocking at the feet, and quickly after at the head of the bed. I desired if it was a spirit it would answer me; and knocking several times with my foot on the ground, with several pauses, it repeated under the sole of my feet exactly the same number of strokes, with the very same intervals. Kezzy, then six or seven years old, said, Let it an-
1j6
swer me too, if it can, and stamping, the same sounds were returned that she made, many times, successively.
“Upon my looking under the bed, something ran out pretty much like a badger, and seemed to run directly under Emily’s petticoats, who sat opposite to me on the other side. I went out; and one or two nights after, when we were just got to bed, I heard nine strokes, three by three, on the other side of the bed, as if one had struck violently on a chest with a large stick. Mr. Wesley leapt up, called Hetty, who alone was up in the house, and searched every room in the house, but to no purpose. It continued from this time to knock and groan frequently at all hours, day and night; only I earnestly desired it might not disturb me between five and six in the evening, and there never was any noise in my room after during that time.
“At other times, I have often heard it over my mantle tree; and once, coming up after dinner, a cradle seemed to be strongly rocked in my chamber. When I went in, the sound seemed to be in the nursery. When I was in the nursery, it seemed in my chamber again. One night Mr. W. and I were waked by some one running down the garret stairs, then down the broad stairs, then up the narrow ones, then up the garret stairs, then down again, and so the the same round. The rooms trembled as it passed along, and the doors shook exceedingly, so that the clattering of the latches was very loud.
u Mr. W. proposing to rise, I rose with him, and went down the broad stairs, hand in hand, to light a candle. Near the foot of them a large pot of money seemed to be poured at my waist, and to run jingling down my nightgown to my feet. Presently after we heard the noise as of a vast stone thrown among several dozen of bottles, which lay under the stairs: but upon our looking no hurt was done. In the hall the mastiff met us, crying and striving to get between us. We returned up into the nursery, where the noise was very great The children were all asleep, but panting, trembling, and sweating extremely.
“Shortly after, on Mr. Wesley’s invitation, Mr. Hoole staid a night with us. As we were all sitting round the fire in the matted chamber, he asked whether that gentle knocking was it? I told him yes; and it continued the sound, which was much lower than usual. This was observable that while we were talking loud in the same room, the noise, seemingly lower than any of our voices, was distinctly heard above them all. These were the most remarkable passages I remember, except such as were common to all the family.”
My Sister Emily’s Account to Jack.
u About a fortnight after the time when, as I was told, the noises were heard, I went from my mother’s room who was just gone to bed, to the best chamber, to fetch my sister Sukey’s candle. When I was there, the windows and doors began to jar, and ring exceedingly; and presently after 1 heard a sound in the kitchen as if a vast stone coal had been thrown down, and mashed to pieces. I went down thither with my candle, and found nothing more than usual: but as I was going by the screen, something began knocking on the other side just even with my head. When I looked on the inside, the knocking was on the outside of it: but as soon as I could get round, it was at the inside again. I followed to and fro several times, till at last, finding it to no purpose, and turning about to go away, before I was out of the room, the latch of the back kitchen door was lifted up many times. I opened the door and looked out, but could see nobody. I tried to shut the door, but it was thrust against me, and I could feel the latch, which I held in my hand, moving upwards at the same time. I looked out again: but finding it was labour lost, clapped the door to, and locked it. Immediately the latch was moved strongly up and down: but I left it, and went up the worst stairs, from whence I heard, as if a great stone had been thrown among the bottles, which lay under the best stairs. However I went to bed.
“From this time, I heard it every night for two or three weeks. It continued a month in its full majesty, night and day. Then it intermitted a fortnight, or more, and when it began again, it knocked only on nights, and grew less and less troublesome, till at last it went quite away. Towards the latter end it used to knock on the outside of the house, and seemed farther and farther off, till it ceased to be heard at all.”
My Sister Molly’s Account to Jack,
“Aug. 27.
“I have always thought it was in November, the rest of our family think it was the 1st of December 171 6, when Nanny Marshall, who had a bowl of butter in her hand, ran to me, and two or three more of my sisters, in the dining room, and told us she had heard several groans in the hall, as of a dying man. We thought it was Mr. Turpine, who had the stone, and used sometimes to come and see us. About a fortnight after, when my sister Sukey and I were going to bed, she told me how she was frightened in the dining room, the day before, by a noise, first at the folding door, and then over head. I was reading at the table, and had scarce told her I believed nothing of it, when several knocks were given just under my feet. We both made haste into bed; and just as we laid down, the warming pan by the bedside jarred and rung, as did the latch of the door, which was lifted swiftly up and down. Presently a great chain seemed to fall on the outside of the door, (we were in the best chamber,) the door, latch, hinges, the warming pan, and windows jarred, and the house shook from top to bottom.
“A few days after, between five ‘and six in the evening, I was by myself in the dining room. The door seemed to open though it was still shut; and somebody walked in a night-gown trailing upon the ground (nothing appearing,) and seemed to go leisurely round me. I started up, and ran up stairs to my mother’s chamber, and told the story to her and my sister Emily. A few nights after, my father ordered me to light him to his study. Just as he had unlocked it, the latch was lifted up for him. The same (after we blew the horn) was often done to me, as well by day as by night. Of many other things all the family as well as me were witnesses.
“My father went into the nursery from the matted chamber, where we were, by himself in the dark. It knocked very loud on the press bed head. He adjured it to tell him why it came, but it seemed to take no notice; at which he was very angry, spoke sharply, called it deaf and dumb devil, and repeated his adjuration. My sisters were terribly afraid it would speak. When he had done, it knocked his knock on the bed’s head, so exceeding violently, as if it would break it to shivers, and from that time we heard nothing till near a month after.”
My Sister Sukey’s Account to Jack.
u I believed nothing of it till about a fortnight after the first noises, hen one night I sat up on purpose to hear it. While I was working in the best chamber, and earnestly desiring to hear it, a knocking began just under my feet. As I knew the room below was locked, I was frightened, and leapt into bed with all my cloaths on. I afterwards heard as it were a great chain fall, and after some time the usual noises at all hours of the day and night. One night hearing it was most violent in the nursery, I resolved to lie there. Late at night, several strong knocks were given on the two lowest steps of the garret stairs, which were close to the nursery door. The latch of the door then jarred, and seemed to be swiftly moved to and frop and presently began knocking about a yard within the room on the floor. It then came gradually to sister Hetty’s bed, who trembled strongly in her sleep. It beat very loud three strokes at a time, on the bed’s head. My father came, and adjured it to speak: but it knocked on for some time, and then removed to the room over where it knocked my father’s knock on the ground, as if it would beat the house down. I had no mind to stay longer, but got up, and went to sister Em and my mother, who were in her room. From thence we heard the noises again from the nursery. I proposed playing a game at cards: but we had scarce begun, when a knocking began under our feet. We left off playing, and it removed back again into the nursery, where it continued till towards morning.”
Sister Nancy’s Account to Jack.
“Sept. 10.
u The first noise my sister Nancy heard was in the best chamber, with my sister Molly and my sister Sukey; soon after my father had ordered her to blow a horn in the garrets, where it was knocking violently. She was terribly afraid, being obliged to go in the dark; and kneeling down on the stairs, desired that, as she acted not to please herself, it might have no power over her. As soon as she came into the room, the noise ceased, nor did it begin again till near ten: but then, and for a good while, it made much greater and more frequent noises than it had done before. When she afterwards came into the chamber in the day time, it commonly walked after her from room to room. It followed her from one side of the bed to the other, and back again, as often as she went back; and whatever she did which made any sort of noise, the same thing seemed just to be done behind her.
“When five or six were set in the nursery together, a cradle would seem to be strongly rocked in the room over, though no cradle had ever been there. One night she was sitting on the press bed, playing at cards with some of my sisters, when my sisters Molly, Etty, Patty, and Kezzy, were in the room, and Robert Brown. The bed on which my sister Nancy sat was lifted up with her on it. She leapt down and said, 6 Surely old Jeffrey would not run away with her.’ However, they persuaded her to sit down again, which she had scarce done, when it was again lifted up several times successively a considerable height, upon which she left her seat, and would not be prevailed upon to sit there any more.
“Whenever they began to mention Mr. S. it presently began to knock, and continued to do so till they changed the discourse. All
the time my sister Sukey was writing her last letter to him, it made a very great noise all round the room; and the night after she set out for London, it knocked till morning with scarce any intermission.
“Mr. Hoole read prayers once: but it knocked as usual at the prayers for the King and Prince. The knockings at those prayers were only towards the beginning of the disturbances, for a week or thereabouts.”
The Rev. Mr. Hoole’s Account.
“Sept. 16.
“As soon as I came to Epworth, Mr. Wesley telling me, he sent for me to conjure, I knew not what he meant, till some of your sisters told me what had happened, and that I was sent for to sit up, I expected every hour, it being then about noon, to hear something extraordinary, but to no purpose. At supper too, and at prayers, all was silent, contrary to custom: but soon after one of the maids, who went up to sheet a bed, brought the alarm, that Jeffrey was come above stairs. We all went up, and as we were standing round the fire in the east chamber, something began knocking just on the other side of the wall, on the chimney-piece, as with a key. Presently the knocking was under our feet. Mr. Wesley and I went down, he with a great deal of hope, and I with fear. As soon as we were in the kitchen, the sound was above us, in the room we had left. We returned up the narrow stairs, and heard at the broad stairs’ head some one slaring with their feet (all the family being now in bed beside us) and then trailing, as it were, and rustling with a silk night-gown. Quickly it was in the nursery, at the bed’s head, knocking as it had done at first, three by three. Mr. Wesley spoke to it, and said he believed it was the devil; and soon after it knocked at the window, and changed its sound into one like the planing of boards. From thence it went on the outward south side of the house, sounding fainter and fainter, till it was heard no more.
“I was at no other time than this during the noises at Epworth, and do not now remember any more circumstances than these.”
“Epworth, Sept. 1. “My sister Kezzy says she remembers nothing else, but that it knocked my father’s knock, ready to beat the house down in the nursery one night.”
Robin Brown’s Account to Jack.
“The first time Robin Brown, my father’s man, heard it, was when he was fetching down some corn from the garrets. Somewhat knocked on a door just by him, which made him run away down stairs. From that time it used frequently to visit him in bed, walking up the garret stairs, and in the garrets, like a man in jack-boots, with a night-gown trailing after him, then lifting up his latch and making it jar, and making presently a noise in his room like the gobbling of a turkey-cock, then stumbling over his shoes or boots by the bed side. He was resolved once to be too hard for it, and so took a large mastiff we had just got to bed with him, and left his shoes and boots below stairs: but he might as well have spared his labour, for it was exactly the same thing, whether any were there or no. The same sound was heard as if there had been forty pairs. The dog indeed was a great comfort to him; for as soon as the latch began to jar, he crept into bed, made such an howling and barking together, in spite of all the man could do, that he alarmed most of the family.
“Soon after, being grinding corn in the garrets, and happening to stop a little, the handle of the mill was turned round with great swiftness. He said nothing vexed him, but that the mill was empty. If corn had been in it, old Jeffrey might have ground his heart out for him; he would never have disturbed him.
“One night, being ill, he was leaning his head upon the back kitchen chimney (the jam he called it) with the tongs in his hands, when from behind the oven-stop, which lay by the fire, somewhat came out like a white rabbit. It turned round before. him several times, and then ran to the same place again. He was frighted, started up, and ran with the tongs into the parlour (dining room).”
“D. R. Ep worth, Aug. 31, “Betty Massy one day came to me in the parlour, and asked me if I had heard old Jeffrey, for she said she thought there was no such thing. When we had talked a little about it, I knocked three times with a reel I had in my hand against the dining room ceiling, and the same were presently repeated. She desired me to knock so again, which I did: but they were answered with three more so violently as shook the house, though no one was in the chamber over us. She prayed me to knock no more for fear it should come in us.”
21,
of mr. wesley’s ancestors.
“Epworth, Aug. 31, 1726. “John and Kitty Maw, who lived over against us, listened several nights in the time of the disturbance, but could never hear any thing,”
Memorandum of Jack’s.
“The first time my mother ever heard any unusual noise at Epworth was long before the disturbance of old Jeffrey. My brother, lately come from London, had one evening a sharp quarrel with my sister Sukey, at which time, my mother happening to be above in her own chamber, the door and windows rung and jarred very loud, and presently several distinct strokes, three by three, were struck. — From that night it never failed to give notice in much the same manner against any signal misfortune, or illness of any belonging to the family.”
Of the general Circumstances which follow, mosty if not all the Family were frequent Witnesses.
1. Presently after any noise was heard, the wind commonly rose, and whistled very loud round the house, and increased with it.
2. The signal was given, which my father likens to the turning round of a windmill when the wind changes; Mr. Hoole (Rector of Haxey) to the planing of deal boards; my sister to the swift winding up of a jack. It commonly began at the corner of the top of the nursery.
3. Before it came into any room, the latches were frequently lifted up, the windows clattered, and whatever iron or brass was about the chamber rung and jarred exceedingly.
4. When it was in any room, let them make what noise they would, as they sometimes did on purpose, its dead hollow note would be clearly heard above them all.
5. It constantly knocked while the prayers for the King and Prince were repeating; and was plainly heard by all in the room but my father, and sometimes by him, as were also the thundering knocks at the amen.
6. The sound very often seemed in the air in the middle of a room, nor could they ever make any such themselves by any contrivance.
7- Though it seemed to rattle down the pewter, to clap the doors, draw the curtains, kick the man’s shoes up and down, &c. yet it never moved any thing except the latches, otherwise than making k tremble; unless once, when it threw open the nursery door.
8. The mastiff, though he barked violently at it the first day he came, yet whenever it came after that, nay sometimes before the family perceived it, he ran whining, or quite silent, to shelter himself behind some of the company.
9. It never came by day, till my mother ordered the horn to be blown.
10. After that time scarce any one could go from one room into another, but the latch of the room they went to was lifted up before they touched it.
11. It never came once into my father’s study, till he talked to it sharply, called it deaf and dumb devil, and bid it cease to disturb the innocent children, and come to him in his study, if it had any thing to say to him.
12. From the time of my mother’s desiring it not to disturb her from five to six, it was never heard in her chamber from five till she came down stairs, nor at any other time when she was employed in devotion.
13. Whether our clock went right or wrong, it always came, as near as could be guessed, when by the night it wanted a quarter to ten.
The Accounts in general agree as to the time of the commencement and cessation of these Disturbances. They were first noticed December 1 or 2, 1716, and ceased at the end of January, 171 7- But there is a fact of which all Mr. Wesley’s Biographers are ignorant, viz. that Jeffrey, as the spirit was called, continued to molest some branches of the family for many years after. We have seen that Miss Emily Wesley was the first who gave it the name Jeffrey, from an old man of that name who had died there; and that she was more disturbed by it than any other of the family. I have an original Letter of hers to her brother John, dated February 16, 1750, thirty-four years after the time, as is generally supposed, that Jeffrey had discontinued his operations. Emily was now Mrs. Harper, having married a person of that name, an apothecary, who at first lived in Epworth, and afterwards in London, or near it; and the Letter is is addressed To the Rev. Mr. John Wesley, Foundry.
As some account of this Lady shall be given in its proper place, I shall insert here only that part of her Letter which refers to the above subject of mr. wesley’s ancestors.
“Feb. 16, 1750.
“Dear Brother,
“I want most sadly to see you, and talk some hours
with you, as in time past! Some things are too hard for me; these I want you to solve. One doctrine of your’s, and of many more, viz. — No happiness can be found in any or all things in this world — That as I have sixteen years of my own experience which lie flatly against it, I want to talk with you about it. Another thing is, that wonderful thing, called by us, Jeffrey! You won’t laugh at me for being superstitious, if I tell you how certainly that something calls on me against any extraordinary new affliction: but so little is known of the invisible world that I at least am not able to judge whether it be a friendly or an evil sj)irit. I shall be glad to know from you where you live, — where you may be found. If at the Foundry, assuredly on foot or by coach I shall visit my dear brother, and enjoy the very great blessing of some hours’ converse.” I am,
Your really obliged friend and affectionate Sister,
Emilia Harper.”
I find by a note on the back that Mr. Wesley answered this letter on the 18th, two days after: but what he said on the subject is not recorded. This is the latest information I have concerning Jeffrey and his operations. It seems he came to Emily to give intimations of approaching afflictions or evils, just as Socrates informs us his Daemon was accustomed to apprize him of any evils that were about to happen.
But who was this Daemon? and what was the cause of his troubling this family?
We find that for a considerable time all the family believed it to be a trick: but at last they were all satisfied it was something supernatural. Some supposed it was a dcemon, others that the whole was the effect of witchcraft. Mr. John Wesley believed that it was a messenger of Satan sent to buffet his father for his rash promise of leaving his family, and very improper conduct to his wife in consequence of her scruple to pray for the Prince of Orange as King of England; to which title she fully believed he had no legal nor constitutional right. On which we find that he left her for a year, to the neglect both of his family and his Church. That God should have resented this rash conduct is not to be wondered at: but whether Jeffrey was the instrument of chastisement will be a question with many With others, the house was considered as haunted. For this I have heard a reason assigned, which I shall introduce, because it has been stated to me by respectable authority as a fact.
“The family having retired one evening rather earlier than usual, one of the maids, who was finishing her work in the back-kitchen, heard a noise, and presently saw a man working himself through a trough which communicated between the sink-stone within, and the cistern on the outside of the house. Astonished and terrified beyond measure, she in a sort of desperation, seized the cleaver, which lay on the sink-stone, and gave him a violent, and probably a mortal blow on the head; she then uttered a dismal shriek, and fell senseless on the floor. Mr. Wesley being alarmed by the noise, supposing that the house was beset by robbers, rose up, caught up the fire-irons of his study, and began to throw them with violence on the stairs, calling out Tom! Jack! Harry, &c. as loud as he could bawl; designing thus to intimidate the robbers. Who the man was that received the blow (or who were his accomplices) was never discovered. His companions had carried him off; footsteps and marks of blood were traced to some distance, but not far enough to find who the villains were, nor from whence they came.”
I give this story just as I received it, which, though respectably related, I have not been able to trace to any authentic source.
Dr. Priestley thinks the whole trick and imposture. It must be so on his system of Materialism: but this does not solve the difficulty, it only cuts the knot.
Mrs. Wesley’s opinion was different from all the rest, and was probably the most correct: she supposed that “these noises and disturbances portended the death of her brother, then abroad in the East India Company’s service.” This gentleman, who had acquired a large property, suddenly disappeared and was never heard of more! See some account of him immediately after that of his father Dr. Annesley.
The story of the Disturbances at the Parsonage-house in Epworth is not unique: I myself, and others of my particular acquaintances, were eye and ear-witnesses of transactions of a similar kind, which could never be traced to any source of trick or imposture; and appeared to be the forerunners of two very tragical events in the disturbed family; after which no noise or disturbance ever took place. In the History of my own Life I have related this matter in sufficient detail.
Dr. Priestley, who first published the preceding Papers, says of the whole story, that “it is perhaps the best authenticated and the best told story of the kind that is any where extant; on which account, and to exercise the ingenuity of some speculative persons, he thought it not undeserving of being published.” — Preface, p. xi. After this concession, be then enters into a train of arguing, to shew that there could be nothing supernatural in it; for Dr. P., as a Materialist, could give no credit to any account of angels, spirits, &c. the existence of which he did not credit; and because he could see no good end to be answered by them, therefore he thinks he may safely conclude no miracle was wrought. Such argumentation can justify no man in disbelieving a story of this kind, told so circumstantially, and witnessed by such a number of persons whose veracity was beyond doubt; and whose capability to judge between fact and fiction, trick and genuine operation, was beyond that of most persons, who in any country or age came forward to give testimony on a subject of this nature. He at last gets rid of the whole matter thus: — “What appears most probable, at this distance of time, in the present case is, that it was a trick of the servants, assisted by some of their neighbours; and that nothing was meant by it, besides puzzling the family and amusing themselves; and that such a secret should be kept, so that the matter was never discovered, is not at all to be wondered at.” We can scarcely suppose that this mode of reasoning satisfied the mind of Dr. Priestley; else he must have been satisfied much more easily on a subject which struck at the vitals of his own system, than he would have been on any doctrine relative to Philosophy and Chemistry. He had Mrs. Wesley’s Letter before him, which stated that the servants could not be employed in the work for reasons which she there adduces; and especially, because those very servants were often in the room with themselves, when the disturbances were most rife. But all suppositions of this kind are completely nullified by the preceding Letter of Mrs. Harper (formerly Emilia Wesley,) which states that even to thirty-four years afterwards, Jeffrey continued to molest her. Did her father’s servants and the Epworth neighbours pursue her for thirty-four years through her various settlements, from 1716 to 1750; and were even at that time playing their pranks against her in London! How ridiculous and absurd! and this is the very best solution of these facts that Dr. Priestley could arrive at in deference to his system of Materialism! The Letter of Mrs. Harper I consider of vast importance, as it removes the last subterfuge of determinate incredulity and false philosophy on this subject.
A philosopher should not be satisfied with reasons advanced by Dr. Priestley. He who will maintain his creed in opposition to his senses, and the most undisguised testimony of the most respectable
1G7
witnesses, had better at once, for his own credit’s sake, throw the whole story in the region of doubt, where all such relations, no matter how authenticated,
“Up whirl ‘d aloft,
Fly o’er the backside of the world far off,
Into a limbus large and broad!”
And instead of its being called the Paradise of fools, it may be styled the limbus of Philosophic Materialists; into which they hurry whatever they cannot comprehend, choose not to believe, or please to call superstitious and absurd. And they treat such matters so because they quadrate not with principles unfounded on the Divine testimony, feebly supported by true Philosophy, and contradictory to the plain unbiassed good common sense of nineteen twentieths of all the inhabitants of the earth.
But my business is to relate facts, of which the Reader is to make what use he chooses.
It is now time to return more particularly to Mr. Wesley’s personal history.
When Mr. Pope solicited the interest of Dean Swift to procure Subscribers for Mr. Wesley’s Dissertations on the Book of Job, he called him a learned man; and from many evidences before me, I am led unhesitatingly to confirm this character.
The Rector of Epworth was a learned man; though he thought and spoke meanly of his own literary attainments. Independently of that classical learning, which was common to the Clergy of those times, he cultivated other branches with which the great majority of them were unacquainted. One branch in particular, Biblical criticism, which was then but little studied either in England or any other part of Europe; and which, within a few years only, is become a certain science, formed on just principles, and subjected to consistent and unerring rules. The Holy Scriptures he had read with deep attention in the Originals and principal Versions. These he had carefully compared by a judicious Collation; and from this labour he drew conclusions at once instructive to others, and creditable to his own understanding.
In his time that great and important Work, the London Polyglott,- was published, containing the Original Texts of the Old and NTeW Testaments, Hebrew and Greek, with all the ancient Versions that were then known. The Samaritan on the Pentateuch; the Syriac, Arabic, Chaldee, Mthiopic. including the Psalms and the New Testament; the Persian on the Four HosprN; the Scpfvaginf, and the of mr. wesley’s ancestors-Vulgate. All these, the Vulgate excepted, which is in Latin, are accompanied with a Latin Version, correct enough for general use. The Text and Versions occupy Five Folio Volujnes. The Sixth is a Collection of Various Readings, on the above Texts and Versions. To these Dr. Edmund Castel added a Lexicon in two vols, folio, of the Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, JEthiopic, Samaritan, and Persian; generally called CastePs Heptaglott Lexicon.
Of this work Mr. Wesley had a copy, which was unhappily destroyed in the burning of his house in 1709- How diligently he consulted this Work, and how much he profited by it, his Collation of all the above Original Texts and Versions throughout the Book of Job testifies; of which I shall speak more particularly when I come to that article. He was so satisfied of the great utility of this Work to Ministers, that we find he had projected an Edition of the Holy Scriptures, including the Original Texts and Principal Versions on a more contracted plan, and in a more portable form; of which we have some account in a Letter written to his son John at Oxford, when he had thoughts of entering into the Work of the Ministry.
As this Letter contains some judicious observations, and much wholesome advice, I will give it entire, as only some parts of it have been published; first by Mr. Wesley in the Arminian Magazine, and secondly by Dr. Whitehead, in his life of Mr. Wesley. We shall see by it, as by several other evidences, that Mr. S. Wesley was a strict father, not to say rigid, inclining to severity. But it the rein he held was tight, his hand was steady, and the whip not in use.
“Wroot, Jan. 26, 1724-5.
“Dear Son,
“I am so well pleased with your present behaviour, or at least with your Letters, that I hope I shall have no occasion to remember any more some things that are passed. And since you have now for some time bit upon the bridle, I’ll take care hereafter to put a little honey upon it as oft as I am able. But then it shall be of ray own mere motu, as the last 5t0 was; for I will bear no rivals in my kindness.
“I did not forget you with Dr. Morley,* but have moved tha< way as much as possible; though I must confess, hitherto, with no great prospect or hopes of success.
* Dr. Morley was Rector of Lincoln College; and as Mr. John Wesley purposed to stand for a fellowship, he requested his Father to use his interee’ with the Dr. in reference to that event. The next year he stood, an?
succeeded.
“As for what you mention of entering into Holy Orders, it is indeed a great work: and I am pleased to find you think it so, as well as that you do not admire a callow Clergyman any more than I do.
“As for your motives you take notice of, my thoughts are; 1. It is no harm to desire getting into that office, even as Eli’s sons, * to eat a piece of bread:’ — for i the labourer is worthy of his hire.’ Though, 2. A desire and intention to lead a stricter life, and a belief one should do so, is a better reason; though this should by all means be begun before, or else ten to one it will deceive us afterwards. 3. If a man be unwilling and undesirous to enter into Orders, it is easy to guess whether he can say, so much as with common honesty, •’ that he believes he is moved by the Holy Spirit to do it.’ But, 4. The principal spring and motive, to which all the former should be only secondary, must certainly be the glory of God, and the service of His Church, in the edification and salvation of our neighbour: and woe to him who, with any meaner leading view, attempts so sacred a Work. For which, 5. He should take all the care he possibly can, with the advice of wiser and elder men; especially imploring with all humility, sincerity, and intention of mind, and with fasting and prayer, the direction and assistance of Almighty God and His Holy Spirit, to qualify and prepare himself for it.
“The knowledge of the Languages is a very considerable help in this matter, which, I thank God, all my three sons have to a very laudable degree, though God knows I had never more than a smattering of any of them. But then this must be prosecuted to the thorough understanding the Original Text of the Scriptures, by constant and long conversing with them.
“You ask me which is the best Commentary on the Bible? I answer, the Bible: for the several Paraphrases and Translations of it in the Polygloit, compared with the original and with one another, are in my opinion, to an honest, devout, industrious, and humble mind, infinitely preferable to any Commentary I ever saw wrote upon it, though Grotius is the best (for the most part,) especially on the Old Testament.
“And now the providence of God, (I hope it was,) has engaged me in such a work, wherein you may be very assistant to me, I trust promote His glory, and at the same time notably forward your own studies in the method I have just now proposed. For I have some time since designed an edition of the Holy Bible in octavo in the Hebrew, Chaldee, Seventy, and Vulgar Latin; and hope made some progress in it. The whole scheme whereof I have not time at pree>9 ’
sent to give you; of which scarce any soul yet knows except you: brother Sam.
“What I desire of you on this article is, 1. That you would immediately fall to work; read diligently the Hebrew Text in the Polyglott, and collate it exactly with the Vulgar Latin, which is in the second column, writing down all (even the least) variations or differences between them. To these I would have you add the Samaritan Text, in the last column but one, (do not mind the Latin translation in the very last column) which is the very same with the Hebrew, except in some very few places, only differing in the Samaritan character, (I think the true Old Hebrew,) the alphabet whereof you may learn in a day’s time, either from the Prolegomena in Walton’s Polyglott, or from his Grammar. In a twelvemonth’s time, sticking close to it in the forenoons, you will get twice through the Pentateuch; for I have done it four times the last year, and am going over it the Jifth; collating the Hebrew and two Greek, the Alexandrian and the Vatican, with what I can get of Symmachus and Theodotion, &c. Nor shall you lose your reward for it, either in this or the other world. Nor are your brothers like to be idle. — But I would have nothing said of it to any body, though your brother Sam shall write to you shortly about it.
“In the afternoon read what you will; and be sure to walk an hour, if fair, in the fields. Get Thirlby-s Chrysostom De Sacerdotio, master it, — digest it. I took some pains a year or two since in drawing up some advices to Mr. Hoole’s brother, then to be my curate at Epworth, before his ordination, which may not be unuseful to you; therefore I will send them shortly to your brother Sam for you: but you must return me them again, I having no copy; and pray let none but yourself see them.
“By all this you see I am not for your going over hastily into orders. When I am for your taking them, you shall know it; and it is not impossible but I may be with you, if God so long spare the life and health of
“Your affectionate father,
Sam. Wesley.”
“I like your Verses on the lxvth Psalm, and would not have you to bury your talent. All are well and send duties.
“Work and write while you can. You see time has shaken me by the hand, and death is but a little behind him. My eyes and heart are now almost all I have left; and bless God for them.”
What the full nature and extent of the scheme referred to above was I have not been able to find out. It seems he had intended a copious List of Various Readings; and intended particularly to shewhow the Vulgate Version (professed by St. Jerom to be taken from the Hebrew Text) differed from the original; and how the Alexandrian and Vatican copies of the Septuagint differed from each other: and also to point out the variations between them and the ancient Greek Versions of Symmachus and Theodotion, together with the other existing fragments of the Hexapla of Origen. He appears to have intended also to shew the variation between the Hebrew and Samaritan Pentateuch. He tells us he had in the space of one year gone four times through the Pentateuch. By this I suppose he meant, reading — 1. The Hebrew Text; 2. The Chaldee Paraphrases of Ben Uzziel and Onkelos; 3. The Septuagint; and, 4. The Vulgate. And to read each of those critically, and the whole in twelve months, was no mean labour.
This scheme would have wanted nothing for general utility had it included the Syriac of the Old and New Testaments, and particularly of the latter. A work of this kind, even now, would be of the utmost consequence to biblical students. What became of the preparations for this promising Work I have not been able to learn. He and his three sons were amply qualified for the undertaking.
Mr. Wesley thought himself at that time near the grave; his right hand was palsied, and he had other infirmities: but he lived rather more than ten years after the date of this letter.
To his son Charles, who had in 1729 taken his Bachelor’s degree in Christ’s Church, Oxford, and had begun to take pupils, he wrote as follows: —
“Epworth, January 29, 17^~30’
“Dear Charles,
“I had your last with your brother’s, and you ry easily guess whether I were not pleased with it, both on your p-count and on my own. You have a double advantage by your p«Pils? which will soon bring you more if you will improve it, as I #inly hope you will, in taking the utmost care to form their mindt0 Pietyp as wel as learning. As for yourself, between logic, g*immar, and mathematics, be idle if you can; and I give my blessg to the Bishop for having tied you a little faster, by obliging yo» to rub UP y°ur Arabic; and a fixed and constant method wVtnake all both easy and delightful to you. But for all that yo* must find time every day for walking; which you know you p«ay do with advantage to your pupils; and a little more robust excise now and then will dc you no harm.
“You are now launched fairly, Charles: hold up your head, and swim like a man; and when you cuff the wave beneath you, say to it, much as another hero did, —
Carolum vehis, et Caroli fortunam.
Thou carriest Charles, and Charles’s fortune.
But always keep your eye above the pole star; and so God send you a good voyage through the troublesome sea of life! which is the hearty prayer of
“Your loving Father,
Sam. Wesley.”
In the following year Mr. Wesley met with an accident that was likely to have proved fatal to him. Mr. John Wesley, then at Oxford, having had some account of it, wrote to his mother for the particulars, of which she gave him the following detail, —
“July 12, 1731.
u Dear Jacky,
The particulars of your father’s fall are as follows: —
On Friday before Whitsunday, the 4th of June, I, your sister Martha, and our maid, were going in our wagon to see the ground we hire of Mrs. Knight, at Loic Millwood. He sat in a chair at one end of the wagon, I in another at the other end, Matty between us, and the maid behind me. Just before we reached the close, going down a small hill, the horses took into a gallop; — out flies your father arid his chair: the maid seeing the horses run, hung all her weight on n.y chair, and kept me from keeping him company. She cried out to William to stop the horses, and that her master was killed. The fellow leaped out of the seat, and stayed the horses; then ran to Mr. Wesle bin” ere he got to him, two neighbours who were providentially met uaether raised his head, upon which he had pitched, and held him baCxWar(j? by which means he begun to respire, for, ’tis certain, by the blkness ln his face? tnat he had never drawn breath from the time oi his fall till they helped him up. By this time I was got to him, askn him how he did, and persuaded him to drink a little ale, for we haa brought a bottle with us; he looked prodigiously wild, but began to SH?akp and toid me he ailed nothing. I informed him of his fall. He saiLne ‘knew nothing of any fall, he was as well as ever he was in his lnv We bound up his head, which was very much bruised, and helped into the wagon again, and set him at the bottom of it, while I supporter his head between my hands, and the man led the horses softly home. I sent presently for Mr. Harper, who took a good quantity of blood from him; and then he begun to feel pain in several parts, particularly in his side and shoulder. He had a very ill night: but on Saturday morning Mr. Harper came again to him, dressed his head, and gave him something which much abated the pain in his side. We repeated the dose at bed-time, and on Whitsunday he preached twice, and gave the Sacrament, which was too much for him to do, but nobody could dissuade him from it. On Monday he was ill, slept almost all day. On Tuesday the gout came: but with two or three nights taking Bateman, it went off again, and he has since been better than could be expected. We thought at first the wagon had gone over him: but it only went over his gown sleeve, and the nails took a little skin off his knuckles, but did him no further hurt.”
Thus far Mrs. Wesley. It is evident from the manner of his fall, and the state he was in when taken up, that had there not been timely help, he would have never breathed more. Was there not an especial Providence concerned in preserving the life of this good man?
The generality of English readers will wonder at horses galloping away with a wagon j and so should I, had I not known those which are used in the Isle of Axholme, and particularly about Epioorth. It is a long, light, and very narrow vehicle with four narrow wheels, drawn by two horses a breast; and it is no unusual thing to drive with these wagons at a very high trot, and not seldom at a gallop, when going to the harvest fields.
This Letter, the original of which is before me, seems to have been carefully preserved by Mr. John Wesley, as a record of God’s
mercy in the preservation of his father’s life. He had endorsed
it thus, —
My Father’s Fall.”
Of the settlement of Mr. Wesley’s family I find little. But the following Letter relative to the person who married his daughter Mary is worthy of insertion, —
“Westminster, Jan. 14, 1733.
” To Lord Chancellor York, for John Whitlamb,
now Curate of Epworth.
“My Lord,
“The small Rectory of Wroot, in the Diocese and County of Lincoln, adjoining to the Isle of Axholme, is in the gift of the Lord Chancellor, and more than seven years since was conferred on Samuel Wesley, Rector of Epworth. It lies in the low levels, and is often overflowed; four or five years since I have had it; and the people have lost most, or all the fruits of the earth to that degree that it has hardly brought me in fifty pounds per annum, omnibus annis; and some years not enough to pay my curate there his salary of 30/. a-year. This living, by your Lordship’s permission and favour, I would gladly resign to one Mr. John Whitlamb, born in the neighbourhood of Wroot, as his father and grandfather lived in it, when I took him from among the scholars of a Charity School founded by one Mr. Tr avers, an attorney — brought him to my house, and educated him there, where he was my amanuensis for four years, in transcribing my Dissertations on the Book of Job, now well advanced in the press; and drawing my maps and fgures for it, as well as we could by the light of Nature. After this, I sent him to Oxford, to my son John Wesley, Fellow of Lincoln College, under whom he made such proficiency, that he was the last summer admitted by the Bishop of Oxford into Deacon’s Orders, and placed my curate in Epworth, while I came up to Town, to expedite the printing my Book.
“Since I was here I gave consent to his marrying one of my seven daughters, and they are married accordingly; and though I can spare little more with her, yet I would gladly give them a little glebe land at Wroot, where I am sure they will not want springs of water. But they love the place, though I can get nobody else to reside on it. If I do not flatter myself, he is indeed a valuable person; of uncommon brightness, learning, piety, and indefatigable industry: always loyal to the King, zealous for the Church, and friendly to the Dissenting Brethren; and for the truth of this character I will be answerable to God and mian. If, therefore, your Lordship will grant me the favour to let me resign the Living unto him, and please to confer it on him, I shall always remain, Your Lordship’s most bounden,
most grateful, and most obedient servant,
Samuel Wesley, Sen.”
Mary, the wife of this Mr. John Whitlamb, died of her first child. The Lord Chancellor transferred the living as requested; and Mr. Whitlamb was promoted to it in February of the following year. We shall hear again of young Mr. Whitlamb, as Mr. Wesley’s assistant on the Book of Job.
We have already seen that Mr. Wesley was long engaged in a Work that had for its object the elucidation of the Book of Job, Proposals for the printing of which were published in 1729. From the preceding Letter to the Chancellor, we find it was in the press so early as the year 1732: but was not finished before 1736. The title is, — Dissertationes in librum Jobi: Antore Samuel Wesley, Rectore de Epworth, in Diozcesi Lincolniensi, fol. Lon. typis Gulielmi Bowyer, 1/36,
Dedicated to Queen Caroline in the very short but elegant manner following —
SERENISSJMiE
CAROLINA,
DEI GRATIA
Magnse Britanniae, Franciae, et Hibernise, Reginse,
LITERARUM FAUTRICI,
Qui Juvenis, Reginaa Marine,
Deinde provectior iEtate Annje,
OPERA SUA CONSECRAVIT:
Idem Senex, plusquam Septuagenarius,
EXTREMOS HOSCE LABORES
HUMILLIME OFFERT
SAMUEL WESLEY.
By this we find that Mr. Wesley had the singular honour of dedicating different Works to three British Queens in succession. His History of the Life of Christ he dedicated to Queen Mary; his History of the Old and New Testament to Queen Anne; and his Dissertations on the Book of Job, to Queen Caroline.
When Mr. Wesley had purposed to dedicate this Work to Queen Caroline, he wrote to both his sons, Samuel and John, relative to the proper mode of proceeding: but, on inquiry, they found many obstacles in the way to the Royal Presence, occasioned, it appears, by some offence given by Mr. Samuel in his Satires on the Ministry and their Friends. How these obstacles were at last removed we are not informed: but the Queen received the Work, as we have seen above. The following Letter, written to Mr. Samuel while this subject was pending, is both curious and important.
To my son Samuel.
“Epworth, Dec. 17, 1730.
“Dear Son,
“On Wednesday last, the 15th instant, I had yours of the 11th and 12th, which has made me pretty quiet in reference to my Dedication, as indeed my heart was never violently set upon it before, or I hope on any thing else in this world. I find it stuck where I always boded it would, as in the words of your brother in yours, when you waited on him with my Letter and addressed him on the occasion. “The short answer I received was this, it was utterly impossible to obtain leave on my account: you had the misfortune to be my father; and I had a long bill against M n.”
u I guess at the particulars, that you have let your wit too loose against some favourites; which is often more highly resented, and harder to be pardoned, than if you had done it against greater persons. It seems then that original sin goes sometimes tipvards as well as downwards; and we must suffer for our of spring. Though, notwithstanding this disappointment, owing I doubt not to some misconduct, I shall never think it a misfortune to have been your father.’ I am sensible it would avail little for me to plead in proof of my loyalty, the having written and printed the first thing that appeared in Defence of the Government after the Accession of King William and Queen Mary to the Crown, (which was an Answer to a Speech without doors;) and I wrote a great many little Pieces more, both in prose and verse, with the same view; and that I ever had the most tender affection and deepest veneration for my Sovereign and the Royal Family; on which account it is no secret to you, though it is to most others, that I have undergone the most sensible pains and inconveniences of my whole life, and that for a great many years together; and yet have still, I thank God, retained my integrity firm and immoveable, till I have conquered at the last. I must confess, I had the (I hope at the least) pardonable vanity, (when I had dedicated two Books before to two of our English Queens, Queen Mary and Queen Anne,) to desire to inscribe a third, which has cost me ten times as much labour as all the rest, to her gracious Majesty Queen Caroline; who, I have heard, is an encourager of learning. And this Work, I am sure, needs a Royal encouragement, whether or no it may deserve it. Neither would I yet despair of it, had I any friend who would fairly represent that and me to her Majesty. Be that as pleaseth Him in whose hands are the hearts of all the princes upon earth; and He turneth them whithersoever He pleases.
“If we have not Subscriptions enough for the Cuts, as proposed, we must be content to lower our sails again, and to have only the Maps, the Picture of Job, which I must have at the beginning, and some few others. The family, I thank God, is all well, as is your affectionate father,
Sam. Wesley, Sen/?
It is very likely that Mr. Wesley had learnt before he died, that his Work when finished would be received by the Queen; and that he had permission to dedicate it to Her Majesty; and it must have consoled him; as it would have pained him most sensibly to have fallen under the displeasure of one whom he most sincerely reverenced. I shall now proceed to a description of the Work itself.
The Dissertations are thirty-Jive in number, some of which are very curious.
From the Preface we learn the following particulars: —
1. That he had for a long time carefully read over this Book, first in Hebrew, and secondly in the Septuagint; that he collated these together, and formed the result into Notes and Observations on the Passages which gave them birth; that having procured Walton’s Polyglott, he conferred what he had already done with the ancient Versions in that Work, and greatly increased his Notes and Observations; and that the fire in his house in 1709 destroyed all his property, not a leaf either of his Polyglott, or his Collections on Job, escaping the flames.
2. Having procured another Polyglott, he read over the Hebrew Text again, and again, diligently compared the Alexandrian and Vatican Editions of the Septuagint with all the Fragments of Origen’s Hexapla, collated all the Variations in the Chaldee, Arabic and Syriac Texts, with the principal Critics, as exhibited in Pool’s Synopsis: but not understanding the Arabic and Syriac, he was obliged to trust to their Latin Versions in the Polyglott. He compared also TindaPs and the Bishop’s Bible, of which he says, qua licet non prorsus infallibili, perfectiorem in ulld lingua me visaram non spero; “which, although not altogether infallible, any thing more perfect in any language I never expect to see.”
3. Having gone through all this previous labour, he then consulted all the Commentators within his reach, principally relying on what he had been able to acquire from the above Collation of the Original Text, and Ancient Versions in the Polyglott.
4. As he did not design to write a Commentary on the Book, he wrote down the titles of subjects on which he designed to write Dissertations for the general elucidation of the Book.
5. He then relates the assistance he had from 3ools — and mentions with peculiar gratitude and respect the help he received from the Library of Lord Malton; without whose kindness, hospitality, and munificence, the Work, he says, would have come into the world mutilated, or perished as an abortion.
6. The Authors he consulted were principally, PH’iy, Bunting’s Travels of the Patriarchs, Salmasius, Mcrcator. Jeront Ousebius
Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Luitsius, Sanson, Purchas, Hakluyt, De la Valley and Peutingers Tables for the geographical part. Bochart, worth all the rest put together, he had, he says, only for a few days. Calmet, Pineda, Spanheim, Dr. Hyde, Bishop Cumberland, Greaves, Sandys, &c. gave him help in the same line.
7. For the Chronology, he consulted Ussher, Loyd, Marshal. Ptolemy, Cellarius, Reyland, and Maundrel.
8. Mr. Rumley, teacher of the Wroot Charity School; Maurice Johnson, Esq. founder of the Gentleman’s Society at Spalding; and his three sons, Samuel, John, and Charles, were those from whom he had his principal assistance. Samuel corrected the press; and he and his brothers did every thing in the Work that dutiful sons should do for an aged and most respectable parent.
9. By close application to this Work for many years, he greatly impaired his health, and brought on himself both gout and palsy. He died the year before it was finished, and his son Samuel mmpleted and edited the Work.
10. In this Work there are a good many Engravings, by Vertue, Seale, and Cole; and there are several plates anonymous. Of the engravings in general, Mr. Badcock says, they seem to be the first rude efforts of an untutored boy; nothing can be conceived more execrable. We must except from this censure those done by Vertue; the head particularly, which is really fine. The Crocodile, Hippopotamus, and War Horse by Cole, are tolerable. The rest are very indifferent; and the anonymous, which were the work of Mr. John Whitlamb, who was his amanuensis and pupil for several years, whom he sent to the University, and who afterwards married his daughter Mary, are among the worst that ever saw the sun. Mr. Badcock guessed right that they icere the first rude efforts of an untutored boy.
The Frontispiece by Vertue is well imagined, and well done; except the Portcullis in the ancient gate, under which Mr. W esley, in the character of Job dispensing justice, is sitting in an ancient chair, with a sceptre in his hand, and two pyramids in the distance. Over the top of the gate is written JOB PATRIARCH A; and at the bottom of the leaf are these words upon a label, —
An. Etat. circiter LXX.
QUIS MIHI TRJBUAT CT SCRIBANTUR
Sermones M£I, UT IN LIBRO EXCULPANTER.
A correspondent in the Gentleman’s Magazine, 1785, p. 758. says that this inscription “marks it out as the quaint device of a man in years, who thought himself neglected.” I cannot think there was any such design, or that Mr. Wesley thought himself neglected. In no part of his private correspondence have 1 found even the shadow of such a complaint. He rather spoke of what he had as something in the way of Providence, beyond any thing he had either sought or expected. The words are taken, with a slight alteration, from Job xix. 23. as they stand in the Vulgate.
Quis mihi tribuat ut scribanlur sermones mei f
Quis mihi det ut exarantur in libro? —
O that my words were now written!
O that they were printed in a book!
Of this Work there were 500 copies printed; and he had a list of 343 Subscribers.
The most useful part of this Volume, and what must have cost the Author incredible pains and trouble, is the last part, intituled, Libri Jobi Textus Hebraicus, cum Paraphrasi Chaldaica et Versionibusplurimis collatus- —
“The Hebrew Text of the Book of Job, collated with the Chaldee Paraphrase and numerous Versions.”
The following are the Versions: —
The Septuagint, in the Aldine, Grabean, and Bossian Editions, and in the Complutensian Polygiott, with the Fragments of Aquila Symmachus and Theodotion.
The Chaldee Paraphrase,
The Syriac and Arabic Versions,
The Latin Version of Castellio,
of Arias Montanits,
of St. Ambrose,
of Junius Tremellius,
—of Piscator,
of the Zurich Divines,
The English Version of Tindal, — and
The present authorized Version.
Every verse of the whole Book has been collated as above, and all the variations set down; and this part of the Work occupies no less than 184 folio pages. It is one of the completest things of the kind I have ever met with; and must be invaluable to any man who may wish to read this Book critically.
The work having been dedicated by permission to the Queen, Mr. John Wesley was appointed to present it in the name of his deceased father; which he did on Sunday, October 12, 1735. Himself told op mr. wesley’s ancestors.
me, that “when he was introduced into the Royal Presence, the Queen was romping with her maids of honour. But she suspended her play, heard and received him graciously, took the Book from his hand, which he presented to her kneeling on one knee, looked at the outside, said It is very prettily bound, and then laid it down in a window, without opening a leaf. He rose up, bowed, walked backward, and withdrew. The Queen bowed and smiled, and spoke several kind words, and immediately resumed her sport.”
In a Letter from Mr. Badcock, published by Mr. Nichols in his Literary Anecdotes, Vol. V. p. 219., mention is made of Mr. John Wesley’s presenting the Book to Queen Caroline. He says, “Mr. John Wesley, in a letter to his brother Samuel, acknowledges the very courteous reception he was honoured with from her Majesty, who gave him bows and smiles, — but nothing for his poor father.”
I cannot tell how to understand this. Mr. Samuel Wesley died April 25, 1735, and the Work in question bears date 1736. It was in this year it was published; and it certainly was not finished when he died; for in the account of his father’s death, which Mr. Charles Wesley wrote from Epvvorth to his brother Samuel, dated April 30, 1735, we find these remarkable words, — “The fear of Death he had entirely conquered; and at last gave up his latest human desires of finishing Job, paying his debts, and seeing you.” The Book could not have been presented before it was finished; there must therefore be a mistake in Mr. Badcock’s statement, which represents Mr. Samuel Wesley, sen. as alive when his son John presented the Book to the Queen, — “Her Majesty gave him bows and smiles; but nothing for his poor father.”
But Mr. John Wesley’s Letter to his brother puts the matter beyond dispute. It is dated
“Gravesend, on board the Sirnmonds, Oct. 15, 1735.
” Dear Brother,
“I presented Job to the Queen on Sunday, and had many good words and smiles. Out of what is due to me on that account I beg you first pay yourself what I owe you; and if I live till spring, I can then direct what I would have done with the remainder.”
Here is the whole that Mr. J. Wesley says on the subject. And thus we see the Book was not presented till more than six months after Mr. Samuel Wesley’s death. Mr. J. Wesley embarked on Tuesday 14. The Book was presented on Sunday 12.
We have already seen that the infirmities of Mr. Samuel Wesley were greatly increased by his labours on the above Work: from which his advanced age forbad any hopes of recovery. He acted on She maxim, — “rather wear out than rust out;” and he sunk, fairly worn out with labours, old age, and infirmities, April 25, 1735, in the 72d year of his age.
His two sons John and Charles were present at his Death; and the latter gives an account of this closing scene in the following Letter to his brother Samuel.
il Epworth, April 30th, 1735.
“Dear Brother,
“After all your desire of seeing my father alive, you are at last assured you must see his face no more, till raised in incorruption. You have reason to envy us, who could attend him in the last stage of his illness. The few words he uttered I have saved. Some of them were, * Nothing too much to suffer for heaven. The weaker I am in body, the stronger and more sensible support I feel from God. — There is but a step between me and death. To-morrow I would see you all with me round this table, that we may once more drink of the cup of blessing; before we drink of it new in the kingdom of God, With desire have I desired to eat this Pass-over with you before I die/
“The morning he was to communicate he was so exceeding weak, and full of pain, that he could not without the utmost difficulty receive the elements, often repeating, c Thou shakest me! thou shakest me.’ But immediately after receiving, there followed the most visible alteration. He appeared full of faith and peace, which extended even to his body; for he was so much better, that we almost hoped he would have recovered. The fear of death he had entirely conquered; and at last gave up his latest human desires, of [finishing Job, paying his debts, and seeing you. He often laid his hands upon my head, and said, ‘Be steady. The Christian Faith will surely revive in this kingdom; you shall see it, though I shall not, To my sister Emily he said, ‘Do not be concerned at my death; God will then begin to manifest Himself to my family.7 When we were met about him, his usual expression was, ( Now let me hear you talk about heaven.’ On my asking him, whether he did not find himself worse, he replied, ( O my Charles, I feel a great deal. God chastens me with strong pain: but I praise Him for it; I thank Him for it; I love Him for it.’ On the 25th his voice failed him, and nature seemed entirely spent, when on my Brother’s asking, 6 whether he was not near heaven?’ he answered distinctly, and with the most of hope and triumph that could be expressed in sounds, 6 Yes, I am.’ He spoke once more, just after my brother had used the Commendatory Prayer. — His last words were, £ Now you have done all.’ This was about.
half an hour after six: from which time till sun set he made signs of offering up himself, till my brother, having again used the Prayer, the very moment it was finished, he expired.
“His passage was so smooth and insensible, that notwithstanding the stopping of his pulse, and ceasing of all sign of life and motion, we continued over him a good while, in doubt whether the soul was departed or no. My mother who, for several days before he died, hardly ever went into his chamber, but she was carried out again in a fit, was far less shocked at the news than we expected; and told us, that 1 now she was heard in his having so easy a death, and her being strengthened so to bear it.’
“Though you have lost your chief reason for coming, yet there are others which make your presence more necessary than ever. My mother would be exceedingly glad to see you as soon as can be.
“We have computed the debts, and find they amount to above 1007. exclusive of Cousin Richardson’s. Mrs. Knight, her landlady, seized all her quick stock, valued at above 40Z. for 15 J. my father owed her, on Monday last, the day he was buried. And my brother this afternoon gives a note for the money, in order to get the stock at liberty to sell, for security of which he has the stock made over to him, and will be paid as it can be sold. My father was buried very frugally, yet decently, in the church-yard, according to his own desire.
“It will be highly necessary to bring all accounts of what he owed you that you may mark all the goods in the house as principal creditor, and thereby secure to my mother time and liberty to sell them to the best advantage. Chartas o?mies, et Epistolas prcecipuas opposita sera in adventum tuum j’eservo. [All papers and letters of importance I have sealed up, and keep till you come.]
“Kezzy and Mr. H. have parted for ever. Your advice in her’s, and many other cases, will be absolutely necessary. If you take London in your way, my mother desires you would remember that she is a Clergyman’s widow. Let the Society give her what they please, she must be still in some degree burthensome to you as she calls it. How do I envy you that glorious burthen, and wish I could share it with you. You must put me in some way of getting a little money, that I may do something in this shipwreck of the family, though it be no more than furnishing a plank.
“I should be ashamed of having so much business in my Letter, were it not necessary. I would choose to write and think of nothing but my father. Ere we meet, I hope you will have finished his elegy. “I am
Your affectionate Brother,
Charles Wesley.”
“To the Rev. Mr. Wesley, at Tiverton, Devon.”
1 believe Mr. Samuel had not only a high esteem, but also an ardent affection, for his Father; and therefore to be deprived of the opportunity of witnessing his closing scene must have been to him the cause of deep affliction and regret. When Mr. Charles states in the above Letter that his Father gave up his last human hopes, of seeing his son Samuel, finishing his Dissertations on Job, and paying his debts, the sympathetic reader will anxiously inquire — what were these debts? They were small; and more property was left than was necessary to cover them all. For on examination, Mr. Charles tells us they were found to amount only to a little more than one hundred pounds, independently of some pecuniary obligations to some parts of his own Family! Such a debt, when enough was left to pay it, need not have occupied in any serious way his last moments.
We have seen in the Letter of Mrs. Wesley to her son John, giving account of Mr. Wesley’s dangerous fall (see page 172) that in 1731, they had rented a piece of ground from a Mrs. Knight at Low Millwood. It is very probable that Mr. Wesley held this ground till he died; for we find in a part of the preceding Letter, that fifteen pounds were owing to this Mrs. Knight at the time of his interment. This inhuman woman, who appears to have been a widow herself, took advantage of the family distress; and not having the fear of God before her eyes, and instigated thereto by the malice of the devil, seized the whole of poor Mr. Wesley’s cattle on the same day, without giving one hour’s grace for the payment! A more unfeeling, a more abominable, a more inhuman act, I never heard of. I record this action, that I may hand down the name of this Mrs. Knight with deserved infamy while my page shall last;
“And time her blacker name shall blurre with blackest ink.”
Mr. Wesley lies buried in Epworth Church yard, under a plain grit tombstone, supported by brick-work; on which is engraved the following inscription. I give it line for line with the original.
Lyeth all that was
Mortal of Samuel Wesley,
A. M. He was Rector of Epworth 39 years and departed
this Life 25 of April 1735
Aged 72.
As he liv’d so he died,
in the true Catholick Faith
of the Holy Trinity in Unity,
And that Jesus Christ is God
incarnate: and the only
Saviour of Mankind,
Acts iv. 12
op mr. wesley’s ancestor
Blessed are the dead
Which die in the Lord, yea
saith the Spirit that they may
rest from their Labours and
their works do follow them.
Rev. xiv. 13.
This was the original inscription, cut in the manner above represented; under whose direction and management I cannot tell. Becoming nearly obliterated, the brick-work was repaired in the year 1819, the stone turned and recut, with the same inscription; only the lines do not all end in the same way as above, but with equal absurdity and unskilfulness in the division.
The whole is utterly unworthy of the man, the Christian, and the Minister; and as the Family is now nearly pxtinct, it is hoped that the Methodist Body will erect a decent Monument for the Father of John Wesley their Founder, that may serve to perpetuate the memory of his excellence; and their gratitude to God, who from this source raised up the man who has been such a blessing to the British Nation, to the Isles of the sea, and to the ends of the earth.
His son Samuel wrote his Character in a Poem intituled The Parish Priest, which was published the following year 1736, in his Poems on several occasio?is. This places the Rector of Ep worth in a favourable and true light.
Accept, dear Sire, this humble tribute paid,
Thi3 3mall memorial to a parent’s shade.
Tho’ fair the hope, thou reign’st enthron’d on high,
Where sin can never stain, nor sorrow sigh;
Yet still a son may duteous mourning wear,
And nature unreprov’d may drop a tear.
No glosing falsehood on thy name is thrown,
Which oft pollutes the monumental stone.
Plain truth shall speak, which thou thyself might’st hear.
As far from flatt’ry as it is from fear.
A Parish Priest, not of the pilgrim kind,
But fis’d and faithful to the post assign’d,
Through various scenes with equal virtue trod.
True to his oath, his order, and his God.
Wise without art, he shone in doubtful days
Of fear, of shame, of danger, and of praise.
When zealous James unhappy sought the way
T’ establish Rome by arbitrary sway,
Whose crime from fondness for religion springs,
(A crime ne’er pardon;d in the lives of kings!)
:Twas then the Christian Priest was nobly try’d,
When hireling slaves embrac’d the stronger side.
And saintly sects and sycophants comply’d.
In vain were bribes shower’d by the guilty Crown;
He sought no favour, as he fear’d no frown.
Nor loudest storms his steady purpose broke,
Firm as the beaten anvil to the stroke.
Secure in faith, exempt from worldly views,
He dar’d the Declaration to refuse:
Then from the sacred pulpit boldly show’d
The dauntless Hebrews true to Israel’s God,
Who spake, regardless of their king’s commands,
“The God we serve can save us from thy hands ;*
“If not, O monarch, know we choose to die,
“Thy gods alike and threat’nings we defy;
“No pow’r on earth our faith has e’er controll’d,
“We scorn to worship idols, tho’ of gold.”
Resistless truth damp’d all the audience round,
The base informer sicken ‘d at the sound;
Attentive courtiers conscious stood amazd,
And soldiers, silent, trembled as they gaz’d.
No smallest murmur of distaste arose,
Abash’d and vanquish’d seem’d the Church’s foes.
So when like zeal their bosoms did inspire,
The Jewish martyrs walked unhurt in fire.
Nor yet could Romish faith so dreadful seem,
To fright his judgment to a worse extreme;
To throw up creeds for fear of Papal pow’r,
And blame St. Peter for his successour.
For when the Church her danger had subdu’d,
And felt on earth the usual gratitude,
When favour’d sects o’erspread Britannia’s plains.
Like frogs, thick-swarming, after summer rains;
Against far diff rent foes alike prepar’d,
No wild disputer found him off his guard.
Nor those who following late Socinus’ plan,
Degraded God incarnate to a man;
Nor those, who wrestling texts with greater sleight,
With Heav’n, as taught by elder Arius, fight:
Reasoners, who no absurdity can see
In a new made dependent Deity.
Amongst his corn no tares neglected spring;
That free-born subjects ought to rule their king,
That sense and Revelation disagree,
That zeal is still at war, with charity;
That dust-born reptiles may their God disown,
And place their foolish reason in His throne.
No colours false deceiv’d his wary eye,
Nor luke-warm peace, nor atheist liberty.
Scripture and Fathers guide his footsteps right;
For truth is one, but error infinite.
*He preached on Dan iii. 17. 18.
24 ’
With love to souls, and deepest learning fraught.
His Master’s Gospel undisguis’d he taught.
He shew’d the pow’r of kings, the mitre’s sway,
Which earth can neither give nor take away.
That duty from Divine command is known,
Fix’d on th’ Almighty’s will, and not our own.
That unbelievers must receive their hire,
The sure allotment of eternal fire.
And God the faithful Sower pleas’dto bless,
And crown’d his harvest with a vast success.
While forty years his heav’nly doctrine charms,
No single son forsakes the Church’s arms:
No Romish wolf around his fences prowl’d,*
Nor fox Dissenter earth’d within his fold.
Not but when parties fierce in feuds engage,
When moderation spurs her sons to rage,
When all elect or reprobate have been,
In these no virtue dwells, in those no sin;
Then their low scandals on his head they show’r,
As friend to papal and despotic pow’r.
E’en those who once were tools to Popish aims,
The treach’rous darlings of deluded James,
Who now the purest reformation boast,
Tho’ then their tender consciences were lost,
E’en those far off with lies his fame assail,
And their bad patrons help the wicked tale
‘Tis thus the serpent to his cavern glides,
And safe his wily head from winter hides;
But when returning seasons warmth inspire,
And wake his sleeping prison into fire,
With youth renew’d, behold the reptile rise,
He waves and glitters in the dog-day skies,
Shoots ‘cross the road, when sounding steps draw near,
And springs t’ assault the way-beat traveller:
Who durst his course in rains and whirlwinds hold,
And pass’d unshelter’d through December’s cold.
Griev’d for the Church’s shame, with pitying eye,
He saw the worthless abjects lifted high;
Empty alike of learning and of brain,
As if the Pope had re-assum’d his reign,
And brought our ancient Mumpsimus again.
With fruitless toil let midnight scholars pore,
And dig the mine, while others gain the ore;
Proud of demerit, claiming as their own
The stall prebendal, or preiatic throne:
While Johnson from his Cranbrook ne’er shall part,
And Fiddes pining sighs with broken heart;
.: I.
* There was not a Dissenter or Papist in his parish.
While Grabe in vain t’ unthankful Britian flies,
And Wall neglected in a corner lies,
And poor, and unrewarded, Bingham dies;
While names obscure undue advancement meet,
And T could conquer Stillingfleet.
Nor yet on those preferr’d he cast the blame,
Far more the patrons than the clerks inflame.
Patrons afraid of sense, but not of vice,
Elate with pride, or sunk with avarice.
Patrons by villains sought, by slaves ador’d;
Scorn’d by the gen’rous, by the good abhorr’d.
Or private rascais, who from conscience free,
Search ev’ry latent nook of Simony;
Who but on base conditions ne’er present,
And future tithes by present bonds prevent:
Or knaves more public, studious to promote
Elections, bart’ring benefice for vote.
Is he self-will’d, or knows he to obey?
Enough! no farther tittle need you say:
An useful man may as he pleases live,
But worth’s a crime we never can forgive.
So when the Roman Peter wants an heir, t
If rogues of both religions we compare,
Tho’ worthy candidates the Popedom seek.
Expert in Latin, and well-read in Greek:
The conclave sly, with Machiaviiian views,
One to be govern’d, not to govern, choose.
Like Quakers, human learning they forswear,
And ignorance best Alls th’ unerring chair.
The statesmen laugh, let Bellarmine go fume,
No fam’d Perron the purple shall assume,
No, nor Baronius’ self, the Atlas of their Rome,
When age, not hasten’d on by guilt or cares,
Grac’d him with silver crown of hoary hairs,
His looks the tenour of his soul express,
An easy unaffected cheerfulness;
Stedfast, not stiff; and awful, not austere;
Tho’ courteous, rev’rend; and tho’ smooth, sincere:
In converse free; for ev’ry subject fit;
The coolest reason join’d to keenest wit;
Wit, that with aim resistless knows to fly,
Disarms unthought-of, and prevents reply:
So lightning falls the mountain oaks among,
As sure, as quick, as shining, and as strong.
Skilful of sportive stories forth to pour,
A gay, a humourous, an exhaustless store.
With sharpest point and justest force apply’d,
The purport never dark and never wide.
Not adversaries selves applause forbore,
And those who bjam’d him most, admir’d him more
Scarcely the Phrygian fara’d for moral tales,
Who useful truth in pleasing fiction veils,
Who wisdom deep in plants and brutes can find,
And makes all creatures tutors to mankind;
In apter fable solid sense convey’d,
With sounder substance, or with finer shade.
He mourn’d with those who pain or want endure,
A guardian angel to the sick and poor;
Where the two best of charities he join’d,
To cure the body, and to heal the mind.
Across his path no wreteh expiring lies,*
Nor querulous blind bewail their loss of eyes:
No mangled cripple there expos’d his maim,
The shock of nature, and the nation’s shame;
The stranger’s view no startling object meets,
And no complaining griev’d his happy streets.
Oft as the year brought back the glorious day
When infant Jesus in a manger lay,
Or when from death the God triumphant came,
Or when the Holy Ghost descends in flame,
Around his board the welcome needy sate,
And croud his parlour, not besiege his gate;
T’ obey their word his children waited near,
And learnt their Saviour’s image to revere.
This charity perform’d, the wealthier guest
Was call’d to share his hospitable feast;
The poor invited first, his table grace,
And riches only held the second place.
While silken courtiers and embroider’d lords,
To whom the earth her mines in vain affords,
Too oft their need unable to supply,
In spite of wealth are pinch’d with poverty:
His scanty rent suffic’d for ev’ry call,
Large was his plenty, tho’ his income small;
Alike in prudence and in bounty skill’d,
He never drain’d his purse, nor ever fill’d.
None e’er did twice his ready alms desire,
Nor lack’d the lab’rer his expected hire:
Enrich’d by doing good a thousand-fold,
He rarely gain’d, and never wanted gold.
Well-stor’d to give, and furnish’d still to lend,
To raise the friendless, and support the friend.
With ceaseless streams his well-plac’d treasure flows,
When spent increases, and by less’ning grows.
So when Elijah dwelt on earth, (as far
As miracle with conduct we compare,)
There were no beggars in his town.
Sarepta’s widow, hoping no supply,
Thought on her little store to eat and die:
Soon as she welcom’d her prophetic guest,
The cruse flow’d lib’ral, and the corn increas’d;
Th’ Almighty pow’r unfailing plenty sent,
The oil unwasted, and the meal unspent.
Such was the man by friends and foes confest,
Worthy the glorious name of Parish Priest.
Had not kind heav’n some champions pleas’d to shew,
In merit high, tho’ in preferment low;
Whose pray’rs and tears might stop th’ Almighty’s hand?
Protecting angels to a guilty land,
From earth’s vain hopes and base ambition free,
Whose slighted, but effectual piety,
Stood like a mound unshaken, to repress
Th’ o’erbearing floods of prosp’rous wickedness:
The Christian faith had left Brittannia’s coast,
Her lamp extinguish’d, and her Gospel lost:
Our eyes e’er this had seen Religion fall,
And black apostasy had delug’d all;
Nor more remains of truth had flourished here,
Than where poor Asia’s ruins scarce appear,
And Unitarian Turks their impious crescent rear.
0 could the Priest by God and angels priz’d,
By fiends insulted, and by fools despis’d,
His fight well-fought, when summon’d hence to go,
Not then regardless of his charge below,
Tho’ sudden snatch’d from our desiring eyes,
Bequeath his mantle, as he mounts the skies!
0 may his friends, at the last dreadful day,
When all the frail creation fades away,
When God incarnate fills the judgment throne,
Crown’d with his Father’s radiance and his owe,
Arise with gladness, bliss ordain’d to share,
And I, transported, meet a Father there!
See him lead up his flock with happy boast,
“These sheep Thou gav’st me, and not one is lost.’’
Exulting hear the final Evge giv’n,
“Enter, thou faithful servant, to my heav’n.”
Glory, which here tho’ faith may well believe,
No speech can utter, and no thought conceive;
When weary time his utmost race has run,
Glory through endless ages but begun,
Beyond the glimm’ring spark of our meridian sun.
To those who believe the Character has not been overdrawn, and that the Son has not been too partial to the Father, nothing need be added.
I have taken care to inquire upon the spot, (where the memory of Mr. Samuel Wesley is still well preserved among the elderly and more respectable inhabitants) concerning the man and his communications; and I have had in substance the same Character which in the above Poem was given by his Son.
From some Family Papers I learn that Mr. Samuel Wesley was of a short stature; spare, but athletic make; and, from what I can collect, nearly resembling in person his Son John: and it is very likely that the picture engraved by Vertue, and prefixed to his Dissertations on the Book of Job, was a correct resemblance.
His spirit and temper may be seen in his Writings, and in the preceding account.
He was earnest, conscientious, and indefatigable in his search after truth. He thought deeply on every subject which was either to form an article in his Creed, or a principle for his conduct. And having formed these, he boldly maintained them; conscious of his own integrity, and zealous for what he conceived to be the Orthodox Faith. His Orthodoxy was pure and solid; his religious conduct strictly correct in all respects; his piety towards God ardent; his loyalty to his King unsullied; and his love to his fellow-creatures strong and unconflned. Though of high Church Principles, and high Church Politics, yet he could separate the man from the opiyiions he held, and the Party he had espoused; and when he found him in distress, knew him only as a man and a brother. He was a rigid Disciplinarian both in his Church and his Family. He knew all his Parishioners; and he knew them as the Flock over which he believed the Holy Spirit had made him an Overseer; and for whom he must give account to the Great Bishop and Shepherd of souls. He visited his Parishioners from house to house; he sifted their Creed, and permitted none to be corrupt in their opinions or in their practices, without instruction or reproof.
These things have been attested to me by aged respectable Inhabitants of Ep worth; to whom the Memory of the Man and the Pastor is still dear.
His Family he kept in the strictest order; and though authoritative in all his deportment towards them, yet he was ever sufficiently tender; so that he had entirely secured their affection and respect. It is pleasing to behold this in all the Letters that passed between him and his children. Had not his authority and parental tenderness been duly attempered, his children would have either feared him as their judge, or treated him as their play -fellow. I have often seen great evils produced by Parents acting on one only of these opposite extremes.
As a Controversial Writer, he had considerable dexterity in managing an argument, and defending himself. But he sometimes betrays an acrimony of spirit against his opponents, the common fault of polemic Divines.
To his judicious method of instructing and managing his family we owe, under God, many of those advantages and blessings which as a religious people we possess; and even on this account, his name among the Methodists should be held in everlasting remembrance.
Mr. Wesley had a large share of vivacity. In his private conversation he was very entertaining and instructive. He had a large fund of anecdote; and a profusion both of witty and wise sayings, which he knew well how to apply for the instruction or correction of those who were favoured with his company. To this rare and useful talent his son Samuel alludes in the following verses of the Poem called The Parish Priest,-^-
“In converse free; for every subject fit;
The coolest reason join’d to keenest wit j
Wit, that with aim resistless knows to fly,
Disarms unthought of, and prevents reply.
Skilful of sportive stories forth to pour,
A gay, a humourous, an exhaustless store,
With sharpest point and justest force applied,
The purport never dark and never wide.
Scarcely the Phrygian fam’d for moral tales,
Who useful truth in pleasing fiction veils,
Who wisdom deep in plants and brutes can find,
And makes all creatures tutors to mankind;
In apter fable solid sense convey’d,
With sounder substance, or with finer shade.”
He was accustomed to treat his friends and the poor on the three grand festivals, Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide. But the poor always sat down Jirst, and were attended by his daughters; and when they had eaten heartily and departed, the richer guests took the vacant seats. This circumstance has not been forgotten in the above Poem.
“Oft as the year brought back the glorious day
When infant JeSus in a manger lay,
Or when from death the God triumphant came,
Or when the Holy Ghost descends in flame,
Around his board the welcome needy sate,
And crowd his parlour, not besiege his gate;
T’ obey their word his children waited near,
And learnt their Saviour’s image to revere,
op mr. wesley’s ancestors
This charity perform’d, the wealthier guest
Was call’d to share his hospitable feast,
The poor, invited first, his table grace,
And Riches only held the second place.’*
All this is highly praiseworthy; for a parish priest, who is Bishop of his own place, should be given to hospitality; and when he has the means, nothing is more becoming. But it is a truth that many of these have little or nothing to spare; and Mr. Wesley was always in such circumstances; and with these his son Samuel does not appear to have been duly acquainted, as the following lines shew, which are far from being strictly correct, —
“His scanty rent suffic’d for every call;
Large was his plenty though his income small:
Alike in prudence and in bounty skill d;
He never drain’ d his purse, nor everjiird.”
The contrary to this has sufficiently appeared. But Poetry seldom speaks the strict language of truth; and while duty binds us to note them, we pardon such oversights in the grateful effusions of an affectionate child.
Mr. Wesley had a clerk, a well-meaning, honest, but weak, and vain man. He believed the Rector, his master, to be the greatest man in the parish, if not in the county; — and himself, as he stood next to him in church ministrations, to be next to him in worth and importance. He had the advantage and privilege of wearing out Mr. Wesley’s cast clothes and wigs, for the latter of which his head was by far too small; and the figure he cut in it was most ludicrously grotesque. The Rector finding him particularly vain of one of those canonical substitutes for hair which he had lately received, formed the design to mortify him in the presence of that congregation before which John wished to appear in every respect what he thought himself, the next person in importance to his master. One morning before church time Mr. W. said, u John, I shall preach on a particular subject to-day; and shall choose my own Psalm, of which I shall give out the first line, and you shall proceed as usual.” John was pleased; and the service went forward as it was wont to do till they came to the singing, when Mr. Wesley gave out the following line, —
“Like to an owl in ivy bush.”
This was sung; — and the following line, John peeping out of the large canonical wig in which his head was half lost, gave out with an audible voice and appropriate connecting twang, —
“That rueful thing am I!”
19S
The whole congregation, struck with John’s appearance, saw, and felt the similitude, and burst out into laughter.
The Rector was pleased; for John was mortified, and his self-conceit lowered.
This is the same man who, when King William returned to London after some of his expeditions, gave out in Epworth Church, —” Let us sing to the praise and glory of God, a Hymn of my own composing: —
“King William is come home, come home,
King William home is come;
Therefore let us together sing
The hymn that’s call’d Te D’um”
I have only to add that a sycamore tree, planted by Mr. Wesley in Epworth church yard, is now (1821) two fathoms in girth; and proportionably large in height, boughs, and branches; but is decaying at the root, where the tree is now becoming hollow: a melancholy emblem of the state of a very eminent Family, in which the prophetic office and spirit had flourished for nearly two hundred years, which is now nearly dried up from the earth, and is no more likely to give a Messenger to the Churches, or a Healer to Israel.
1 have dwelt the longer upon this Life, as no adequate justice has ever yet been done to it, though it is of the utmost consequence in the History of Methodism for reasons which have doubtless appeared to the Reader in its perusal.
On the facts and incidents the most implicit confidence may be safely placed, as they are all taken from authentic documents.