---- and the Moravians, 41
John, Opinion of, respecting Mr. Maxfield’s call to the Ministry,
34
---- of, respecting Mr. Simpson, 47
preaching on his father’s tombstone, 57
defence of Lay-preaching, 60
and Whitefield, 118
and Whitefield, Breach between, 197
on sinless perfection, 329
preaching at Everton, 398
Letters of, to Lady Huntingdon, 398, 427
---- to Lady Maxwell, 411
Interesting anecdote of, at Bath, interrupted in preaching by
Beau Nash, 445
Wesley, John, Whitefield, and Lady Huntingdon, 474
Whitefield, the preaching of, 17
arrives in England, 89
Letters of, 88, 89
---- to Mr. Baddeley, 119, 153
---- to the Countess, 225, 311
Letter of, to Lady Townshend, 105
---- to Lady Fanny Shirley, 116
---- to Dr. Haweis, 226
---- to Robert Keene, Esq., 468
---- to Mr. Madan, 432
preaching of, Anecdote, 102
nobility hear him, 108
and Wesley, 118
Success of, at Rotherham, 148
at Ashby, 163
visits Scotland, 183
in London, 196
and Wesley, Breach between, 197
preaches in Moorfields on St. Bartholomew’s day, 199
the Will of, 216
returns to England, and writes to Mr. Ingham, 264
visits Yorkshire, preaches at Leeds, York, Bradford, Haworth,
&c., 267
visits Yorkshire again, 291
First visit of, to Brighton, 314
Fletcher, Venn, and Sir C. Hotham, 375
Wesley, Maxfield, and others hold prayer meetings for the nation,
396
Wilks, Matthew, 213
Wills, Mr., 310
Wilson, Mr., 300
Wordsworth, Mrs., 467
Wren, Mr., 308
Wynn, Sir Watkin Williams, 109
York, Chapel of the Countess at, 308
Duke of, 400
Young, Dr., 21
Zinzendorff, Count, 244
visits the Countess, 454
---- Yorkshire, 261
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See Williams’s “Missionary Enterprizes.”
[2] Lady Dorothy Shirley took for her second husband, in 1634, William
Stafford of Blatherwick, county of Northampton, Esq. The last male heir
of this family was William Stafford, Esq., who died without issue. Of
his two sisters, his co-heirs, the elder, Susannah, married in 1699,
Henry O’Brien, Esq., son of Sir Donatus O’Brien, of Dromoland, in the
county of Clare. The present representative of this family is Stafford
O’Brien, Esq., of Blatherwycke Park, who married a daughter of the late
excellent Lady Barham: the younger, Anne, became the wife of George
Lord Carberry.
[3] She had a numerous family, and two of her five sons were
successively Earls of Clanricarde; Richard, the eldest, left a
daughter, Lady Dorothy, who married Alexander Pendarves, Esq., of
Roscarron, in Cornwall; John, the second son, who succeeded to the
title after the death of his brother Richard, without issue male, was
the colonel of a regiment of foot in King James’s army, and created
by that monarch, after his abdication, Baron de Burgh, of Bophin, an
island adjacent to the county of Galway. He was taken prisoner at the
battle of Aghrim, at the head of his regiment, brought to the castle
of Dublin, and thence went to England, being outlawed and attained,
and his estates forfeited, for his adherence to that king; but, in the
first year of the reign of Queen Anne, an act of Parliament was passed
for making provision for the Protestant children of Richard, Earl of
Clanricarde, and John Lord Bophin, whereby he was acquitted of all
treasons and attainders, himself and children restored to their blood
and estate; and Montague, Earl of Abingdon, Robert Earl Ferrars (the
grandfather of Lady Huntingdon), and Henry Thynne, Esq., afterwards
Viscount Weymouth, his next (Protestant) relations, were appointed
guardians to his sons, for the purpose of completing their education in
the Protestant religion. One of these sons, Michael, who became tenth
Earl, was great grandfather to the present Marquis of Clanricarde.
Ulick de Burgh, the fourth son of Lettice, Countess of Clanricarde,
was created Viscount Galway. He was a nobleman of true courage, and
endowed with many good qualities: he commanded a regiment of foot in
King James’s army, and was killed at the battle of Aghrim, in the 22nd
year of his age. As he died without issue, as well as the third and
fifth sons of his mother, the title became extinct. Besides five sons,
Lady Clanricarde had four daughters, two of whom died unmarried; Lady
Margaret, the eldest, married, first, Bryan, Viscount Magennis, of
Iveagh; and secondly, Thomas Butler, Esq., of Kilcash, in the county
of Tipperary, where she died, his widow, July 19, 1744; Lady Honora,
the second daughter, first married Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan,
who was killed at the battle of Landen, July 19, 1693; and secondly,
in the chapel of the Castle of St. Germain’s, near Paris, in 1695,
James Fitz-James, Duke of Berwick, Marshal, Duke, and Peer of France
(eldest natural son of James II. by Lady Arabella Churchill, sister to
John, Duke of Marlborough), one of the greatest Generals in Europe,
who was killed at the siege of Philipsburgh, June 12, 1734, leaving
issue by her (who died at Pezenas, a city of Languedoc, in 1698),
James Francis Fitz-James, Duke of Berwick, founder of the branch of
the House of STUART, established in Spain. He was created
by Philip V. Duke of Liria and Xercia, Grandee of Spain of the first
Class, Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, of St. Andrew, and St.
Alexandro, and Chamberlain to the King of Spain. He married Catherine
de Portugal-Columb, daughter and heir of the Duke of Veraguas, a
Grandee of Spain, in whose right he bore that title. Having been
sent Ambassador from Philip V. to his son Don Carlos, King of the
two Sicilies, he died at Naples, June 1, 1738, aged forty-two years,
leaving issue by his Duchess (who died in October, 1739), two sons and
one daughter, viz.:--
James Fitz-James Stuart, Duke of Berwick,
Liria, and de Veraguas, who had a son named
Charles-Bernard-Paschal-Fitz-James, baptized July 5, 1751, and
ennobled as Marquis of Jamaica.
Lord Peter Fitz-James, called in Spain Don Pedro, and created
Marquis de Saint Leonard, in May, 1774, Lieutenant-General and
Admiral of Spain. He married and left issue.
Donna-Maria, married to the Duke of Mirandola, Duke and Grandee
of the first Class, whose widow she died at Madrid, November 11,
1750.
[4] See, in Nichol’s History of Leicestershire, a fac-simile of a
letter from Charles II. to his widow; and a portrait of Sir Robert.
[5] See Chap. VI., where the epitaph will be found.
[6] There was a considerable alteration in his religious sentiments
before his death, which took place August 30th, 1752. At the close
of the long inscription on his monument, in Gloucester Cathedral, it
is written: “Under the most acute pains of his last tedious illness,
he possessed his soul in patience, and, with a firm trust in his
Redeemer, calmly resigned his spirit to the Father of Mercies.” To
that epitaph might have been added, as the most distinguishing honour
of this Bishop’s life, that _he_ was the prelate who ordained the
greatest, the most eloquent, and the most useful minister that any age
since that of the Apostles had produced.
The venerable Dr. Hurd, Bishop of Worcester, being in the habit of
preaching frequently, had observed a poor man remarkably attentive,
and made him some little present. After a while he missed his humble
auditor, and meeting him, said, “John, how is it that I do not see you
in the aisle, as usual?” John, with some hesitation, replied, “My Lord,
I hope you will not be offended, and I will tell you the truth. I went
the other day to hear the Methodists, and I understand their plain
words so much better, that I have attended them ever since.” The Bishop
put his hand into his pocket and gave him a guinea, with words to this
effect--“God bless you, and go where you can receive the greatest
profit to your soul!” An instance of episcopal candour like this is
well worth recording. We may be pardoned if we subjoin another.
Archbishop Secker, when laid on his couch with a broken thigh, was
visited at Lambeth by Mr. Talbot, Vicar of St. Giles’s, Reading, who
had lived in great intimacy with him, and received his preferment from
him. “You will pray with me, Talbot?” said the Archbishop, during this
interview. Mr. Talbot rose, and went to look for a Prayer Book. “That
is not what I want now (said the dying prelate); kneel down by me, and
pray for me in the way I know you are used to do.” With which command
this zealous man of God readily complied, and prayed earnestly from his
heart for his dying friend, whom he saw no more.
[7] Her Ladyship was daughter of Richard, first Earl of Scarborough,
and became second wife to Frederick Frankland, Esq., Member of
Parliament for Thirsk, in Yorkshire, a Commissioner of the Revenue in
Ireland, and a Commissioner of the Excise in England, son of Sir Thomas
Frankland, Bart., and nephew to the Earl of Fauconberg. For many years
Lady Anne held the situation of Lady of the Bedchamber to the Princess
Anne, and to the Princesses Amelia and Caroline. Attracted by the fame
of the first Methodists, who had been mentioned with high approbation
by her friend, Lady Huntingdon, soon after her marriage, Lady Anne,
with her sisters, the Lady Barbara Leigh and the Lady Henrietta Lumley,
sometimes attended their ministry, and received much spiritual good.
This excited the displeasure of Mr. Frankland to such a degree, that
he treated her Ladyship with the utmost cruelty and unkindness. “Poor
Lady Anne Frankland (says Lady Hertford,) is already parted from her
husband, and, I think, without any one person giving her the least
share of blame. It seems that he parted beds with her before she had
been three weeks married, and on all occasions behaved towards her with
the utmost cruelty. However, she made no complaint, till he insisted
on her leaving the house, when she begged of him not to force her to
do that, and told him, that provided he would allow her to have the
sanction of being under his roof, she would submit to anything. His
answer was, that if she continued there, he would either murder her
or himself. She then applied to my Lord Scarborough, who spoke to her
husband with great warmth. He did not lay any fault to her charge,
but only declared that she was his aversion, and persisted in the
resolution of forcing her to leave him, or killing her or himself. It
is said, that he returns her fortune, allows her six hundred pounds a
year, and has given her a thousand pounds to buy a house. His strange
conduct towards her has been so contrary to his former character,
that his friends rather ascribe it to madness than to his natural
disposition.”
[8] His connexion with this lady arose from his father’s acquaintance
with Lady Anne Wharton, who was co-heiress of Sir Henry Lee, of
Ditchley, in Oxfordshire--a lady celebrated for her poetical talents by
Burnet and by Waller, when poetry had been taught by Addison to aspire
to the arms of nobility, though certainly without any extraordinary
success.
[9] As the Doctor saw her gradually declining, he used frequently to
walk backwards and forwards in a place called the King’s Garden, to
find the most solitary spot where he might show his last token of
affection, by leaving her remains as secure as possible from those
savages who would have denied her Christian burial; for at that time,
an Englishman in France was looked upon as an heretic, an infidel, or a
devil. The under-gardener, being bribed, pointed out the most solitary
place, dug the grave, and let him bury his beloved daughter. The man,
through a private door, admitted the Doctor at midnight, bringing his
daughter, wrapped in a sheet, upon his shoulder; he laid her in the
hole, sat down, and shed a flood of tears over the remains of his dear
Narcissa--
“With pious sacrilege a grave I stole.”
Mr. Temple married a second time a daughter of Sir John Bernard, then
Lord Mayor of London. Dying in 1749, he left an only son, afterwards
Viscount Palmerston, father of the present Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs. Mr. and Mrs. Temple have generally been considered as
the Philander and Narcissa of the “Night Thoughts.”
[10] Anthony Hammond, Esq., a Commissioner of the Navy, and some
time representative in Parliament for the county of Huntingdon, and
also for the University of Cambridge, was very frequently at Lord
Huntingdon’s at that period. With him was his son, James Hammond, the
elegiac poet, whose fame and fortune were raised by the influence of
Lady Huntingdon, and Lady Fanny Shirley, to whose hand it was believed
he vainly aspired--to whom some of his elegies are supposed to be
addressed. He died at Lord Cobham’s house, Stowe, while member for
Truro, in Cornwall. This gentleman, the “silver-tongued” Hammond of
Lord Bolingbroke, who had, says Lord Chesterfield, all the senses but
common sense, was a relative of the Shirley family; he married the
eldest daughter of Sir W. Clarges, Bart., whose family made a triple
alliance with that of Lady Huntingdon by marriage. At the same time,
Somervile, the author of the “Chace,” was introduced to Lady Huntingdon
by the eccentric Lady Luxborough, the sister of Lord Bolingbroke.
[11] The three favourite ladies who accompanied the King from Hanover
were Mademoiselle de Schulenberg, the Countess Plater, and Madam
Kilmanseg; the first alone, whom he created Duchess of Kendal, was
lodged in St. James’s Palace, and had such respect paid her as very
much confirmed the rumour of a left-handed marriage. She was mother of
Lady Chesterfield, and as she usually presided at the King’s evening
parties, was on familiar terms with those who formed his society.
[12] She was the first who extolled the preaching of Mr. Whitefield,
whom she alternately liked and disliked. Her Ladyship is the supposed
original of _Lady Bellaston_ in “_Tom Jones_;” and _Lady
Tempest_ in “_Pompey the Little_.” She was the mother of
George, the first Marquis Townshend, and of the famous Charles
Townshend.
[13] On her return from the continent, at Mr. Pope’s solicitation, Lady
Mary fixed her summer residence at Twickenham; but it was not long
before she had a bitter and lasting quarrel with that irritable bard;
when having exhausted all the pleasures that England could afford,
and disgusted perhaps at that alienation which the sarcasm of her wit
had too often produced, she obtained her husband’s leave to pass the
remainder of her days on the continent.
[14] Lord Hervey was father of the late excellent Lady Mary Fitzgerald,
the friend and correspondent of Lady Huntingdon, Mr. Fletcher, Mr.
Venn, and others alike celebrated.
[15] Lady Frances was one of the daughters of the Earl of Manchester,
and had married Henry, the son and heir of the celebrated Dr. Robert
Saunderson, Bishop of Lincoln.
[16] Alexander Pope, the poet.
[17] The calmness and heavenly peace which surrounded Lady Huntingdon
were powerful enough to avoid the hurricanes of temper to which this
singular woman was liable, to such a degree that she would punish
even herself rather than forego her resentment. This is proved by the
well-known story of her cutting off her own hair, only because it was
esteemed her most beautiful feature in the eyes of her husband; on
whom to revenge some supposed opposition to her sovereign will, she
disfigured herself. The Duke was not irritated by this rash act, which
the Duchess often related with characteristic candour, weeping always,
as she wound up her story, with the remark, that after his death she
found her treasured ringlets in the cabinet wherein he kept whatever he
esteemed most precious.
It was her temper that involved her in law-suits with her own children.
Her eldest grandson, Robert, Earl of Sunderland, died before he had
forfeited her favour. Charles was no sooner elevated to his father’s
dignity, than she openly quarrelled with, and in the Court of Chancery
pleaded her own cause against him. She accused him of pawning one by
one the diamonds in the famous baldric of the great Marlborough’s
sword, and by extravagance gave point to the charge: yet John, her
youngest grandson, who was no less profligate, retained her favour in
the midst of his excesses. Her granddaughter, Lady Anne Egerton, was
as proud as the Duchess herself, and no less fiery; on some quarrel
between them, the Duchess of Marlborough had Lady Anne’s picture daubed
with black, and over it this inscription--“She is much blacker within.”
With her the ruling passion was strong even against death. About four
years before her demise, the Duchess was attacked by a dangerous
disease, and had lain a great while ill, without speaking: her
physician, believing her case very bad, said, “She must be blistered,
or she will die.” Her Grace, who had listened with attention, called
out, “I won’t be blistered, and I won’t die!” She kept her word.
[18] The Duchess was avowedly the natural daughter of King James the
Second; but supposed to be _really_ the daughter of Colonel
Graham, an admirer of her mother, Lady Dorchester. This lady, who
was the only daughter of Sir Charles Sedley, the celebrated wit, was
mistress to the King, and had a pension of five thousand per annum on
the Irish Establishment. She afterwards married the Earl of Portmore,
and left two sons, one of whom succeeded to the title, and was
grandfather to the present Earl. The Duchess was so proud of her birth,
that she would never go to the Court of Versailles, because they would
not give her the rank of Princess of the blood. She not only regulated
the ceremony of her own burial, and dressed up the waxen figure of
herself for Westminster Abbey, but had shown the same insensible pride
on the death of her only son, the last Duke of Buckingham, dressing
his figure, and sending messages to her friends, that if they had a
mind to see him lie in state, she would carry them in conveniently
by a back door. She sent to the old Duchess of Marlborough to borrow
the triumphal car that had carried the Duke’s body. Old Sarah, as mad
and as proud as herself, sent her word, “that it had carried my Lord
Marlborough, and should never be profaned by any other corpse.” Proud
Buckingham returned, “that she had spoken to the undertaker, and he had
engaged to make a finer car for twenty pounds!”
[19] The conduct of her mother-in-law, the old Lady Sandwich, had left
an indelible impression on her mind, which spread a gloom over her
latter years. Lord Sandwich being confined, and denied access to by
his eccentric Countess, was rendered so much a cipher, that all the
duties of his station devolved upon Lord Hinchinbroke, who was an able,
active, and spirited young man. His extraordinary mother, one of the
daughters of the witty and repentant Earl of Rochester, partook of all
the fire and vivacity of her father. She detested restraint herself,
but put her Lord into “durance vile” in his own house. At his death she
quitted England, too stupid, she said, for her, and resided at Paris,
in habits of intimacy with the Duchess of Orleans, Mazarine, Madame de
Berri, the Regent’s daughter, and also that beautiful octogenary, the
Ninon de L’Enclos. Unhappily Lord Hinchinbroke died in the life-time of
his weak but worthy father.
[20] Mrs. Mary Mitchell died at her house in Hart-street, Bloomsbury,
December 18, 1773, and was interred in St. James’s Church, Clerkenwell,
near the remains of her venerable father. On taking down the old
Church, in September, 1778, the Bishop’s remains were unavoidably
disturbed. His body was found in a leaden coffin, broken at the head,
through which the skull and some hair were visible. The Bishop left
three sons--William, Governor of New York and the Massachusetts;
Gilbert, in holy orders, who took an active part on the side of Bishop
Hoadley, in the Bangorian controversy; and Sir Thomas, who became one
of the best lawyers of his time--Serjeant and Justice of the Common
Pleas. He published the posthumous history of his father, and died in
1753.
[21] Miss Anne Cooper, who died a few months after.
[22] It is evident from the above, as well as from the preceding
letter, that Mr. Wesley consulted Lady Huntingdon relative to his
Journals, the manuscripts of which were submitted to her inspection,
and that her Ladyship gave her opinion of them before they were
published.
[23] Mr. Charles Wesley.
[24] In some of her Ladyship’s letters the name is given as above, but
in others it is written Cowper.
[25] Lady Cox was one of the fruits of Mr. Whitefield’s ministry
at Bath, and likewise derived much profit from the preaching and
heart-searching conversation of the apostolic Griffith Jones, Rector of
Llandower, in Carmarthenshire, and Mr. Thompson, Vicar of St. Ginney’s,
in Cornwall, both of whom were often at Bath at this period.
[26] Her Ladyship once spoke to a workman who was repairing a garden
wall, and pressed him to take some thought concerning eternity and the
state of his soul. Some years afterwards she was speaking to another on
the same subject, and said to him, “Thomas, I fear you never pray, nor
look to Christ for salvation.” “Your Ladyship is mistaken (answered the
man): I heard what passed between you and James at such a time, and the
word you designed for him took effect on me.” “How did you hear it?”
asked her Ladyship. “I heard it, (answered the man) on the other side
of the garden, through a hole in the wall, and shall never forget the
impression I received.”
[27] The very popular, but unequal, poem of “The Grave” was first
printed in London in 1743; and soon after its appearance her Ladyship
was presented with a copy by Dr. Watts, at the particular request of
Mr. Blair, as an expression of high gratitude for the patronage she
afforded him. The Doctor had experienced considerable difficulty in
the publication of this little piece, and was at last compelled to
cross his own inclination to please popular taste. “The booksellers can
scarcely think (says Mr. Blair), considering how critical an age we
live in, with respect to such kind of writings, that a person living
three hundred miles from London could write so as to be acceptable to
the fashionable and polite.”
[28] To whose pupil, Risdon Darracott, her Ladyship is named with
eulogy in a letter from Mrs. Anne Dutton, written about this period.
[29] This gentleman held the living of Ripton Abbots, in
Huntingdonshire, and appears to have possessed not only a highly
Catholic spirit, but sound learning. Lady Huntingdon’s conversation was
highly beneficial in leading him to clearer views of divine truth. Mr.
Jones was afterwards presented to the Vicarage of Alconbury, which he
resigned in a few years for a living in Bedfordshire. Whilst there he
accepted the curacy of Welwyn from Dr. Young, the celebrated author of
“Night Thoughts,” and continued there till the Doctor’s decease. He was
killed by a fall from his horse.
[30] For the benefit of the Hospital at Northampton, or Northampton
Infirmary.
[31] She was sole daughter of Lord Weymouth, and descended from Lady
Frances Devereux, eldest daughter of Robert, Earl of Essex. Sir Robert
and Lady Worsley were persons of great honour and integrity, and with
Lady Carteret and the Countess Granville, mother to Lord Carteret,
frequently attended the preaching of the first Methodists. Lady Worsley
was aunt to the Duchess of Somerset, better known as the Countess
of Hertford, celebrated for her patronage of literature and her own
amiable genius.
[32] The epitaph, referred to at page 9, is as follows:--
“Here lie the remains of the Right Honourable Theophilus, Earl of
Huntingdon, Lord Hastings, Hungerford, Botreaux, Moels, Newmark, and
Molins. If his death deserved respect, his life deserved it more.
If he derived his title from a long roll of illustrious ancestors,
he reflected back on them superior honours. He ennobled nobility by
virtue. He was of the first rank in both; good in every relation of
natural duty and social life. The learning he acquired at school he
improved at Oxford, under the care of that excellent person, the late
Bishop of Gloucester.[33] Acquainted by his studies with the characters
of past ages, he acquired by his travels a knowledge of the men and
manners of his own: he visited France, Italy, and even Spain. After
these excursions into other countries, he settled in his own. His own
was dear to him. No man had juster notions of the true constitution
of her government: no man had a more comprehensive view of her real
interests, domestic and foreign. Capable of excelling in every form
of public life, he chose to appear in none. His mind fraught with
knowledge, his heart elevated with sentiments of unaffected patriotism,
he looked down from higher ground on the low level of a futile and
corrupt generation. Despairing to do national good, he mingled as
little as his rank permitted in national affairs. Home is the refuge
of a wise man’s life; home was the refuge of his. By his marriage with
the Lady Selina Shirley, second daughter, and one of the co-heirs of
Washington, Earl Ferrars, he secured to himself, in retreat, a scene of
happiness he could not have found in the world; the uninterrupted joys
of conjugal love, the never-failing comforts of cordial friendship.
Every care was softened, every satisfaction heightened, every hour
passed smoothly away, in the company of one who enjoyed a perpetual
serenity of soul, that none but those can feel in this life who are
prepared for greater bliss in the next. By her, this monument is
erected to record the virtues of the deceased and the grief of the
living. He was born November 12, 1696, and married the said Lady, June
3, 1728. By her he had four sons and three daughters, Francis,[34] the
present Earl, born March 13, 1729; George, born March 29, 1730, who
died of the small-pox, aged fourteen; Ferdinando, born January 23,
1732, who also died of the small-pox, aged eleven Elizabeth,[35] the
eldest daughter, born March 23, 1731; Selina, born June, 1735, who died
an infant; Selina, the third daughter, born December 3, 1737. The said
Earl died of a fit of apoplexy, October 13, 1746, in the fiftieth year
of his age.”
[33] Dr. Martin Benson, who had ordained Mr. Whitefield.
[34] Tenth and last Earl of that line.
[35] Afterwards Countess of Moira.
[36] He was one of the first members of the Methodist Society in
Fetter-lane, and, with Sir John Phillips, of Picton Castle, also
member of the same Society, very useful in aiding and encouraging the
labours of Mr. Whitefield and the Wesleys. He was a correspondent of
the celebrated Griffith Jones, whom he assisted in the establishment
of his Welsh schools, and of Dr. Doddridge, and a letter from him to
Mr. Wesley appears in an early volume of the “Methodist Magazine.”
His death, which occurred in 1748, was a great loss to the early
Methodists. He was twice married, and left five children. His family
was one of the oldest in Lincolnshire, and had given “reeves” to
that “shire” prior to the conquest. By his mother he was related to
Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln, whose eldest son married Lady Frances
Montagu, daughter of the Earl of Manchester. We will conclude this
long note with an extract from Sir John’s letter of condolence to Lady
Huntingdon, dated “St. James’s-place, 14th Nov., 1746,” and signed
“your affectionate and most faithful humble servant, John Thorold.”
“My fellow-sharer in the cup of sorrow, the painful task has been
imposed upon us of consigning the remains of your tenderly affectionate
husband, and my most faithful friend, to the bosom of our mother earth,
‘where the wicked cease to trouble, and where the weary are for ever
at rest.’ You have been called upon, by this sad stroke, to entomb in
the cold and silent grave one who has long been deeply entombed in your
warm affectionate heart: but the words of the great apostle, ‘thanks be
unto God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!’
will help to soothe your sorrows, and, in the midst of your mourning
and distress, assist in drying up your tears. I sympathise with you,
but sorrow not as one without hope. There is hope concerning our dear
friend: I believe it is well with him. Your loss must be borne--he
cannot come back to you. The event calls you to self-examination.
May every divine support and comfort be abundantly administered to
the disconsolate widow! and may every blessing rest upon your young
and interesting family. Look to the Rock of Hope--the Fountain Head
of power--that you may derive supplies of vigour to enable you to
prosecute the work which God hath assuredly marked out for you upon the
earth. The Captain of your salvation is Jesus Christ, who has promised
you strength for every time of need. Awake! look up! and endure
hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ; and may you be made truly
invincible in the cause of God and truth, only laying down your weapons
when your dust shall return into the dust, and your spirit unto the God
that gave it!”
[37] Lady Kilmorey.
[38] The Duchess of Somerset, a celebrated patroness of literature, of
virtue, and religion.
[39] Several of the Edwin family were conspicuous in the early days of
Methodism. John Edwin, Esq., the husband of the above-named Mrs. Edwin,
held several offices under Government, and was a member of Parliament.
Dr. Doddridge, in his Reflections on the opening of the year 1749, thus
speaks of him:--“The accession of several valuable friends, to balance
the loss of some few by death, is also to be gratefully remembered;
particularly my Lady Huntingdon, Mr. Edwin, and Colonel Gumley.” His
only daughter and heir, Miss Elizabeth Edwin, whom Horace Walpole
complains of to his correspondent, Sir Horace Mann, as having turned
Methodist, was the particular friend of the eccentric Lady Townshend,
and married Charles Dalrymple, Esq., grandson of the Hon. Sir Hugh
Dalrymple, brother of John, second Viscount Stair. (See a Note, post,
page 89). Charles Edwin, Esq., M.P., the brother of Mr. Edwin, married
Lady Charlotte Hamilton, one of the attendants of the Prince of Wales’s
children. Their mother, Lady Catherine Edwin, was sister to the first
Duke of Manchester, and to Anne, Countess of Suffolk. Sir Humphrey
Edwin, Lord Mayor of London, was grandfather to Mr. Edwin; Mrs. Edwin’s
family formed alliance with that of the Marquis of Westminster, and
Lord St. John, of Bletsloe. She was eldest daughter of Sir Roger
Bradshaigh, of Haigh, in the county of Lancaster, Bart., and M.P. On
the failure of the male branch of this family, in 1787, the estate of
Haigh devolved on Mrs. Edwin’s granddaughter, the Countess of Balcarres.
[40] See “Gentleman’s Magazine,” 1748.
[41] Mrs. Edwin was a woman of great rank, and her influence at
Court, which exposed her more to the shafts of ridicule, and made her
especially liable to the attacks of vanity, rendered her conversion
the more remarkable. She was the fast friend of Lady Huntingdon, and a
great favourite with Mr. Whitefield, who, in all his letters, warned
her against the snares to which her condition led. “To see any one
converted (he says) is a miracle; but to see a rich person, one of the
mighty, one of the noble, converted, is a greater. May the Lord Jesus
add more of your rank to his Church!” See the note at close of the last
chapter, p. 87.
[42] As a proof of the power of Mr. Whitefield’s preaching, Mr. Newton
mentioned, that an officer at Glasgow, who had heard him preach, laid
a wager with another, that at a certain charity sermon, though he went
with prejudice, he would be compelled to give something; the other, to
make sure, laid all the money out of his pockets, but before he left
the church he was glad to borrow some, and lose his bet. Mr. Newton
mentioned another striking example of Mr. Whitefield’s persuasive
oratory--his collecting at one sermon _six hundred pounds_ for
the inhabitants of an obscure village in Germany that had been burnt
down: no very interesting object, surely, for the public in London.
However, after the sermon, Mr. Whitefield said, “We shall sing a hymn,
during which those who do not choose to give their mite on this awful
occasion may sneak off.” Not one stirred; he got down from the pulpit,
and ordered all the doors to be shut but one, at which he held the
plate himself, and collected the above sum; more than was ever done
on a similar occasion. Mr. Newton related as a fact, that at the time
of his greatest persecution, when obliged to preach in the streets,
in one week he received no fewer than a thousand letters from persons
distressed in their consciences by the energy of his preaching.
[43] The Bishop’s death put an end to the proceedings against Mr.
Bateman, who, notwithstanding Southey’s eulogy, appears, from his warm
altercation with Mr. Charles Wesley, to have been a very sincere friend
to the Methodists.
[44] The Earl of Bath, who married the eldest of the three daughters
of Colonel Gumley, introduced that gentleman to Lady Huntingdon;
and at her house, through the preaching of Mr. Whitefield, and
the heart-searching conversation of the Countess, who were God’s
instruments in Colonel Gumley’s conversion, the Lord met him with the
blessings of his grace. Mr. Whitefield kept up a correspondence with
him when absent from London; for he was ever careful to keep alive
the flame he had lit up in the heart of his hearers. In one of these
letters to the Colonel, he says--“Good Lady Huntingdon has an extract
of a letter from a soldier, which will please you: may the Lord Jesus
add more to the Church of such converts.”
The sisters and co-heiresses of the Countess of Bath were Letitia,
who married Lancelot Charles Lake, Esq., whose sons were, Warwick, a
Commissioner of the Stamp Office, and Gerard, first Viscount Lake,
a distinguished officer in the army; and Mary, who married Francis
Colman, Esq., father of the elder and grandfather of the younger George
Colman, both celebrated as dramatic writers.
[45] His Lordship was half-brother to Lord Bolingbroke, and had married
the daughter of Sir Richard Furness, Bart., who was uncle to Lady
Huntingdon by his marriage with Lady Anne Shirley, sister to Lady
Fanny, and daughter of Robert, first Earl of Ferrars.
[46] Henrietta, Countess of Suffolk, sister to the first Earl of
Buckinghamshire, a few years after the death of Lord Suffolk, married
the Hon. George Berkeley, a son of the second Earl Berkeley, whom
she survived more than twenty years. She had been a widow only a
short time, and had lately lost her only son, Lord Suffolk, when
she was invited to Lady Huntingdon’s to hear Mr. Whitefield. She
lived principally at Marble-hill, Twickenham, and was a well-known
acquaintance of Pope, the poet, under the name of “Mrs. Howard.”
She was in much favour with George II., an influence which is
supposed to have contributed to the grant of her mother’s peerage.
Having ingratiated herself into the favour of Queen Caroline, then
Electoral Princess, she accompanied her to England, and became her
bedchamber-woman. If we were to draw an estimate of the understanding
and character of Lady Suffolk from the representations of Pope, Swift,
and Gay, during the time of her favour, we might suppose that she
possessed every accomplishment and good quality which were ever the
lot of a woman. The real truth is, she was more remarkable for beauty
than for understanding, and the passion which the King entertained
for her was rather derived from chance, than from any combination of
those transcendant qualities which Pope and Swift ascribed to their
court-divinity. She lived to an advanced age, not dying till 1767.
During her last illness Lady Huntingdon made some efforts to see her,
but the mortified Lady Suffolk carried her resentment to the grave, and
would never admit her Ladyship.
[47] Lord Chesterfield paid his court (according to those maxims
and false pretensions to superior penetration which characterized
him) to Lady Suffolk, and not to the Queen; and of those who acted
thus the Queen never failed to oppose the rise: Lord Chesterfield
is a remarkable instance. He had long coveted the post of Secretary
of State, and an arrangement had been made in his favour: after an
audience of the Queen, to which he had been introduced by Walpole, and
thanking her for her concurrence, he had the imprudence to make a long
visit to Lady Suffolk; the Queen was informed of the circumstance,
and his appointment did not take place. At another time he had
requested the Queen to speak to the King for some small favour; the
Queen promised, but forgot it: a few days afterwards, recollecting
her promise, she expressed regret at her forgetfulness, and added,
she would certainly mention it that very day. Chesterfield replied,
that her Majesty need not give herself that trouble, for Lady Suffolk
had spoken to the King. The Queen made no reply, but on seeing the
King, told him she had long promised to mention a trifling request
to his Majesty, but it was needless, because Lord Chesterfield had
just informed her that she had been anticipated by Lady Suffolk. The
King, who always preserved great decorum with the Queen, and was very
unwilling to have it supposed that the favourite interfered, was
extremely displeased, both with Lord Chesterfield and Lady Suffolk; the
consequence was, that in a short time her Ladyship went to Bath for
her health, and returned no more to Court; Chesterfield was dismissed
from his office, and never heard the reason until two years before his
death, when he was informed by Lord Oxford, that his disgrace was owing
to his having offended the Queen by paying court to Lady Suffolk.
[48] The loss of her youngest son, Lord Robert Ker, had so violent
an effect upon the Marchioness of Lothian, as nearly to overturn her
reason and ever after to leave a shade of melancholy upon her mind.
He was a captain in the army, and killed at the battle of Culloden,
in April, 1746. Her Ladyship was the bearer of a letter from her
sister-in-law, Lady Mary Hamilton, to Lady Huntingdon, recommending
Lady Lothian to the particular notice of the Countess. “Her affliction
(says Lady Mary) seems to prey so deeply on her mind, that I am
perpetually afraid of her losing her reason. I have done all in my
power to rouse her from this state of dejection; and I think Mr.
Whitefield’s ministry, when last in Edinburgh, was of signal service to
her Ladyship. She is so much attached to your Ladyship, that I have the
most sanguine hopes that the Lord will graciously bless your society
and converse to her complete restoration. The Marquis is most painfully
anxious for her recovery, and feels persuaded you will be the means,
under God, of effecting a great change in her spirits. I think you will
find his Lordship much increased in an experimental knowledge of divine
things.”
[49] Lady Mary Hamilton was one of those persons in high life who
attended the ministry of Mr. Whitefield when he visited Scotland,
and was a leading character in the circles in Edinburgh. She was the
youngest daughter of the Marquis of Lothian, and sister to William,
third Marquis, the Countess of Home, Lady Cranstown, and Lady Ross. Her
Ladyship’s mother was daughter of Archibald Campbell, the unfortunate
Earl of Argyle, who was beheaded in 1685. She had married Alexander
Hamilton, of Ballincrieff, member of Parliament for the county of
Linlithgow, Postmaster-General of Scotland, and representative of the
family of Innerwick. Mr. Hamilton was very partial to the preaching of
Mr. Whitefield, and always received him at his house with every mark of
polite attention. To the period of her death, in 1768, Lady Mary was
the constant correspondent of Mr. Whitefield.
[50] Lady Townshend’s father, Edward Harrison, Esq., of Balls, in the
county of Hertford, had formerly been Governor of Fort St. George, in
the East Indies; she was sole heir to his immense fortune. Her eldest
son, the first Marquis Townshend, who had served at the battles of
Dettingen, Fontenoy, and Culloden, and also at the remarkable siege of
Quebec, which town surrendered into his hands, as commander-in-chief,
after the fatal death of Wolfe, became nearly allied to Lady Huntingdon
by his marriage with Lady Charlotte Compton, only surviving issue of
James, Earl of Northampton, by Elizabeth Shirley, who was in her own
right Baroness Ferrars, of Chartley. Her second son, Charles Townshend,
was celebrated for his brilliant talents, by which he distinguished
himself in a most eminent degree, both in the Senate and Cabinet;
perhaps there never arose, in any country, a man of more pointed and
finished wit; and, where his passions were not concerned, of a more
refined, exquisite, and penetrating judgment; but although a man of
genius, he appears to have been rather more fit for literary than
political attainments, and from the versatility of his political
conduct he acquired the nick-name of “the weathercock.” He died in
1767, and his brother, the Marquis Townshend, survived him exactly
forty years; both through life maintained a steady friendship for Lady
Huntingdon, who outlived their eccentric mother only a few years.
[51] Apropos of Lady Townshend, we may here observe that Horace
Walpole unwittingly bears testimony to the uniform consistency of
Mr. Whitefield’s creed and character. When the peace-festival was
celebrated at Ranelagh, some one in the clique of wits, most likely
himself, was talking of the Methodists, and said, “Pray, Madam, is it
true that Whitefield has _recanted_?” Lady Townshend replied,
“O no; he has only _canted_.” Walpole thought this a happy hit,
little dreaming it to be a compliment to a man who might have had
preferment at the time, if he would have recanted even his clerical
irregularities. In a letter from Bristol dated in the December of
this year, Mr. Whitefield tells Lady Huntingdon, “the Bishop behaved
respectfully when I was at sacrament at the cathedral, and my old
tutor, one of the prebendaries, was very cordial when I waited upon
him. I told him that my judgment was (I trusted) a little more ripened
than it was some years ago, and that as fast as I found out my faults,
I would be glad to acknowledge them. He said, the offence the governors
of the Church had taken against me would lessen and wear off as I grew
moderate. Blessed be God, I am pretty easy about that; so that I can
act an honest part, _and be kept from trimming_, I will, through
the Divine assistance, leave all consequences to Him who orders all
things well.”
[52] Often styled “Saint Frances” by Walpole.
[53] Afterwards Lord Lyttleton.
[54] Afterwards Lord Melcombe.
[55] Daughter of the great Duke of Marlborough, and mother of Lady
Cardigan.
[56] Created Baron Beaulieu in 1762, and Earl Beaulieu in 1784.
[57] Baron Hume, but the title became extinct at his death, in 1781.
[58] Member of the Privy Council, and First Lord Commissioner of the
Admiralty.
[59] This excessive liberality on the part of Lady Huntingdon exposed
her sometimes to the artifices of the designing, who failed not to
prey upon her pious generosity. About the date of this letter great
efforts were made on the Continent, assisted by the support of the
charitable in England, to convert the Jews to Christianity. Two zealous
students in the University of Halle, in Saxony, devoted themselves
to this work of grace, travelling over Europe during several years;
preaching, and raising funds for the maintenance of proselytes and
catechumens, and for the publication of tracts, those messengers of
mercy, which were dispersed in thousands, by Russian officers, a
Swedish bishop, the Danish missionaries, and other zealous persons,
wherever an individual of the Jewish nation was to be found. An account
of these efforts was published in 1732, in a pamphlet of forty-eight
pages, drawn up by Professor John Henry Collenberg, of Halle, which
was reprinted in London in 1751, with a view to its distribution among
Jews and Mohammedans, by English merchants trading to the East. Of
the seed thus sown, good fruit was expected, but tares sprung up to
destroy the wholesome grain and to deceive the hopes of the sower.
Hypocrisy and apostasy marred the fair work of conversion, and the
wicked pretender applied to his own use the contributions intended for
the persecuted convert. In September 1749, Mr. Whitefield introduced
to Lady Huntingdon two German ministers, who had laboured in this
vineyard, and preached in the German chapel here with great power;
but the time for the conversion of the Jews, that great triumph which
is to crown the Christian verity, had not yet arrived. Her Ladyship,
waiting for the fulness of time, failed not to pour in her mite towards
the accomplishment of so pure a purpose. But these true ministers were
followed by impostors, two of whom, a father and son, after having been
several times baptized in various countries of Europe, came to repeat
the profitable experiment in England. They found a liberal friend in
Lady Huntingdon, whom they grossly deceived; and, as we learn from
David Levi (see his work on the Prophecies, p. 114), persuaded her
that they were not only proselytes to Christianity, but that they had
also converted him (Levi), whose example was calculated to produce
a powerful effect on his whole nation. Levi amuses himself with the
credulity of the sufferers, from whom these impostors had obtained
upwards of 1,800_l._ “Lady Huntingdon (he says) requested me
to wait on her, whether for my conversion, or to be better informed
concerning the imposture, I cannot tell, for her illness prevented the
interview.”
[60] The residence of the Countess Delitz.
[61] Countess Delitz.
[62] Lady Gertrude Hotham.
[63] Lady Anne Hastings, in consequence of the constant attendance
on, and anxiety for, Lady Huntingdon, suffered a serious but brief
indisposition during the illness of the Countess.
[64] Dr. Doddridge, in his “Life of Colonel Gardiner,” alludes to
Mr. Thompson when he says, ‘The conversion of Colonel Gardiner is
not altogether singular. There is, at least, a second, whose story
may be told whenever the Established Church shall lose one of its
brightest living ornaments, and one of the most useful members which
that, or perhaps any Christian communion, can boast.’ Remarking on
this passage, the late Mr. Palmer, of Hackney, in his correspondence
with Mr. Newton, has supposed Mr. Grimshaw was the clergyman referred
to; but Mr. Davidson, who, in June, 1748, had the account from Dr.
Doddridge’s own mouth, says it was Mr. Thompson. Mr. Hervey, during
his residence at Bideford, was intimate with Mr. Thompson, to whose
revisal were submitted his “Meditations and Reflections,” and the first
volume of his “Meditations” was dedicated to Mr. Thompson’s eldest
daughter. Mr. Thompson died in 1781, and his widow, a very pious and
amiable woman, in 1786. (See some interesting particulars of his life
in “Zion’s Trumpet,” a periodical published in 1800). His letter to
Dr. Watts, printed in “Dr. Gibson’s Memoirs,” is well worth perusal,
and a volume of his religious poems was published without his name,
by the Rev. Samuel Furlong, of St. Roche. Mr. Thompson lost his sight
several years before his death; and, although he had joined himself to
a Church of the United Brethren, retained his living, and continued
active and useful in his parish. He was a visitor and correspondent of
the Countess, and a man of lively passions and of jocular discourse,
and his poetical abilities were considerable. When Mr. Whitefield or
Mr. Wesley visited Cornwall, he itinerated with them, and was made
instrumental in the conversion of his neighbour, the Rev. W. Hill, of
Tavistock.
[65] Before her formal introduction, however, the Countess had
exchanged letters with her Grace, at the express request of the Rev.
Moses Browne, who acted as the Duke’s chaplain, when his Grace did not
himself officiate in that capacity; for he thought it not unbecoming
his station as a peer of the realm to lead the prayers of his family.
Mr. Browne was an eye-witness of the Duke’s singular worth, and had
begun to taste his favours when he was taken to his eternal rest. “Had
the Duke lived (observes Mr. Hervey), poor Browne would have met with
the encouragement he deserves. He loved and fully intended to have
served him.” A short poem, called “Percy Hill,” was written by Mr.
Browne, at the request of the Duke and Duchess, but was not published
till 1756, after the death of both.
[66] See a sermon preached before the University of Oxford, and at
several other places, on occasion of the late earthquakes, by George
Horne, M.A., Fellow of Magdalene College, afterwards Dean of Canterbury
and Bishop of Norwich.
[67] Among them was the old Earl of Northampton, who well rebuked those
who complained of the crowding in the church of God, by reminding them
that they bore the greater crowd of a ball-room, an assembly, or a
play-house, without the least complaint. “If (he said) the power to
attract be imputed as matter of admiration to Garrick, why should it
be urged as a crime against Romaine? Shall excellence be considered
exceptionable only in divine things?”
[68] His Lordship’s youngest daughter, Lady Charlotte Compton,
succeeded, on the termination of the abeyance, by the demise of her
eldest sister, in 1749, as Baroness Ferrars, of Chartley, and carried
that barony by marriage, in 1751, with George, first Marquis Townshend,
to the family of Townshend, as also the Barony of Compton, on the
demise of her father, in 1754. The Earl of Northampton died without
issue male, October 3, 1754. His attention was called to the concerns
of an eternal world by the preaching of Mr. Whitefield at the house of
Lady Huntingdon.
[69] Dr. Stonhouse and Mr. Hartley.
[70] Some years after, a chapel in Lady Huntingdon’s Connexion was
opened at Ashby, and supplied by clergymen and students from Trevecca.
In the summer of 1784, Mr. Wills preached there to a very large
congregation, on these words: “How can man be justified with God?” (Job
xxv. 4). “It is very remarkable (says Mr. Wills), that so long ago as
when dear Lady Huntingdon resided in this town, though it is one of the
manors belonging to Lord Huntingdon’s family, nothing could exceed the
enmity shown against the Gospel, and even personally to her Ladyship,
on many occasions; but now this public opposition appears to be at an
end--at least, I met with nothing of the kind.” The old chapel being
very much out of repair and too small, a new one was erected, and
opened in July, 1825, on which occasion Dr. Collyer preached morning
and evening to respectable and numerous congregations.
[71] Dr. Stonhouse, afterwards so well known as the Rev. Sir James
Stonhouse, Bart., Rector of Great and Little Cheveril, Wilts, had
his education at Winchester School, and was afterwards of St. John’s
College, Oxford. He had his medical education under Dr. Nicholls, the
celebrated anatomist, and Professor of Anatomy, in Oxford. He was a
Deist, and took great pains to instil his pernicious principles into
the minds of his pupils. “Under him (said Dr. Stonhouse) I commenced
infidel.” During the years that he remained in this awful state of
delusion, he did all he could to subvert Christianity, and wrote a keen
pamphlet against it; “for writing and spreading of which (says he), I
humbly hope God has forgiven me, though I never can forgive myself.”
His conversion to Christianity, and the various circumstances attending
it, were such, that he was persuaded to write the history of his life,
with many reflections on the several circumstances of it. He kept
this by him for some years, altering and adding, as his recollection
enabled him. He read it occasionally to some of his intimate friends,
who highly approved of it; and it was his intention that it should
have been printed soon after his death, not through vanity, but as a
public acknowledgment of his heinous offences against God, and his hope
of pardon through a crucified Redeemer. But on reading it to a person
for whose judgment he had the highest regard, he gave the Doctor such
valid reasons against the publication, that he burnt it soon after,
lest an ill use should have been made of it after his decease. In a
letter to a friend, speaking of this event, Dr. Doddridge expresses
himself in the following manner: “One of the most signal instances in
which God has ever honoured me is in the conversion of a physician in
this town, who was once free in his manner of living, and a confirmed
Deist. God made me the means of first bringing him to a conviction of
the truth of Christianity, and at length of enlightening his mind with
the true and saving knowledge of Christ, to which I bless God he has
now attained. Good Mr. Hervey has been honoured as a fellow-labourer
with me in this work. My book on the ‘Rise and Progress of Religion’
has been, I hope, honoured of God, as one great means of producing this
blessed change.” A full account of Dr. Stonhouse, and the circumstances
of his conversion from infidelity, may be found in--“Hervey’s Letters,”
“Doddridge’s Letters,” and “Letters from Sir James Stonhouse to the
Rev. Thomas Stedman, Vicar of St. Chad’s, Shrewsbury.” Mr. Hervey’s
letters on his ordination, first as deacon, by the Bishop of Hereford,
and then as priest, by the Bishop of Bristol; the letters of Mr.
Whitefield and Lady Huntingdon; and the death of his wife (the eldest
daughter of J. Neal, Esq., M.P. for Coventry), were among the things
that led to his conversion.
[72] Mr. Hartley, Rector of Winwick.
[73] Dr. Stonhouse.
[74] Her Ladyship, for whom he preached at Northampton, Weston Favel,
and at Ashby, and at whose house he often expounded, was plain and
clear in her remonstrances. He acknowledges one of her Ladyship’s
letters in these terms: “Many, many thanks, my dear Madam, for the
judgment, discrimination, and fidelity you have displayed in the letter
I have lately had the honour of receiving from your Ladyship. I humbly
hope the glory of my Divine Master and the salvation of souls have been
the ruling motives which induced me to seek to be a minister of the
everlasting Gospel. Pray for me, my dear Madam, that I may be faithful
unto death, and that some, by my instrumentality, may be turned from
darkness to light. Allow me to express my heartfelt gratitude for
the very faithful manner in which you have placed my various duties
before me--duties high and honourable, but arduous indeed. May He that
hath called me to the work, give me grace to continue faithful to the
end! What holy and excellent examples have I in the exalted piety and
ministerial fidelity of Doddridge, Hervey, Hartley, and the undaunted
zeal of that great apostle, Mr. Whitefield. May I be a follower of them
as they are followers of Christ! and whatever little differences may
exist between us, may we all finally meet before the throne of God and
the Lamb!”
[75] Dr. Stonhouse is said to have been one of the most correct and
elegant preachers in the kingdom. When he entered into holy orders he
took occasion to profit by his acquaintance with Garrick, to procure
from him some valuable instructions in elocution. Being once engaged
to read prayers and to preach at a church in the city, he prevailed
upon Garrick to go with him. After the service, the British Roscius
asked the Doctor what particular business he had to do when the duty
was over. “None,” said the other. “I thought you had (said Garrick), on
seeing you enter the reading-desk in such a hurry. Nothing (added he)
can be more indecent than to see a clergyman set about sacred business
as if he were a tradesman, and go into the church as if he wanted to
get out of it as soon as possible.” He next asked the Doctor “what
books he had in the desk before him?” “_Only_ the Bible and Prayer
Book.” “_Only_ the Bible and Prayer Book (replied the player);
why you tossed them backwards and forwards, and turned the leaves as
carelessly, as if they were those of a day-book and ledger.” The Doctor
was wise enough to see the force of these observations, and ever after
avoided the faults they were designed to reprove.
[76] Jonathan Belcher, for many years Governor of Massachusetts and
New Jersey. He succeeded Governor Burnet, eldest son of the celebrated
Bishop Burnet. He was named William, after the Prince of Orange, who
stood his godfather. At one period he possessed a considerable fortune,
but it had been wrecked in the South Sea scheme, which reduced so
many opulent families to indigence. After the loss of his fortune,
he emigrated to America, and in process of time became Governor of
New York and New Jersey. He was afterwards Governor of Massachusetts
and New Hampshire, which post he held to the time of his death. When
Mr. Whitefield was at Boston, in 1740, Governor Belcher treated him
with the utmost respect and attention. He even followed him as far as
Worcester, and requested him to continue his faithful instructions and
pungent addresses to the conscience, desiring him _to spare neither
ministers nor rulers_. This good man expressed the humblest sense
of his own character, and the most exalted views of the rich, free,
and glorious grace offered in the Gospel to sinners. His faith worked
by love, and produced the genuine fruits of obedience. It exhibited
itself in a life of piety and devotion, of meekness and humility, of
justice, truth, and benevolence. He died August 31, 1747, aged 76
years. One of his sons studied law at the Temple in London, and gained
some distinction at the bar in England. He was afterwards Chief Justice
of Nova Scotia, and died at Halifax, March, 1776. Governor Belcher was
succeeded by William Shirley, Esq., a relative of Lady Huntingdon’s,
who was for a time commander-in-chief of the British forces in America,
in which office he was succeeded by Major-General Abercrombie. Governor
Shirley was also Governor of one of the Bahama Islands for a number of
years. He died in 1771.
[77] Mr. Aaron Burr was educated at Yale College, in Connecticut,
New England; and for his great abilities and well-approved piety,
was unanimously chosen in, 1747, to succeed the Rev. Mr. Dickenson,
the first President of New Jersey College, a man of learning, of
distinguished talents, and much celebrated as a preacher. In the year
1754, Governor Burr accompanied Mr. Whitefield to Boston, having a
high esteem for the character of that eloquent itinerant preacher,
and greatly rejoiced in the success of his labours. After a life of
usefulness and honour, devoted to his Master in heaven, he was called
into the eternal world, September 24, 1757, in the midst of his days,
being in the forty-third year of his age. At the approach of death,
that Gospel which he had preached to others, and which discloses a
crucified Redeemer, gave him support and consolation, and enabled him
to triumph over the last enemy. He married a daughter of Dr. Jonathan
Edwards, his successor to the Presidency of the College. She died the
year after the death of her husband, leaving a son and a daughter.
[78] On the 11th of May, 1750, the Sessions began at the Old Bailey,
and continued for some days, in which time a great number of
malefactors were tried; and there was present in the court a great
multitude of persons to hear the trial of Captain Clarke for killing
Captain Innes, both officers in the Navy. It was generally supposed
that the air was at first tainted from the bar, by some of the
prisoners, then ill of the gaol distemper; and the poisonous quality of
the atmosphere was considerably increased by the heat and closeness of
the court, occasioned by the great number of persons penned up for the
most part of the day, without breathing the free air, or receiving any
refreshment. The Bench consisted of six persons, Sir Samuel Pennant,
then Lord Mayor; Lord Chief Justice Lee; Sir Thomas Abney, Justice of
the Common Pleas; Baron Clarke; and Sir Daniel Lambert, Alderman and
M.P. for London, whereof four died, together with two or three of the
counsel, one of the Under-Sheriffs, several of the Middlesex jury,
and others present, to the amount of above forty in the whole. This
event is noticed by Lady Huntingdon, in one of her letters, in which
she laments the death of an intimate friend, Stanhope Otway, Esq.,
barrister-at-law, whose sudden decease was improved by Mr. Whitefield
at Ashby, before a numerous congregation. A narrative of the awful
circumstances connected with the Black Sessions at the Old Bailey was
drawn up by Dr. Pringle, afterwards Sir John Pringle, son-in-law of
Dr. Oliver, of Bath, the particular friend of Lady Huntingdon. (See
Pringle’s “Observations on the Diseases of the Army.”)
[79] Mr. Barker had the reputation of being one of the most popular
preachers in the metropolis amongst the Dissenters. He was a great
favourite with Lady Huntingdon, whom he frequently visited when in
London, and on some occasions expounded at her house. Few ministers
lamented more the decay of evangelical truth amongst the Dissenters
in London, and the open departure of many of his brethren from some
of those doctrines which lie at the foundation of Christian hope.
Through life he discovered an uniform and zealous attachment to the
great doctrines of the Reformation, and heartily longed for the
union of all real Christians, and the breaking down of the wall of
separation between the Church of England and the Dissenters. Though
firmly attached to the principles of Protestant Dissent, yet he had
the interest of vital godliness more at heart; and he considered a
lively evangelical mode of preaching, such as then chiefly prevailed
amongst those denominated Methodists, as best adapted to extend its
influence. In one of his letters to Lady Huntingdon he feelingly
laments the decay of evangelical truth in the pulpits of many of the
Dissenting churches in London. “Alas! (says he), the distinguished
doctrines of the Gospel--Christ crucified, the only ground of hope for
fallen man--salvation through his atoning blood--the sanctification
by his eternal Spirit, are old-fashioned things now, seldom heard in
our churches. A cold comfortless kind of preaching prevails almost
everywhere; and reason, the great law of reason, and the eternal law
of reason, is idolized and deified. But blessed be God for the revival
that has taken place in another branch of the Church of Christ; the
labours of the Methodists will, I hope, infuse new life into some of
our dying churches, and be the means, under God, of spreading such
a stream of light in England, that all the vain efforts of false
doctrines and false philosophy can never darken. We are much indebted
to the zeal and catholic charity which your Ladyship, Mr. Whitefield,
and some others, have evinced. I am now in the decline of life, having
attained more than seventy years. Assist me with your prayers, my dear
Madam, that my few remaining years may be devoted to the interests of
my Divine Master, and the spread of his kingdom amongst men.”
[80] There were mingled with the theological students educated by Dr.
Doddridge, besides the Earl of Drummond, twelve gentlemen of fortune,
not intended for the liberal professions; and of those who were, it
appears that five entered the law. Three others were elected members of
Parliament. Of the theological pupils, six conformed to the Established
Church, while the great body remained Dissenters. Of these many were
distinguished for their piety and learning, and others for their
heterodoxy. The names of Darracott, Fawcett, and Taylor, of Ashworth,
and Kippis, will naturally present themselves to the mind of the reader.
[81] The Rev. Richard Denny, the last surviving pupil of the excellent
Doddridge. He was forty years pastor of the Independent Church and
congregation at Long Buckby, in Northamptonshire, and was distinguished
for his unfeigned regard to all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in
sincerity--for devotion, warm and fervent to the last--and for the
exemplary conduct and useful labour of a life protracted to the age of
nearly ninety. He was introduced by Lady Huntingdon and Mr. Whitefield
to the notice of Dr. Doddridge, who most kindly and cordially
received him under his care and tuition in 1747. During his severe
indisposition, whilst a student at Nottingham, Lady Huntingdon paid
him every mark of attention, and as soon as he was well enough to move
abroad invited him to Ashby for the recovery of his health. He died at
Long Buckby, April 14, 1813.
[82] Mrs. Gibbon’s annual income was nearly 1,000_l._; Mrs.
Hutcheson’s about 2,000_l._ per annum; and their bounty was
bestowed upon the poor of an extensive circle. Mr. Law died April 9,
1761, at the advanced age of seventy-five, and his remains were placed
in a new tomb, built by Mrs. Gibbon, in the church at King’s Cliffe.
Having long survived their spiritual guide and faithful companion,
Mrs. Hutcheson died in January, 1781, aged ninety-one, and her remains
were placed, by her particular desire, _at the feet of Mr. Law_,
in a new tomb. Mrs. Gibbon followed her old friends and companions in
June, 1790, aged eighty-six, and was buried with Mr. Law. Her property
she gave by will to her nephew, the historian, who long expected it,
but not without fears that his aunt would leave it to the friends and
purposes to which she had devoted her life.
[83] It was at one of these convivial resorts that Mr. Thorpe and
three of his associates, to enliven the company, undertook to mimic
Mr. Whitefield. The proposition was highly gratifying to all parties
present, and a wager agreed upon to inspire each individual with
a desire of excelling in this impious attempt. That their jovial
auditors might adjudge the prize to the most adroit performer, it was
concluded that each should open the Bible and hold forth from the
first text that should present itself to the eye. Accordingly three in
their turn mounted the table, and entertained their wicked companions
at the expense of everything sacred. When they had exhausted their
little stock of buffoonery, it devolved on Mr. Thorpe to close this
very irreverent scene. Much elevated, and confident of success, he
exclaimed, as he ascended the table, “I shall beat you all!” But O, the
stupendous depths of divine mercy! when the Bible was handed to him it
opened at that remarkable passage, Luke xiii. 3--“Except ye repent, ye
shall all likewise perish.” No sooner had he uttered these words than
his mind was affected in a very extraordinary manner. The sharpest
pangs of conviction now seized him, and conscience denounced tremendous
vengeance upon his soul. In a moment he was favoured with a clear view
of his subject, and divided his discourse more like a divine who had
been accustomed to speak on portions of Scripture, than like one who
never so much as thought on religious topics, except for the purpose
of ridicule. He found no deficiency of matter, no want of utterance,
and he has frequently declared, “If ever I preached in my life by the
assistance of the Spirit of God, it was at that time.” The impression
made upon his mind by the subject had such an effect on his manner,
that the most ignorant and profane could not but perceive that what he
had spoken was with the greatest sincerity. The unexpected solemnity
and pertinacity of his address, instead of entertaining the company,
first spread a visible depression, and afterwards a sullen gloom,
upon every countenance. This sudden change in the complexion of his
associates did not a little conduce to increase the convictions of his
own bosom. No individual appeared disposed to interrupt him; but, on
the contrary, their attention was deeply engaged with the pointedness
of his remarks; yea, many of his sentences, as he often related, made,
to his apprehension, his own hair stand erect!
When he left the table not a syllable was uttered concerning the wager,
but a profound silence pervaded the company. Mr. Thorpe immediately
withdrew, without taking the least notice of any person present, and
returned home, with very painful reflections, and in the deepest
distress imaginable. Happily for him, this was his last Bacchanalian
revel. His impressions were manifestly genuine; and from that period
the connexion between him and his former companions was entirely
dissolved. Thus by a sovereign and almost unexampled act of divine
grace, in a place where, and at a time when, it was least expected,
“the prey was taken from the mighty, and the lawful captive delivered!”
[84] We insert the inscription, written as it is with evident
sincerity:--
“To the Right Honourable the Countess of Huntingdon, that eminent
example of the Christian candour here recommended, and of every
other virtue and grace which can inspire, support, and adorn it--the
AUTHOR, finding himself (after repeated attempts) incapable of
writing any dedication, under the restraints which her humility, amidst
its utmost indulgence, has prescribed him, or to mention any excellence
which would not seem an encomium on her, has chosen thus most
respectfully to inscribe this Discourse; entreating that his farther
silence in this connexion may be interpreted by her LADYSHIP,
and by every READER, as the most sensible and painful proof
he can give of the deference, veneration, and grateful affection with
which he is her Ladyship’s most obliged and obedient humble servant.”
[85] Afterwards Lady Stonhouse, the only child and heir of Thomas
Ekins, Esq., of Chester-on-the-Water, in Northamptonshire, a justice of
the peace, and a most religious man. His funeral sermon was preached
at Wellingborough, by Dr. Doddridge, and afterwards transcribed from
the Doctor’s _short_ hand copy, in _long_ hand, by a son
of Dr. Johnstone, a worthy physician at Worcester; the text is Heb.
xi. 26. “Her father (says Dr. Stonhouse) was a Christian of the first
magnitude, who left Dr. Doddridge sole guardian to his child. The
Doctor died before I married her, which I did not do till after she
was of age, and in full possession of her property. Dr. Doddridge’s
account of her estate and expenses was so very just, that he really
did not do himself justice. In consideration of which, we made his
widow a handsome present, as a satisfaction for his undercharges.”
Lady Stonhouse died at the Hot Wells, Bristol, December 10, 1778, aged
fifty-five. A plain but elegant monument was erected to her memory in
the Wells chapel, with an epitaph written by Mrs. Hannah More. She
left two sons, John, in the civil service of the East India Company
at Bengal, father of the present Bart., Sir John Brooke Stonhouse;
Timothy, in holy orders, Vicar of Sunningwell, county of Berks, who
took the surname and arms of Vigor, and married Miss Huntingford, niece
of the Bishop of Hereford; and a daughter, Clarissa, wife of Henry
Tripp Vigor, Esq. The first wife of Sir James Stonhouse was Anne Neale,
as already stated, one of the maids of honour to Caroline, Queen of
George II., by whom he had issue Sir Thomas Stonhouse, the thirteenth
Baronet, who died unmarried, and Sarah, who married her cousin, George
Vansittart, Esq., of Bisham Abbey, M.P. for the county of Berks in
several Parliaments, by whom she had three sons and three daughters.
Mr. Vansittart was uncle to the present Lord Bexley. The Rev. Sir James
Stonhouse survived Lady Stonhouse but a few years. He died December
8, 1792, aged eighty, and was buried in the Wells chapel, in the same
grave with his beloved wife.
[86] The famed poet, William Cowper, Esq., who had been long under Dr.
Cotton’s care, at St. Alban’s, was very partial to this work. In one of
his letters we find the following words: “Marshall lies on my table,
and is an old acquaintance of mine. I have both read him and heard
him read with pleasure and edification; the doctrines he maintains
are, under the influence of the Spirit of Christ, the very life of
my soul, and the soul of all my happiness. I think Marshall one of
the best writers, and the most spiritual expositor of the Scriptures
I ever read: I admire the strength of his argument and the clearness
of his reasoning upon the parts of our holy religion which are least
understood (even by real Christians), as a master-piece of the kind.”
Dr. Cotton is said to have studied under Boerhaave, the most celebrated
professor of physic of the early part of the eighteenth century, at
Leyden, where he took his Doctor’s degree. He was very assiduous in his
attentions to Dr. Young, author of “Night Thoughts,” whom he attended
in his last illness. His works, which are chiefly on medical subjects,
were collected and published in two volumes, in 1791. He died August 2,
1788.
[87] A marked testimony to the poetic talents of Dr. Watts was shown
him by this gentleman, who, in order to excite emulation, and procure
for his work productions of real genius, proposed to give certain
rewards to his poetical correspondents, and wrote to the Doctor,
requesting him to decide upon their respective merits. His natural
modesty revolted at the idea of becoming a literary judge; but on
being pressed, he gave his opinion with so much candour and judicious
discrimination, that all parties expressed their gratitude, and
cheerfully acquiesced in his decision. It was this circumstance which
first introduced Mr. Browne to the notice of Dr. Watts, who, during
the remainder of his life, took a kind and almost parental interest
in all his concerns. The extensive learning and poetical abilities,
the exemplary piety, the active benevolence, and steady friendship of
that excellent man and bright ornament of the Christian Church, were
not less the subjects of delightful conversation in the privacy of Mr.
Browne’s life, than they have been the theme of just eulogium to an
impartial posterity.
[88] Dr. Benjamin Hoadley, the celebrated prelate who gave rise to the
Bangorian controversy.
[89] Lady Fanny was very active in her endeavours to procure pecuniary
assistance for Mr. Browne. She had applied to the Duchess of Somerset
and Dr. Stephen Hales, physician to the Prince of Wales, who, at her
request, had presented Mr. Hervey’s works to the Princess, by whom they
were received in a very obliging manner. Dr. Hales was a philosopher
and divine, and is said to have been a man of great science, humility,
and piety. He was successively presented to the livings of Teddington,
Middlesex; Portlock, Somersetshire; and Farringdon, in Hampshire. After
the death of the Prince of Wales, the Princess Dowager made him clerk
of her closet, and after his death, in 1761, erected a monument to his
memory in Westminster Abbey.
[90] Then one of the Lords of the Admiralty. He was nephew of Lady
Gertrude Hotham, and afterwards became Lord Mendip.
[91] The Rev. Dr. Samuel Clark, compiler of the “Promises,” to whom Dr.
Doddridge was under very particular obligations in the course of his
educational studies.
[92] She was the third daughter of Theophilus, seventh Earl of
Huntingdon, by his (second) marriage with Frances, daughter of Francis
Leveson Fowler, of Harnage Grange, in the county of Salop, Esq., and
relict of Thomas, sixth Viscount Kilmorey. There was a double connexion
between those families; Lord Kilmorey, the nephew of Lady Frances
Hastings, having married Lady Mary Shirley, the youngest sister of Lady
Huntingdon.
[93] Amongst the early friends and associates of the Ladies Hastings
were the daughters of the Marquis of Lothian. Their mother was a
Campbell, sister to the first Duke of Argyle. Lady Mary Kerr, the
youngest daughter, married Alexander Hamilton, Esq., of Ballincrieff,
member of Parliament for the county of Linlithgow, Postmaster-General
of Scotland, and representative of the family of Innerwick. Lady Mary’s
intimacy with the Ladies Hastings soon brought her into contact with
Mr. Whitefield and the Messrs. Wesley, and under the preaching of those
men of God she was led to embrace the truth as it is in Jesus. For many
years she was the intimate friend and correspondent of Mr. Whitefield;
and in the collection of letters published by his executors, several
will be found addressed to Lady Mary Hamilton, whose mother, we have it
on Mr. Whitefield’s authority, set her the example of piety; she died
in 1740. The Marquis of Lothian, the brother of Lady Mary, was also a
correspondent of Mr. Whitefield, and, as we have before stated (see
page 91), was one of his hearers at the house of Lady Huntingdon. Lady
Mary died Nov. 17, 1768, leaving no surviving issue.
[94] In the library of Cheshunt College is a volume of “The Seasons,”
presented by Thomson himself to Lady Huntingdon, with an autograph
inscription.
[95] His Royal Highness had some claims to consideration on the score
of literary talents. See Park’s edition of Lord Orford’s Royal and
Noble Authors, vol. i. p. 171.
[96] Lady Charlotte was a daughter of James, Duke of Hamilton, who was
unfortunately killed in a duel by his brother-in-law, Lord Mohun. She
married Charles Edwin, of Dunraven, in Glamorganshire, Esq., M.P. for
that county, who died at Kensington, June 29, 1756. Lady Charlotte was
one of the ladies of the bedchamber to Augusta, Princess of Wales; and
died at London, Feb. 1, 1777, in her 74th year, without issue, leaving
a huge fortune, chiefly to the Duke of Hamilton. Lady Charlotte, some
years after the circumstance related above, became very intimate
with Lady Huntingdon, and a constant attendant on the ministry of
Mr. Whitefield and those faithful men who preached for her Ladyship.
The misfortunes of her sister, Lady Susan Keck, and the conduct of
her sister-in-law, the notorious Lady Vane, had a powerful effect in
leading her to think with deep seriousness on the great concerns of an
eternal world. Frequent mention is made of Lady Charlotte in the Diary
of the celebrated Bubb Doddington, afterwards Lord Melcombe.
[97] His late Majesty George III.
[98] Several of the family of Sir Thomas Lyttleton had much of the
external appearance of religion; and it is hoped that some of them
possessed the life and power of divine truth in their own souls. Of
the Duchess of Bridgewater little is known. Her Grace occasionally
attended Mr. Whitefield’s preaching at Lady Huntingdon’s, and sometimes
corresponded with her Ladyship, as did also several members of the
family, all of whom retained a high respect and esteem for a character
of such exalted excellence. Lady Lyttleton, who had been one of the
Maids of Honour to Queen Anne, was a daughter of Sir Richard Temple,
of Stow; her eldest sister married Dr. Richard West, Prebendary of
Winchester, and was mother of Gilbert West, Esq., a poet, and well
known for his “Observations on the Resurrection.”
[99] He was affected with a cancer in the cheek-bone, for which he was
treated by W. Cheselden, Esq., head surgeon of St. Thomas’s and Chelsea
Hospitals; but renouncing the aid of this accomplished surgeon, and
employing a quack, the philosophic infidel died most miserably.
[100] The Rev. Martin Madan, in his “Comments on the Thirty-nine
Articles,” relates the following curious anecdote of Lord Bolingbroke
and Dr. Church, on the authority of Lady Huntingdon, to whom it was
communicated by his Lordship himself. Lord Bolingbroke was one day
sitting in his house at Battersea, reading Calvin’s “Institutes,”
when he received a morning visit from Dr. Church. After the usual
salutations, he asked the Doctor if he could guess what the book was
which then lay before him; “and which (says Lord Bolingbroke) I have
been studying?” “No, really, my Lord, I cannot,” quoth the Doctor. “It
is Calvin’s ‘Institutes’ (said Lord Bolingbroke); what do you think
of these matters?” Doctor: “Oh! my Lord, we don’t think about such
antiquated stuff; we teach the plain doctrines of virtue and morality,
and have long laid aside those abstruse points about grace.” “Look you,
Doctor (said Lord Bolingbroke), you know I don’t believe the Bible to
be a divine revelation; but they who do can never defend it on any
principles but the doctrine of grace. To say the truth, I have at times
been almost persuaded to believe it upon this view of things; and
there is one argument which has gone very far with me in behalf of its
authenticity, which is, that the belief in it exists upon earth, even
when committed to the care of such as you, who pretend to believe it,
and yet deny the only principles on which it is defensible.”
[101] Lady Luxborough was the only daughter of the Viscount St. John,
and half-sister to Lord Bolingbroke. His brother John, who succeeded as
second Viscount St. John, had married a daughter of Lady Anne Furness,
the aunt of Lady Huntingdon, and left three sons and three daughters,
one of whom married Lord Bagot. Her Ladyship was very intimate with the
unfortunate Lord Ferrers, who had married her bosom friend, one of the
sisters of Sir William Meredith. The ill conduct of her only daughter,
who was divorced from her husband and afterwards married the Hon. W.
Child, raised a storm, not only in her own family, but in the world,
and drew forth letters of condolence from the Duchess of Somerset and
Lady Huntingdon. The latter she thanked very politely for her sympathy,
but styles the letter of the Duchess a “kind of sermon,” and spares
her correspondent, Mr. Shenstone, the labour of perusing so “serious
an epistle.” Lady Luxborough died in 1756. “Unhappy woman! (says Lady
Huntingdon) how insensible has she been to the many alarming calls of
Providence which she has received from time to time. Such repeated
deaths in her family, the awful end of her brother, Lord Bolingbroke,
made no impression on her; and she left this world, as she had always
lived, intoxicated with the vanity of her numerous accomplishments and
literary acquirements.” Yet her letters to Shenstone, published after
his death, 1763, although pleasing and flattering to the poet, made a
weak impression on the public.
[102] This anecdote shows that the interest taken in this important
subject was far from being confined to the vulgar, and that, even in
the Universities, it was not contemplated with indifference.
[103] James Nimmo, Esq., Receiver-General of Excise, was a man of
piety, and connected with some of the first families in the Scottish
peerage. His mother, the Hon. Mary Erskine, was a daughter of Henry,
Lord Cardross, and a near relation to Dr. John Erskine, minister of the
old Greyfriars’ Church of Edinburgh; and one of his sisters married
his cousin, David Erskine, Esq., son of the Hon. Captain William
Erskine, Deputy-Governor of Blackness Castle. Mr. Nimmo married, in
1743, Lady Jane Hume, third daughter of the Earl of Marchmont, by a
daughter and heiress of Sir George Campbell, of Gressnock, in Ayrshire.
She was chiefly brought up by her able, prudent, warm-hearted, and
affectionate aunt, Lady Grizel Baillie, of Jerviswood, whose conduct
and character, as portrayed in Rose’s “Observations on Fox,” it is
impossible to contemplate without admiration. Soon after her marriage
she became a correspondent of Lady Huntingdon’s, and maintained an
intimate friendship with her till her death, in 1770, in the 62nd year
of her age. Her Ladyship was sister to the Hon. Hume Campbell, an
eminent counsellor in London, Solicitor to the Prince of Wales, and
Lord Clerk Register of Scotland. Her eldest brother, Hugh, fourth Earl
of Marchmont, became eminent for learning and brilliancy of genius.
The estimation in which his Lordship was held by his contemporaries
may be judged of by his close and intimate friendship with Lord Cobham
(who gave his bust a place in the Temple of Worthies, at Stow) and
Sir William Wyndham, and by the mention of him in Pope’s well-known
inscription in his grotto at Twickenham--
“There the bright flame was shot through Marchmont’s soul!”
He was one of the executors of Pope, also of Sarah, Duchess of
Marlborough, who left him a legacy of 2,500_l._, as such. With
Lady Huntingdon, Lord Marchmont and Mr. Hume Campbell lived on very
intimate terms, and the latter often aided her by his excellent advice.
Lady Jane was distinguished by a sound and cultivated understanding;
by genuine and unostentatious piety, guided by great good sense and
discernment; by uniform mildness and equality of temper; and by those
habitually cheerful and affectionate manners which commanded the esteem
and respect of the society in which she lived, and were the perpetual
delight of her own family. Her eldest sister, Lady Anne, married Sir
William Purvis, Bart., whose grandson assumed, on inheriting the estate
of his maternal ancestors, the additional surname of “Hume Campbell,”
and is the present representative of that family; the Hon. Alexander
Hume Campbell and Lord Marchmont having died without surviving male
issue.
[104] At one period, when Mr. Wesley was at Newcastle, he rode to
Hexham, at the pressing request of Mr. Wardrobe and others. He preached
at the market-place to a multitude of people, who stared at him, but
behaved very quietly. Mr. Wardrobe preached in the Methodist Chapel,
at Newcastle, in 1755, to the no small amazement and displeasure of
some of his zealous countrymen. He died in 1786, and a very interesting
account of his death has been preserved in a letter from Mr. Adams, of
Falkirk, to Dr. Gillies, of Glasgow.
[105] Besides several single sermons, and the volume mentioned by Mr.
Hervey, Mr. Hartley published a treatise on the Millennium, under the
title of “Paradise Restored.” (one vol. 8vo.) He became an admirer of
the Baron Swedenborg, and translated several of his works.
[106] Mr. Hervey’s work occurs in Mr. Bohn’s “Catalogue of the Library
of the late Rev. and learned Dr. Samuel Parr,” with the following
remarkable note attached to the volume--“This book was the delight of
Dr. Parr when a boy, and, for some time, was the model on which he
endeavoured to form a style.”
[107] The above was written by Mr. Joseph Smith, some time a preacher
in Mr. Whitefield’s connexion, and addressed to the late Mr. Edwards,
of Whitechapel, Leeds.
[108] He was himself a successful preacher, both at Lady Huntingdon’s
house, before the nobility, and to a very opposite auditory on
Garlick-hill, where he was stationed for some time. Among his converts
was Mrs. Kent, of Edmonton, a venerable sister, aged 104.
[109] The trustees of the colony of Georgia made him rector of
Savannah, and granted him 500 acres of land, whereon to erect an
Orphan-house. To endow this institution he sought friends in England.
[110] The Bishop, who was a correspondent of Dr. Watts, and who
remonstrated kindly with Mr. John and Mr. Charles Wesley, when
complaints were made to him against them, often expressed his zeal
for the interest of religion, as well among the Dissenters as within
the Church. His dislike to masquerades offended the Court and stopped
his preferment. He died in 1748. His daughter married Dr. Tyrwhitt,
residentiary of St. Paul’s, Canon of Windsor, Archdeacon of London,
and Rector of St. James’s--a pluralist indeed! This gentleman had a
son, Mr. Tyrwhitt, who resigned a fellowship at Cambridge, and all his
bright prospects, rather than subscribe to the Articles of the Church
of England; he was one of the Feathers’ Tavern Divines, who, under the
pretence of relief from subscription, set forth an opposition to the
doctrine of the Trinity.
[111] The Rev. Bryan Broughton, in reply to a demand made on him to
deny his pulpit, said, “Through Mr. Whitefield’s influence I obtained
the living of St. Helen’s, and if he insists upon it he shall have
my pulpit.” Mr. Whitefield did insist, and Mr. Broughton lost his
lectureship.
[112] Both the Bishop of London and Dr. Trapp were answered by Mr.
Whitefield, whose pamphlets were purchased with the greatest avidity.
His portrait was multiplied by various competitors; and his journals
were eagerly contended for by rival publishers. The Bishop, in a
personal interview, charged the “Journals” with enthusiasm. Mr.
Whitefield replied that they were written for himself and private
friends, and were published without his consent.
[113] _The Societies for the Reformation of Manners_, which had
been the soul of the Establishment, and had assisted Mr. Whitefield
in various plans of great utility, now turned against him, and the
new societies were founded with a view to something more than the
Reformation of Manners. “Societies” and “congregations” became nearly
synonymous terms.
[114] Henry, third Viscount Lonsdale, was a great patriot, and had been
one of the Lords of the Bedchamber, Constable of the Tower, Lord Privy
Seal, and Custos Rotulorum for Westmoreland. His Lordship was very
intimate with Lady Huntingdon, and used to attend the preaching at her
house. He died March 12, 1753.
[115] Among these “others” were William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland,
youngest son of George II., and his brother Frederick, Prince of
Wales; Charles, third Duke of Bolton, who had been thirty-eight years
married to the Lady Anne Vaughan, daughter and sole heir to the Earl
of Carbery, but from some unaccountable cause never lived with her,
and who was afterwards married to the well-known actress, Mrs. Lavinia
Beswick: [two of his illegitimate issue were clergymen--one rector
of Itchen, Hants, and the other rector of Stoke, near Alresford,
Hants;]--the celebrated Lord Hervey, who was so lashed by Pope,
possessed, however, more than ordinary abilities, and much classical
erudition; and who, for his political abilities, was raised to the post
of Lord Privy Seal: [three of his Lordship’s sons were successively
Earls of Bristol, and his second daughter, the excellent Lady Mary
Fitzgerald, the correspondent of Lady Huntingdon, Mr. Wesley, Mr.
Fletcher, Mr. Venn, &c.;]--Lord Sidney Beauclerk, fifth son of the Duke
of St. Alban’s, styled by Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, “Worthless
Sidney,” notorious for hunting after the fortunes of the old and
childless; Lady Betty Germain, in her old age, was only dissuaded from
marrying him by the Duke of Dorset and her relations: he failed in
obtaining the fortune of Sir Thomas Reeve, Chief Justice of the Common
Pleas, but succeeded in inducing Mr. Topham, of Windsor, to leave
his estate to him; he married a Miss Norris, and left a son, Topham
Beauclerk, whose letters and other literary efforts are well known, and
who married Lady Diana Spencer, sister to the Duke of Marlborough.
[116] See the “Diary and Correspondence” of Dr. Doddridge. The
letter of Nathaniel Neale, Esq., whose father was the historian of
the Puritans, deserves particular attention, for the severity and
bitterness of its style. The Christian simplicity and gentle firmness
displayed in the Doctor’s able and manly defence of himself and his
pupils from the aspersions of their assailants, reflect the highest
honour on his character.
[117] One one occasion, Dr. Doddridge being in London, he was invited,
with Lady Huntingdon, to dine at Stoke Newington, at the house of
Lady Abney, with whom Watts was resident. Lady Frances Gardiner, Dr.
Gifford, Dr. Gibbons, the Rev. Samuel Price, Watts’s colleague, and
Dr. Langford, pastor of the church at the Weigh House, were present.
Lady Abney having mentioned the influence which appeared to attend the
preaching of Messrs. Wesley and Whitefield, Dr. Watts said, it is a
blessing of incalculable value that such men should have been raised
up as ambassadors of Christ, to make known the great salvation to the
minds of men. Lady Huntingdon instanced several remarkable effects
of their powerful preaching, and the Doctor (Watts) added, “Such, my
Lady, are the fruits that will ever follow the faithful proclamation
of divine mercy; the Lord our God will crown his message with success,
and give it an abundant entrance into the hearts of men.” At parting
he took the Countess most affectionately by the hand, pronounced a
paternal benediction, and concluded with a memorable remark on his
approaching dissolution:--“I bless God (he said) that I can lie down to
sleep in comfort, no way solicitous whether I awake in this world or
another.”
When on his death-bed, Dr. Watts was visited by Mr. Whitefield, to whom
he described himself as a “waiting servant of Christ.” Mr. Whitefield
assisted in raising him to receive some medicine, and would doubtless
have prolonged his visit could he have foreseen that his venerable
friend was then within half an hour of glory.
The Doctor died at Stoke Newington, in the house of Lady Abney. “You
have arrived on an extraordinary day (said he to Lady Huntingdon, on
one of her visits), for on this day thirty years I came to the house of
my good friend Sir Thomas Abney, intending to spend but a single week
under his friendly roof, and I have extended my visit to the length of
thirty years.” “I consider your visit, my dear Sir (said Lady Abney),
as the shortest my family ever received.” “A coalition like this (says
Dr. Johnson), a state in which the notions of patronage and dependence
were overpowered by the perception of reciprocal benefits, deserves a
particular memorial.”
Sir Thomas Abney was Lord Mayor of London, but his dignities did not
seduce his heart from the duties of the unfashionable religion he had
chosen; on the very day of his inauguration he left the mayoralty feast
to read prayers in his own family. He died eight years after Watts
had accepted a home in his house (on the 6th Feb. 1722). Lady Abney
died one year after Watts (Jan. 12, 1750). Watts was resident in this
hospitable mansion thirty-six years.
[118] Mr. Barnard was one of Mr. Whitefield’s early converts, and began
his ministry among the Independent Dissenters. Afterwards, becoming
acquainted with Mr. Sandeman, Mr. Pike, and others, he embraced the
Sandemanian principles, was ordained an elder in their societies, and
became an eloquent preacher. He died in 1805.
[119] Afterwards Bishop of Rochester--a man very celebrated in his day
as a scholar and politician, and a determined opposer of Methodism.
[120] Mr. Hume (who took the name of Campbell, from his mother,
daughter of Sir John Campbell, of Cessnock, Ayr) was brother of Lady
Huntingdon’s friend, Lady Jane Nimmo. He was an eminent counsellor,
solicitor to the Princess of Wales, Lord Clerk Registrar of Scotland,
M.P. for Berwick in several Parliaments, an occasional hearer of Mr.
Whitefield, and a liberal contributor to the Tottenham-court Chapel. He
died at London, July 18, 1761.
[121] Robert, Earl of Holdernesse, chosen one of his Majesty’s
principal Secretaries of State, July 12, 1751, in which office he was
associated with Henry Fox, afterwards Lord Holland, and William Pitt,
the celebrated Earl of Chatham.
[122] One of the threats against the life of Whitefield was contained
in an anonymous letter, which the writer or his accomplices contrived
to lay upon the cushion of his pulpit.
[123] Mr. Whitefield continued to preach occasionally at Long-acre
Chapel, after his chapel in Tottenham-court-road was opened. In the
year 1780 it was again used, and for many years the late Rev. Henry
Forster was the licensed minister, in connexion with the late Rev.
Richard Cecil; on whose removal to St. John’s, Bedford-row, Mr. Forster
was associated with Mr. Cuthbert and Mr. Watkins, afterwards rector of
St. Swithin, London-stone. In 1806 the Rev. John King became associated
with Mr. Watkins in the pastoral services of Long-acre Chapel. To him
succeeded the late Rev. Mr. Howells, who continued his useful ministry
there till his death.
[124] Once a celebrated lawyer, but afterwards minister of the Lock
Chapel, brother of the late Bishop of Peterborough, and cousin to
Cowper, the poet.
[125] Tottenham-court Chapel, when first erected, was a double brick
building, seventy feet square within the walls. Twelve almshouses and
a chapel-house were added in 1758. But the chapel being too small for
the accommodation of those who wished to attend, an octangular front
was added to it in the winter of 1759–60. The lease granted by General
George Fitzroy to Mr. Whitefield having expired in 1828, the chapel was
closed until 1830, when the trustees purchased the freehold of it for
_fourteen thousand_ pounds, and laid out about _six thousand_
more in repairs. It was re-opened October 27, 1831. The Rev. William
Jay preached in the morning from Rev. xxi. 22; and the Rev. J. Parsons
in the evening, from Jer. ix. 3. The chapel at present is a handsome
building--the exterior coated with stucco and ornamented with pilasters
having a boldly projecting moulding. The interior is neat and in good
taste, the cupola being supported by twelve columns. The present pulpit
is the same as that in which Mr. Whitefield preached. The length is
one hundred and twenty-seven feet, the breadth seventy, and the height
of the summit of the dome one hundred and fourteen feet. It will
accommodate from three to four thousand persons, and very many of the
seats are free. The voice of the preacher may be distinctly heard in
every part of the building. Among the monumental tablets are memorials
of Whitefield, Toplady, and Joss. And in the mausoleum are deposited
the remains of several clergymen and Dissenting ministers.
[126] Foote was a native of Truro, in Cornwall, and in early life the
school-fellow and companion of the late Dr. Haweis. His father was a
justice of the peace, and his mother the sister of Sir John Dinely
Goodere, who was murdered by his brother, Captain Goodere, in 1741. He
had a most amazing talent for imitating, even to the very voice, those
he intended to take off. For this species of amusement he had several
actions brought against him, and was cast in heavy damages. One of his
biographers tells us, that “very pressing embarrassments in his affairs
compelled him to bring out his comedy of _The Minor_, in 1760,
to ridicule Methodism, which, though successful, gave great offence,
and was at last suppressed.” His talent for ridicule ultimately proved
his destruction. In 1776 he drew a character of the celebrated Duchess
of Kingston, then much talked of, who had influence enough to hinder
his play from being represented. He then threatened to publish, and
endeavoured to extort a considerable sum of money from the Duchess. The
affair ripened at length into a legal charge, and the shock he received
from this disgraceful exposure is believed to have had a fatal effect
upon him. After a life of great vicissitude and irregularity, he died
at Dover, in 1777.
[127] Her Grace, of whom there is such frequent mention in the
Letters of Junius, was a daughter of Lord Ravensworth, and after the
dissolution of her marriage, was united to the Earl of Upper Ossory, by
whom she had two daughters, Lady Anne and Lady Gertrude Fitzpatrick.
Lady Ossory died in 1804.
[128] Whilst in America at this time, Mr. Whitefield was presented
with a portrait of himself, done by a painter at New York. He sent it
to England by the Philadelphia packet, directed to Mr. Keene, and in
the letter which accompanied it he says:--“The painter who gave it me
having now the ague and fever, and living a hundred miles off, I must
get you to have the drapery finished, and then, if judged proper, let
it be put up in the Tabernacle parlour.”
[129] Mr. Matthias Peter Dupont, from the first opening of Spa-fields
Chapel as a place of worship, was one of its managers. He was also
a principal means of introducing the Gospel to Enfield and its
neighbourhood, and of erecting a chapel in the Chase-side; and was one
of the original trustees appointed by Lady Huntingdon for her College.
He died at his house in Canonbury-lane, Islington, November 2, 1816,
three weeks before his old and intimate friend, Mrs. Peckwell. He was
in his seventieth year.
[130] Haweis’s “Church History.”
[131] We grieve to say, that this encomium must be qualified, as it
respects the language of this great man, at one time of his life at
least.--ED.
[132] Now Attingham-house, a handsome modern mansion, on the right of
the Wellington-road to Shrewsbury, at the confluence of the Tern and
the Severn.
[133] One day Mr. Hill informed him that the living at Dunham, in
Cheshire, then vacant, was at his service. “The parish (he continued)
is small, the duty light, the income good (400_l._ per annum),
and it is situated in a fine healthy sporting country.” After thanking
Mr. Hill most cordially for his kindness, Mr. Fletcher added, “Alas!
sir, Dunham will not suit me; there is too much money, and too little
labour.” “Few clergymen make such objections (said Mr. Hill); it is a
pity to decline such a living, as I do not know that I can find you
another. What shall we do? Would you like Madely?” “That, sir, would
be the very place for me.” “My object, Mr. Fletcher, is to make you
comfortable in your own way. If you prefer Madely, I shall find no
difficulty in persuading Chambers, the present vicar, to exchange it
for Dunham, which is worth more than twice as much.” In this way he
became vicar of Madely, with which he was so perfectly satisfied, that
he never after sought any other honour or preferment.
[134] The elder of these pupils, the sons of Mr. Hill, died on coming
of age; the younger became M.P. for Shrewsbury, afterwards for
Shropshire, and at length took his seat in the House of Peers, as Baron
Berwick, of Attingham-house.