At the Origins of Methodism: Susanna Wesley
Ada Prisco2020, International journal of social science and economic research
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The article focuses on the origins of Methodism. In particular, it examines the figure of Susanna Wesley, mother of John Wesley. The woman, framed in the historical age and in the light of her personal events, appears of great importance for her independent thought, for the support and inspiration that she could give, with words and works, in the foundation of the movement and in decisive advance with regard to women's education and gender equality. An "ante litteram" pastor?
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2015
This paper was written in partial fulfillment of the course requirements of United Methodist History under the instruction Dr. Tamara Lewis at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, Fall 2013. Following a review of literature pertinent to the study of Susanna Wesley in Methodist History, this essay argues specifically that his mother, who embodied a theologically-rich fusion of Puritanical pietism and Anglican orthodoxy, and her relationship with her “Jackie” should be understood as a prime source in the development of John Wesley’s practical theology of piety and mercy.
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This essay introduces the unpublished poetry of Sarah Wesley (1759—1828), daughter of co-founder and poet of Methodism Charles Wesley. Although Sarah Wesley is a crucial (if unacknowledged) source for our knowledge of early Methodism, her poetry challenges many of the denomination's central tenets, particularly its doctrine of love. What is more, the poetry offers a new tenor to the period's most pressing political concerns, as well as possibilities for reconsidering the relationship between religion and early liberal feminism. Contextualizing Wesley in the incipient feminist debates at the end of the eighteenth century, I give particular regard to the thought of Catharine Macaulay and Hannah More (both of whom Wesley knew), and of Mary Wollstonecraft (whom Wesley anticipates).
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15th Oxford Institute for Methodist Theological Studies, 2024
The role of women in the history of Christianity has usually been relegated to the footnotes or largely in reference to male participants. This historiographical approach is becoming increasingly untenable in a world in which gender expectations are undergoing a shift and the future is understood to belong to women. Methodism has always been a movement in which women have been in the majority. Nineteenth-century male editors and biographers of eighteenth-century Methodist women curated their diaries and memoirs in a way that suited their own patriarchal perspectives. How might the historical understanding of Methodism be shifted if the agency of women was retrieved? This paper will contribute to this end by exploring the lives of the Wesley sisters, who have not so far been critically studied in light of the burgeoning field of gender studies. It will form the first foray into a scholarly monograph on the Wesley sisters, utilising gender theory as a methodology.
International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research
ISSN: 2455-8834
Volume: 05, Issue: 06 "June 2020"
AT THE ORIGINS OF METHODISM: SUSANNA WESLEY
Ada Prisco
Istituto Superiore di Scienze Religiose Metropolitano (ISSRM) di Foggia - Italy
DOI: 10.46609/IJSSER.2020.v05i06.003 URL: https://doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2020.v05i06.003
ABSTRACT
The article focuses on the origins of Methodism. In particular, it examines the figure of Susanna
Wesley, mother of John Wesley. The woman, framed in the historical age and in the light of her
personal events, appears of great importance for her independent thought, for the support and
inspiration that she could give, with words and works, in the foundation of the movement and in
decisive advance with regard to women's education and gender equality. An “ante litteram”
pastor?
Keywords: origins, Methodism, gender issues, pastoral ministry, religious experience.
INTRODUCTION
Susanna Wesley (1669-1742) is best remembered for being the mother of John and Charles
Wesley, founding fathers of Methodism. Her figure thus risks being unfairly neglected. In stark
contrast to the times, she had been a rebellious, educated young woman with an autonomous
thought, and a bearer of a spirituality, which certainly influenced her children and their religious
conceptions. It is no coincidence that she has been called the Mother of Methodism1, she is
named a foundation2 and some interesting contributions circulate on her account. In particular,
she herself has authored many of the poems of a religious nature 3. Some biographical
circumstances make it special, as she was born the daughter of the Puritan pastor Samuel
Annesley (1620-1696), who had left the state Anglican Church for the benefit of
Presbyterianism. However, at the age of thirteen she decided not to follow her father's
1
Day, Alfred T. 2016. Susanna Wesley: mother of Methodism. Accessed
October 12, 2019.
http://www.umc.org/who-we-are/susanna-wesley-mother-of-methodism.
2
The Susanna Wesley Foundation based in Roehampton, London, UK. Accessed October 12, 2019.
http://susannawesleyfoundation.org.
3
Many of these were collected in the edition edited by Wallace, Charles. 1997. Susanna Wesley: the complete
writings. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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controversy and to return to the Church of England. In 1688, when she was nineteen, she married
the Anglican priest and poet, Samuel Wesley (1662-1735), whom she had met when he attended
her home as a seminarian. And, as it is well known, she became a mother of nineteen children,
nine of whom died at an early age. Among the three surviving males, the two cited were
promoters of the Protestant current of Methodism.
Susanna's family life was never relegated to the care of the home, but rather as a special and
finalized care of people: her husband, her husband's work, her children, her community of faith.
As for her husband, despite being a poet, he never gained popularity either as a literary man or as
a minister of worship. When he left for work, Susanna continued his pastoral commitment,
gathering the community at home for biblical reading and reflection. She had undertaken this
activity as a Sunday school for her children, but she had ended up attracting many of her
neighbors4:
Last Sunday I believe we had above two hundred. And yet many went away, for want of
room to stand.
Her son John kept within him the tender memory of his mother's ordained gatherings on Sunday
afternoons, in his life as a preacher from time to time re-emerged to his conscience.
Susanna taught herself to read and write to her children, providing a detailed schedule, with
morning and afternoon hours for a total of six hours a day. Prayer was never lacking. In addition,
she had developed a calendar and dedicated a specific time to each child, based on the belief
expressed in the sixteen points of her educational program, that each of them should learn to pray
as soon as he or she could speak.
In addition to the peculiarity of her biography, the importance of some events is not negligible.
Already a free thinking professor as a teenager, Susanna continued to freely express her opinion
about religious matters with her husband. In 1709 a dramatic episode occurred that increased her
confidence in the divine Providence. Their home, Epworth Rectory, was set on fire and
completely destroyed, but her children miraculously managed to get out of it unscathed.
SPIRITUAL ROOTS
Puritanism5 was a fundamental trace for the spirituality of the Mother of Methodism. It guided
her in considering life in the spirit as a daily commitment, to be neatly and regularly on the
Tucker, Ruth A. 1988. First Ladies of the Parish: Historical Portraits of Pastors’ Wives. Grand Rapids, MI:
Ministry Resources Library, Zondervan Publishing House, 56.
5
Newton, John A. 1968. Susanna Wesley and the Puritan Tradition in Methodism. London: Epworth, 32-33, 36, 40,
135.
4
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agenda for herself and her loved ones. The simple and tenacious trust, at the same time in God
and in the gifts he gives, allowed her to express her voice in opposition to a masculine and
patriarchal system. Women were permitted to think, but not to speak.
Susanna's day was affected by the puritan influence; it was set on a spiritual pattern. The great
matrix of Puritanism was Calvinism, declined with the aim of purifying 16th-century English
religiosity, focusing more on the Bible, less on contamination from the Anglican Communion by
Catholicism. Spiritual perfection was pursued by looking at Christ as the only true point of
reference. Loyalty to him had to be expressed through a coherent moral life. Prayer, the
examination of conscience, the meditation of the scriptures, and regular participation in liturgical
services were pivotal to the daily life of Susanna. She nurtured great faith in the real presence of
the Lord Jesus in the sacred species and sought to prepare in the best way to receive him
sacramentally. Sunday had the true importance as the day of the Lord, a great opportunity to
experience life on a higher level. Prayer, meditation, biblical reading were not lacking in her or
her specific teaching for each of her children.
Compared to the Moravian Church6 and the Quietists7 she never devalued the authority of the
belief structured in practice, which, in some way, helped to realize in the warmth of her family
and at the service of her community of faith.
Anglican spirituality represents the hive in which Susanna chose to remain, so it cannot be
ignored in her profile, as well as Puritanism that belonged to her for cultural climate, family
history. Moreover, she was certainly a forerunner of the new spirituality that was emerging in to
Anglicanism8.
Although rebellious to her father's authority and even to his religious choices, she had absorbed
from the Pastor Annesley the emphasis on conscience, a focal point of reform in general.
Susanna calls for the right to the freedom of conscience, in advance of the Enlightenment, civil
battles and gender claims. She affirms that clearly, when her husband distances himself from her
that she refuses to join the prayer in favor of King William III of Orange (1650-1702), for she
considered him a usurper9, preferring him James II Stuart (1633-1701). Her husband reacted,
walking away, with these words10:
6
They are also called Unitas fratrum, Unity of the Brethren. They are a Christian religious group born from the
Hussite movement, in Bohemia, in the second half of the fifteenth century.
7
Quietism is a mystical doctrine that spread in the seventeenth century following the preaching of the theologian
Miguel de Molinos and tends towards Christian perfection through closeness to God.
8
Wallace, Charles jr. 1984. “Susanna Wesley’s spirituality: the freedom of a Christian woman”. Methodist history,
22(3):158ss.
9
Metaxas,Eric. 2015. Seven Women and the Secret of their Greatness. Nashville Tennessee: Nelson Books, 37.
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We must part for if we have two kings, we must have two beds.
Not only the woman did not break down, but on 7 March 1701 she wrote11 to her friend, Lady
Yarborough, born Henrietta Maria Blagge:
… since I’m willing to let him quietly enjoy his opinions, he ought not to deprive me of
my little liberty of conscience.
They reconciled when her husband returned home after the fire. Otherwise John, the official
father of Methodism, would never have been conceived.
Wesley had breathed in the unconventional12 climate that animated the British Protestantism of
the time populated by particular Baptists, Presbyterians, Quakers, Unitarians, academies of
dissent, dwellings that became places of effervescent churches, ready to debate the finest
Calvinist theories of salvation, the ideals of perfection, the ways of devotion and church
organization. These currents that arose in the broad hive of reform benefited incipient
inspirations on gender equality, reinforced by the underlying spiritual freedom of Susanna's
family. The only preceptor of her daughters, she refused to let them work at home and teach
them how to do it, until they were able to read well13. Theological inspirations had to be
accompanied by speculative suggestions of a rationalistic and innovative character, such as the
reflections of John Locke, Richard Lukas, George Herbert, Richard Baxter, Blaise Pascal. From
the Wesley’s Diary14 it is evident that she cultivated familiarity even with the ancient Greek
philosophers15. She supported the universality of salvation and encouraged theological
speculation of children in this direction, supporting the Arminian soteriology with respect to the
strict interpretation of Calvinist predestination. Susanna wrote16 in a letter to her son John:
“I have often wondered that men should be so vain as to amuse themselves by searching
into the decrees of God which no human wit can fathom and do not rather employ their
10
Tucker, 53.
Wesley, 35.
12
Stepney. 1998. “Protestant Nonconformity to 1689”. In A History of the County of Middlesex, edited by Thomas
Baker, Vol. 11: 81-83. London: Victoria County History. British History Online. Accessed October 5, 2019.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol11/pp81-83.
13
Wesley, John. 1829. The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M.. edited by Thomas Jackson, John Mason. London:
Longmans. Vol. I: 393.
14
Wesley, S. 1709. Devotional Journal. Bristol: Headingley MSS, Wesley College. Westburyon-Trym. Susanna
Wesley: the Complete Writings, edited by Charles Wallace Jr. 1997. New York: Oxford University Press.
15
Wallace. 1989. "Some Stated Employment of Your Mind : Reading, Writing, and Religion in the Life of Susanna
Wesley". In Church History 58(3), 354-366.
16
In Kirk, John. 1864. The Mother of the Wesleys: a biography. London: Henry James Tresidder, 284-86.
11
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time and powers in working out their salvation and making their own calling and election
sure. Such studies tend more to confound than inform the understanding and young
people had best let them alone. But since I find you have some scruples concerning our
article of predestination I will tell you my thoughts of the matter and if they satisfy not
you may desire your father’s direction who is surely better qualified for a casuist than me.
The doctrine of predestination as maintained by rigid Calvinists is very shocking and
ought utterly to be abhorred because it charges the most holy God with being the author
of sin. And I think you reason very well and justly against it for it is certainly inconsistent
with the justice and goodness of God to lay any man under either a physical or moral
necessity of committing sin and then punish him for doing it. Far be this from the Lord!
Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? I do firmly believe that God from all eternity
hath elected some to everlasting life but then I humbly conceive that this election is
founded in His foreknowledge according to that in the eighth of Romans. Whom He did
foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son moreover
whom He did predestinate them He also called and whom He called them He also
justified and whom He justified them He also glorified. This is the sum of what I believe
concerning predestination which I think is agreeable to the analogy of faith since it does
in no wise derogate from the glory of God’s free grace nor impair the liberty of man. Nor
can it with more reason be supposed that the prescience of God is the cause that so many
finally perish than that our knowing the sun will rise to morrow is the cause of its rising.
And once more she writes I cannot recollect the passages you mention but believing you
do the author I positively aver that he is extremely in the wrong in that impious not to say
blasphemous assertion that God by an irresistible decree hath determined any man to be
miserable even in this life. His intentions as Himself are holy and just and good and all
the miseries incident to men here or hereafter spring from themselves.”
Any inspiration had to come true in the religious experience, first of all that of motherhood that
Wesley welcomed day after day as a mission field to address to her seven daughters and three
boys. Writing to her son John she herself spells out this purpose 17:
… hope to save the souls of … children … that was my principal intention, however
unskillfully or unsuccessfully managed.
RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
Some traits of Susanna's spirituality have left a mark on the nascent 17th-century Methodist
movement. First, she was clearly very adept at intercepting the necessities of the moment. The
17
Wallace, 367.
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phenomenal reading of reality led her to boldly change established traditions and to respond
dialectically to her husband who took her back because of the initiative to receive people at home
for Bible reading. It was the years between 1711 and 1712, Samuel was out of town, John was
still a kid. At her husband's call so Susanna answered18:
If you do, after all, think fit to dissolve this assembly, … send me your positive
command, in such full and express terms as may absolve me from all guilt and
punishment for neglecting this opportunity of doing good, who you and I shall appear
before the great and awful tribunal of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In addition to the reading of the situation considered with serious discernment on the part of the
woman, a preferential perspective is required, according to which the needs of the community
precede and include those ones of the individual believer.
We cannot ignore the importance of secular ministry, not forgetting that Susanna was at that time
a member of the Anglican Communion, a church structured with a hierarchy and ordered through
precise roles. Everyone can make their gifts available to the growth of the whole. The strategy is
essentially pragmatic, but also theologically well-founded. Which root mattered the most?
Presumably the primacy goes to grace and service. The ready willingness to her neighbor
prevented the natural critical sense of this modern woman from translating into negative
judgment, disappointments, conflict, even towards her husband Samuel, who, more traditionalist
and less practical than her, had not always managed to ensure good family care. Susanna always
continued to respect him and to esteem him, as it is derived from this letter19:
And did I not know that almighty Wisdom hath views and ends in fixing the bounds of
our habitation which are out of our ken, I should think it a thousand pities that a man of
his brightness and rare endowments of learning and useful knowledge in relation to the
church of God should be confined to an obscure corner of the Country, where his talents
are buried and he is determined to a way of life for which he is not so well qualified as I
could wish.
The intellectual acumen did not shy away from theological disputes, as she admitted to being
tempted by the antitrinitarian heresy of the Socinians 20, but she remained faithful to the
Trinitarian doctrine.
18
Heitzenrater, Richard P. 1995. Wesley and the People Called Methodists.Nashville: Abingdon Press, 32.
Oden, Patrick. 2013. “Let us not spend our time in triffling: Susanna Wesley, a mother to her sons”. In Wesleyan
Theological Journal 48(2), 112-125.
20
Newton, 66.
19
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For her children, she was an authentic spiritual guide, equipped with specific catechetic tools.
She recommended seeking God in all circumstances and through devotion. The communicative
never lacked the life of faith with respect to God and between God and the creature, but also
within God himself, given the distinction that Wesley makes in him, in the part in himself and
beyond.
To narrate about the spiritual search typical of the climate of the Methodism of the origins, the
spiritualist and awakening currents, to which so many were in need of a more authentic practice
of faith, also remain the affirmations that trace the path of encounter between God and the
creature, beginning from a willingness cultivated even through the serenity of the soul, free from
harmful excesses21.
The mind of a Christian should always be composed, temperate, free from all extremes of
mirth or sadness, and always disposed to hear the still small voice of God’s Holy Spirit,
which will direct him what and how to act in all the occurrences of life, if in all his ways
he acknowledge him and depend on his assistance. I cannot now stay to speak of your
particular duties. I hope I shall in a short time send you what I designed.
Direct contact with God cultivated through prayer represents the original and most tenacious root
of Susanna's personality, already accustomed to theological reasoning thanks to the formation
received in the family by her father 22. This constant care also served as a stimulus for personal
improvement in terms of service to the kingdom of God, to which she was addressed in this
way23:
At last it came to my mind, though I were not a man, nor a minister of the gospel,...I
might do somewhat more than I do...I might pray more for the people, and speak with
more warmth to those with whom I have an opportunity of conversing. However, I
resolved to begin with my children.
And motherhood became the privileged scope of her mission. She was convinced that christianly
educating her children would mean changing the world for the better. And the day of home
21
Wallace, 50.
Deen, Edith. 1959. Great Women of the Christian Faith. Chappaqua, New York: Christian Herald Books, 144.
23
Miller Schmidt, Jean. 1999. Grace Sufficient: A History of Women in Early Methodism 1760-1939. Nashville, TN:
Abingdon Press, 25.
Baker, Frank. 1981. “Susannah Wesley: Puritan, Parent, Pastor, Protagonist, Pattern”. In Women in New Worlds:
historical perspectives on the Wesleyan Tradition, edited by Hilah E. Thomas and Rosemary Skinner Keller.
Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press. Vol. 2: 112-131.
22
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school with her children began and ended with prayer and a reading from the Bible 24. And each
child enjoyed a personal hour of dialogue with the mother according to a set timetable.
PASTORAL MINISTRY
As daughter and wife of a minister of the Church, Susanna was well aware of the difficulties
associated with this commitment. When John expressed his intention to enter the sacred
ordination, his father Samuel showed no enthusiasm at all and tried to dissuade him. The mother,
on the contrary, welcomed with joy and warmth this purpose and wrote to him on this
occasion25:
I was much pleased with your letter to your father about taking holy orders and liked the
proposal. I approve your decision and think the sooner you are a deacon, the better.
From their university studies at Oxford, both John and George received precise hints about
spiritual readings from their mother. These too marked their journey and enticed them to pastoral
choice. When the two decided to leave for Georgia, the mother said 26:
If I had twenty sons, I would send them all.
When John returned to England, his mother was often by his side, while he preached for the
countryside. She also encouraged him to let the laypersons preach.
However, it would be reductive to consider Susanna Wesley only as a reflection of the activity of
the men in her family. She lived the pastoral ministry firsthand and with full consciousness, in
line with the universal priesthood received by all the faithful through baptism. He experienced it
first with an intense personal life of faith. Although she had to sail through the anguish of daily
life, she managed the economy of a family burdened with the debts of her husband, who twice
ended up in prison for this reason27. She had to overcome the hostilities of the enemies that her
husband procured with his speech bluntly. And the revenges they put in place (they destroyed
crops, killed cattle, in one circumstance they surrounded the house and started shooting,
declaring that they wanted to kill Samuel, etc.) further undermined the family's finances. On the
occasion of the two arson fires, in 1702 and 1709, they destroyed the house and put in serious
24
Metaxas, 39.
Deen, 146.
26
Hird, Ed and Janice. 2019. Susanna Wesley: mother on fire. Accessed October 12, 2019.
http://lightmagazine.ca/2019/08/susanna-wesley-mother-on-fire/
27
Ludwig, Charles. 1984. Susannah Wesley: Mother of John and Charles. Milford, Michigan: Mott Media, 118.
25
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ISSN: 2455-8834
Volume: 05, Issue: 06 "June 2020"
danger the survival of the little ones of the house. Yet Susanna never lost her balance. She
reserved at least one hour a day for personal prayer 28.
She lived firsthand what she taught her children in the curriculum of study developed by herself,
and she was also the first witness to them of the vital importance of prayer and contact with
Scripture in everyday life, so that everyone in the house knew of don't have to disturb her at this
hour dedicated to God. In her way of life the seed of the biblical method is inherent, the lifestyle
from which the Methodists are born. And, in fact, Susanna is often remembered as the mother of
Methodism. It is legitimate to overcome this position too, and to say that she did not live the
pastoral ministry in reflection, but she assumed it on herself, even without public proclamations.
In fact, the community, which gathered in her house on Sunday afternoon, recognized her
charisma. John recognized it, remembering her in his life as a minister. She proclaimed it herself,
refusing to stop the Bible-sharing service, which she organized around her kitchen table. The
methodical rigor, that earned her sons, Oxford students and founders of the Holy Club29, the title
of Methodists, seems to be a legacy given to them over time by their mother. And she had a
fully-fledged ministry of leadership, the substance of which is present in her writings and
prayers, all vibrant, like this one in which she even sketches a definition of religion30:
Help me, Lord, to remember that religion is not to be confined to the Church, or closet,
nor exercised only in prayer and meditation, but that everywhere I am in thy presence. So
may my every word and action have a moral content. May all the happenings of my life
prove useful to me. May all things instruct me and afford me an opportunity of exercising
some virtue and daily learning and growing toward thy likeness. Amen
Susanna was actually a pastor. She was a pastor in her own family, which held together in the
bond of faith, through the nourishment of the Spirit. She was a pastor by overcoming any mental
restriction regarding the condition of the woman and she proved that by educating her daughters
in the same way as their sons and not expecting from them any domestic help, before they were
able to read. She was a reference point for her community, which gathered numerous and
spontaneously around her, who satisfied their thirst for the Word of God.
28
Metaxas, 41.
EpworthOldRectory. 2012. Susanna’s influence. Accessed October 12, 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgaKx0BAUZ4.
29
John and Charles Wesley organized the Holy Club at Christ Church College, Oxford, in 1729. The group's
activities coincided with prayer, Bible reading, pious exercises, three or four times a week.
30
Palma Ceia United Methodist Prayercast69. 2016. Susanna Wesley. Accessed October 12, 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84WIsJptcv8.
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Volume: 05, Issue: 06 "June 2020"
In the early days of Methodism we find the inspiration of a special, simple and courageous
woman, who let herself be guided by the Spirit and instilled a method of care and development,
in gender equality, for faith, which her children gave name.
REFERENCES
Baker, Frank. 1981. “Susannah Wesley: Puritan, Parent, Pastor, Protagonist, Pattern”. In Women
in New Worlds: historical perspectives on the Wesleyan Tradition, edited by Hilah E.
Thomas and Rosemary Skinner Keller. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press. Vol. 2.
British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol11/pp81-83.
Day, Alfred T. 2016. Susanna Wesley: mother of Methodism. http://www.umc.org/who-weare/susanna-wesley-mother-of-methodism.
Deen, Edith. 1959. Great Women of the Christian Faith. Chappaqua, New York: Christian
Herald Books.
EpworthOldRectory.
2012.
Susanna’s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgaKx0BAUZ4.
influence.
Heitzenrater, Richard P. 1995. Wesley and the People Called Methodists.Nashville: Abingdon
Press.
Hird,
Ed
and
Janice.
2019.
Susanna
Wesley:
mother
http://lightmagazine.ca/2019/08/susanna-wesley-mother-on-fire/
on
fire.
Kirk, John. 1864. The Mother of the Wesleys: a biography. London: Henry James Tresidder.
Ludwig, Charles. 1984. Susannah Wesley: Mother of John and Charles. Milford, Michigan: Mott
Media.
Metaxas, Eric. 2015. Seven Women and the Secret of their Greatness. Nashville Tennessee:
Nelson Books.
Miller Schmidt, Jean. 1999. Grace Sufficient: A History of Women in Early Methodism 17601939. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.
Newton, John A. 1968. Susanna Wesley and the Puritan Tradition in Methodism. London:
Epworth.
Oden, Patrick. 2013. “Let us not spend our time in triffling: Susanna Wesley, a mother to her
sons”. In Wesleyan Theological Journal 48(2), 112-125.
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Palma
Ceia
United
Methodist
Prayercast69.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84WIsJptcv8.
2016.
Susanna
Wesley.
Stepney. 1998. “Protestant Nonconformity to 1689”. In A History of the County of Middlesex,
edited by Thomas Baker, Vol. 11: 81-83. London: Victoria County History.
http://susannawesleyfoundation.org.
Tucker, Ruth A. 1988. First Ladies of the Parish: Historical Portraits of Pastors’ Wives. Grand
Rapids, MI: Ministry Resources Library, Zondervan Publishing House.
Wallace, Charles jr. 1984. “Susanna Wesley’s spirituality: the freedom of a Christian woman”.
Methodist history, 22(3):158ss.
Wallace. 1989. "Some Stated Employment of Your Mind : Reading, Writing, and Religion in the
Life of Susanna Wesley". In Church History 58(3), 354-366.
Wallace, Charles. 1997. Susanna Wesley: the complete writings. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Wesley, John. 1829. The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M.. edited by Thomas Jackson, John
Mason. London: Longmans. Vol. I.
Wesley, Susanna. 1709. Devotional Journal. Bristol: Headingley MSS, Wesley College.
Westburyon-Trym.
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