Wesley Corpus

1767 1767. Rigging-loft rented for Methodist preaching in New York. Mar. 30. Wesley visits Ireland leaves July 29. Aug. 18. Conference in London: effort to remove debts on preaching-houses; Francis Asbury received on trial. 1768. Jan. Appointed a domestic chaplain to the Countess Dowager of Buchan. Apr. 27. Wesley makes a Will. Aug. 24. Trevecca College opened. 1769. Aug. 1. Conference begins at Leeds: Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor volunteer to go to New York; 50 contributed for the preaching-house there, 20 'given to our brethren for their passage.' Hannah Ball's Sunday school at High Wycombe. [1] Three new lady correspondents were added to Wesley's list at this time. Hannah Ball at High Wycombe abounded in good works, and began her Sunday school nearly fourteen years before Robert Raikes started his in Gloucester. Nancy Bolton, of Witney, became one of Wesley's most favoured correspondents. Mary Bishop, of Bath, was a teacher and thinker after Wesley's own heart. There are signs in the correspondence of the renewal of the Calvinistic Controversy, which was to flame up around the Minutes of the Conference of 1770. George Whitefield is described at the time as 'still breathing nothing but love': but the letter to Joseph Townsend in August 1767 points to the coming storm. The letters to Charles Wesley are of the deepest significance and there is a pathetic touch about the fragment of a letter to his old friend Mrs. Woodhouse asking for particulars of John Whitelamb, who had been his father's curate and had married Mary Wesley. The effort to clear off the debts of the Connexion is one of the outstanding features of this period. Wesley left no stone unturned to accomplish this object, in which preachers and friends gave him the most generous and unwearying support. The last letter is one of unique interest. Wesley had sent his first two preachers to America, where Methodism had already taken root, and was himself thinking of another voyage across the Atlantic, though that was never accomplished. To Ann Foard LONDON, January 15, 1767.