Cheerful in pain, and thankful in distress.”
Dr Annesley had a large family. Dunton relates that when Dr Manton was baptizing one of Annesley’s children, he was asked how many more he had? he replied, he believed it was either two dozen or a quarter of a hundred. Of these four or five-and-twenty young Annesleys, however, Dr Clark could find not more than the names of seven—viz, Samuel, Benjamin, Judith, Sarah, Ann, Elizabeth, and Susanna. Samuel went abroad in the service of the East India Company, accumulated a considerable fortune, and intended to return to England; but, all at once, he suddenly disappeared, and no account was ever received, either of his person or of his property. The probability is that he was robbed and murdered.[[38]] Benjamin Annesley was “an ingenuous youth,” and was appointed an executor of his father’s will. Judith was eminently pious, and loved good books more than other young ladies loved fine clothes. She was exceedingly beautiful; and refused to marry a gentleman of splendid fortune because he was addicted to his cups. Of Sarah, we find no information. Ann was a wit, and was as fine a woman as nature and art ever formed. She married Mr James Fremantle; and Dunton says, she was the only person he ever knew whom an estate made more humble. Her life was one continued act of tenderness, wit, and piety. Elizabeth Annesley will be mentioned hereafter. Susanna became the wife of Samuel Wesley.
Having sketched the life of the father of Susanna Wesley, a few lines must be devoted to her mother. It is a remarkable fact, that as the father of Samuel Wesley’s mother was named John White, so the father of Susanna Wesley’s mother was named John White also. Both of them were men of mark. John White, “the Patriarch of Dorchester,” is brought before the reader in Chapter II. The other John White, the grandfather of Susanna Wesley, is too important a character to be overlooked. He was the son of Henry White, of Heylan, in Pembrokeshire, where he was born, June 29, 1590. He entered Jesus College, Oxford, when about seventeen years of age; and, after completing his studies, was admitted to the Middle Temple, and, in due time, became a member of the Bar, and a bencher of that society. While a barrister, he was much employed by the Puritans in the purchase of impropriations, which were to be given to those of their own party. In 1640, he was elected Member of Parliament for the borough of Southwark. He now joined in all the proceedings which led to the overthrow of the Established Church. He was appointed chairman of the Committee for Religion, and was also a member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines. In a speech of his, made in the House of Commons, and published in 1641, he contends that the office of bishop and presbyter is the same; and that the offices of deacons, chancellors, vicars, surrogates, and registrars, are all of human origin, and ought to be abolished, as being altogether superfluous and of no service to the Church. He says that Episcopacy had been intrusted with the care of souls for more than eighty years; and now, as a consequence, nearly four-fifths of the churches throughout the kingdom were held by idle or scandalous ministers. He alleges that, even during the present parliament, the House of Commons and its committees had been furnished with abundant evidence that it was of no use to report “scandalous ministers” to their bishops, for they received no censure, save a harmless admonition; while, on the other hand, if the bishops happened to discover a godly and learned preacher within the limits of their diocese, they did their utmost to scatter his congregation, and to expel him from his church. He admits that some of the bishops are good men; but the bishops who are good men, are all bad bishops,—a sufficient proof, in his estimation, that the very office is itself a curse.
The speech, from which the above is taken, fills fourteen small quarto pages, is full of texts of Scripture, and as dry as a lawyer’s eloquence could make it.
As already stated, John White was appointed chairman of the Committee for Religion. It was the duty of that committee to receive all petitions of parishioners against their pastors, with lists of ministerial misdemeanours. In 1643, one hundred examples of those scandalous clergy were drawn up by White, and were published in a book, entitled, “The First Century of Scandalous, Malignant Priests.” In the preface, White says, “The ensuing summary declaration of the grounds whereupon Parliament had proceeded against divers ministers to sequester their benefices from them, and place in their room godly and learned preachers of the Word of God, may serve many excellent purposes—as 1, To show that the Episcopal form of church government is evil, and that parliament had good cause to abolish it; 2, That the bishops had not only neglected their duties, but had appointed to benefices drunkards, whoremongers, and adulterers; 3, The book will show what sort of men the clergy are who favour the king; and 4, The cause of the general ignorance and debauchery of the gentry and people of this kingdom.”
White then gives the one hundred examples of scandalous parsons. These examples now lie before us, but they are too gross and defiling to be reprinted. The curious reader, anxious to know what they are, may find them in the British Museum, bound up in a volume, given to the Museum by George III. The pamphlet is quarto, and contains fifty-seven pages. White promised to publish a “Second Century” of cases, but he either was unable to find sufficient materials, or perhaps his intention was frustrated by his death, which occurred a few months after. Eight thousand clergy were ejected from their livings during the civil wars, on the ground of heterodoxy, viciousness of life, superstition, or malignancy against parliament: but White has given the character of one hundred only. Clarendon says, that petitions were often presented by a few of the rabble, and against the general sense and judgment of the parish. He avers that many were designated “scandalous clergy,” who were men of great gravity and learning, and who lived the most unblemished lives. He adds, that White was “a grave lawyer, but notoriously disaffected to the Church.” Of course Clarendon knew the men, but his party feeling was such that what he says requires to be received with caution.
John White died shortly after the publication of his “First Century of Scandalous, Malignant Priests,” viz., on the 29th of January 1644, and was buried in the Temple Church, where a marble stone was afterwards placed upon his grave, with this inscription:—
“Here lyeth a John, a burning, shining light,
His name, life, actions, were all White.”
Such was the grandfather of Susanna Wesley. Her mother was one of whom but very little has been left on record. She was a woman of sincere piety. She conscientiously endeavoured to bring up her children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. She was greatly loved by her husband, and both lie buried in the same sacred grave.