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| Samuel Wesley |
It was on April 25 in 1735 that Samuel Wesley, father of
John, Charles and other siblings, died.
He was rector of Epworth Parish in Britain. His father was a nonconformist minister, but
Samuel came into the Church of England after he graduated from Exeter College,
Oxford. The church ordained him priest
in 1689. He married Susannah Annesley
during his time as a London parish curate.
The couple had 19 children, ten of whom survived their infancy. He was a High Churchman who recommended the
monthly celebration of the Eucharist rather than quarterly. He urged that parishioners offer their
children for baptism publicly rather than privately. He supported the use of contemporary hymns
rather than the “Old Version” Psalter that congregations commonly used in those
days.
He was a poet of some note in his day, and he wrote a widely-acclaimed scholarly work on the Book of Job.
While rector of Epworth he ran into continual frustrations. Parishioners were suspects in the starting
of a rectory fire in 1709. Onlookers
spotted John in an upstairs window after everyone else had evacuated the
house. There was no point of entry, and
so people formed a human pyramid in order to rescue the child.
Samuel’s response after the delivering of the child, “Let us
give thanks to God! He has given me all
my eight children; Let the house go, I am rich enough.”
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