Whitefield left Edinburgh on October 29, 1741, and rode on Earl Leven's horse, three hundred miles, to Abergavenny in Wales, for the purpose of marrying Mrs. James, a widow lady, who, up to this period of his history, is never even mentioned in any of Whitefield's letters. The marriage ceremony was performed at St. Martin's Chapel, near Caerphilly, in the parish of Eglws Ilan. The following is a copy of the register, in the handwriting of the Rev. John Smith, the then vicar of Eglws Ilan:—
GEORGE WHITEFIELD
AND
ELIZABETH JAMES,
Married, November 14, 1741.[489]
Of Mrs. James's previous history, nothing has been published.[490] She was a friend of the Methodists, and of Wesley, as well as of Whitefield. Only six weeks before her marriage, Wesley was her guest, at Abergavenny, and writes, "She received us gladly, as she had done aforetime."[491] Exactly a month before she became Mrs. Whitefield, Wesley was again in the same neighbourhood, and was warmly attacked by his quondam friends, but now his Calvinistic foes, Thomas Bissicks and Joseph Humphreys. Mrs. James kindly interfered, and Wesley, not without reason, calls her "a woman of candour and humanity."[492]
Whitefield did everything religiously. On the day before his marriage, writing to Earl Leven, he remarks:—
"I find a restraint upon me now, so that I cannot write. God calls me to retirement, being to enter the marriage state to-morrow. I am persuaded your lordship will not fail to pray, that we may, like Zacharias and Elisabeth, walk in all the ordinances and commandments of the Lord blameless."
Five days subsequent to his marriage, he says, to a friend at Edinburgh, "On Saturday, I was married, in the fear of God, to one who, I hope, will be a helpmeet to me. I expect to be in London in about three weeks. My wife I shall leave in the country for some time."
To another friend in Edinburgh he writes: "Jesus was called to, Jesus was present at, the marriage." In a letter to James Habersham, he says: "The Lord has given me a wife. Her name was James, a widow, between thirty and forty years of age. She has been a housekeeper many years. Once gay; but, for three years last past, a despised follower of the Lamb of God. I left her about three weeks ago, and am going to settle affairs, and bring her up to London." Shortly after, writing to his friend Gilbert Tennent, he remarked: "About eleven weeks ago, I married, in the fear of God, one who was a widow, of about thirty-six years of age, and who has been a housekeeper for many years; neither rich in fortune,[493] nor beautiful as to her person, but, I believe, a true child of God, and one who would not, I think, attempt to hinder me in His work for the world. In that respect, I am just the same as before marriage. I hope God will never suffer me to say, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.'"
These are all the references which Whitefield makes to the new relationship into which he had so recently entered. Why did he marry? That is a question which cannot easily be answered, unless it be supposed that he wanted a matron for his Orphan House, in Georgia. Men like Whitefield and Wesley, almost always from home, ought to remain unmarried. Their wives, naturally enough, very often become Xantippes.