August 1736
Wesley’s Warming Journey by Brenda Rees
Third Savannah Journal of John Wesley, Cont.
Sunday, August 1, 1736 – We find The Rev. John Wesley in Charlestown (Charleston). A barber helps him dress. He preaches to “fifty communicants, among whom was one negro woman.” He starts on his next journey at 11 p.m. and virtually travels all night. He meets up with a guide “La-rong” and they walk until 4 a.m., rest for an hour and then continue.
Monday, August 2, 1736 – At 7 a.m. when they reach Mr. Ware’s, they find them at prayer. Wesley then travels from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. and finally delivers a letter for Oglethorpe to Colonel Broughton, the Lieutenant-Governor of South Carolina. He has dinner with him and leaves by 2:30 p.m. This exhausting journey from his diary:
1 Dined, conversed, 2:30 set out; meditated; very hot; handkerchief.
4 The tavern; talked; horse tired. 5 Set out; led my horse; thirst.
10 At Quarterhouse; they would not let me in;
111/2 Mr. Barton’s; they let me in; in talk; supper.
Tuesday, August 3, 1736 –
5 Dressed; in talk; set out; private prayer; 6:30 met Mr. Dwight;
6 he lent me his horse; 7:30 at home. 8 On business in town.
Curnock said, “This interval, spent in the town on business, is the only point during this visit to Charlestown at which a possible visit to Lewis Timothy, printer and publisher, can be surmised.”
Wesley lived a long life and was a prolific writer. Photograph by Brenda Rees (c)
There is some confusion here in diary entries according to Curnock. Curnock said this wouldn’t be worth mentioning except for the entrees about Appee and “The friendship with Appee belonged to Charles rather than to John. At a critical moment it drew Charles somewhat away from his brother, the result being that John was thrown into more intimate companionship with Mr. Garden and others.”
Wednesday, August 4, 1736 – A very early and busy day. John Wesley arises at 3 a.m. Travel for the next few days is through Ponpon, Ashepoo Ferry and then Cumbee Ferry.
This map by Bowen shows the shifting borders between Spanish Florida and the Colony of Georgia. Maps were drawn for influence and manipulation. There was "Cartographic Warfare." You can see the Altamaha River depicted north of some of the area John Wesley was traveling during 1736 - 1737. The purported border of the Colony of Georgia was between the Altamaha and Savannah Rivers. Brenda Rees collection.
John Wesley “parted with his brother Charles Wesley on Aug. 5 and Chares sailed for England on Aug. 11.” Curnock
Saturday, August 7, 1736 – Wesley hires a horse and guide to Beaufort (or Port Royal) where he arrives in the evening. They get on a boat and the weather is bad. Wesley reads Propagation of Christianity. It is a forty mile trip from here to Savannah. They did not reach Savannah until Sunday afternoon.
Wind high against us
7 Mrs. Dawson’s, conversed, supped. 8 Set out, private prayer.
8 ½ Storm; could not bear up; lay by.
Sunday, August 8, 1736 – Wesley read Ostervald’s Catechism until he reached Tybee Creek. His boat arrives in Savannah. He “dressed, dined, prayed with Delamotte, and saw Miss Bovey and the Germans.”
Monday, August 9, 1736 – John Wesley spent this day in Savannah working on his journal and pastoral visitations. He packed and spent the evening at Miss Bovey’s and read journal. Curnock noted this part of his journal is missing.
THIRD FREDERICA JOURNAL
Tuesday, August 10, 1736 – Wesley is walking to Thunderbolt to set out for Frederica and is thoroughly soaked by a heavy shower. He said, “In walking to Thunderbolt I was in so heavy a shower, that all my clothes were as wet as if I had gone through the river. On which occasion I cannot but observe that vulgar error concerning the hurtfulness of the rains and dews of America. I have been thoroughly wet with these rains more than once, yet without any harm at all. And I have lain many nights in the open air, and received all the dews that fell; and so, I believe, might any one, if his constitution was not impaired by the softness of a genteel education.”
Miss Sophy was going to Frederica to see the Hirds. Her aunt, Mrs. Causton, saw her off.
Wednesday, August 11, 1736 – Reading German and Law “as far as Pine Island.” Wesley again read Serious Call by Law and sang, dined and read German. The winds were so high they could not cross St. Katherine’s Sound.
Friday, August, 13, 1736 – He read Law and German, sang until evening. Wesley said, “At Thunderbolt we took boat; and on Friday, August 13, came to Frederica, where I delivered Mr. Oglethorpe the letters I had brought from Carolina. The next day he set out for Fort St. George. From that time I had less and less prospect of doing good at Frederica; many there being extremely zealous and indefatigably diligent to prevent it, and few of the rest daring to show themselves of another mind for fear of their displeasure.”
Saturday, August 14, 1736 – Wesley spends time with the Hirds. Curnock said, “When the Governor had gone for dinner, Wesley adds the significant words, ‘Read Collection to Miss Sophy.’” “Before the public evening service he read prayers with Miss Sophy.”
Sunday, August 15, 1736 – “At early prayers eight were present, at morning sermon twenty-six, and at Holy Communion ten. He to-day read his Journal to Miss Sophy. At the afternoon society-meeting there were present Mark Hird, Mrs. and Mr. Hird, Mr. Tackner, Miss Sophy, and Miss Fossett, who ‘with me sung’; he read Law; they sang again, and they all were ‘seriously affected.’ His note at the end of the page is, ‘Too long with them.’”
Monday, August 16, 1736 – He read Journal to Miss Hopkey and read his Collection to Mrs. Colwell. He then got very sick.
10 At home; shook; headache; sung; slept.
11 Hot fit; sung; meditated; slept.
12 Hot fit; wrote diary; began to walk; sweat.
1 Sweat; slept; cool.
“For the rest of the day he pursued his usual course.” Curnock p. 259 Curnock also said the Collection was “without doubt, the Collection of Psalms and Hymns which he had been slowly preparing.”
Tuesday, August 17, 1736 – He read System of Theology and Britist Theology until his fever returned. A doctor came and he must have ministered to him as he said that the doctor was “serious and open.”
Wednesday, August 18, 1736 – Wesley is still sick. In the evening he “took a vomit.”
Thursday, August 19, 1736 – “Reading George Herbert ‘to them’ and reading to Miss Sophy letters to and from Morgan were his principal occupations.” Curnock p 260
Friday, August 20, 1736 – A bad day for Wesley. Some of this bad day are missing as a minister who resided in Wesley’s house destroyed some. “John Pawson, with a fiery zeal against what he regarded as dangerous literature, began to burn Wesley’s note-books and letters.” P 261Curnock Here are some of Wesley’s diary notes from this day:
5 ½ Mrs. Hawkins; she very abusive
6 Mr. Hawkins came; both very abusive. Adieu! ½ in talk with Oglethorpe of them.
7 Read prayers, expounded; ½ Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins came (21 and Oglethorpe there)
8 In talk with them and Oglethorpe ½; got no good; within with Oglethorpe.
9 Oglethorpe sent for Horton; he accused me.
½ Mrs. Hird’s, within; 10.
Part of his Journal said, “After prayers, they came too; but were so warm and used such language in the very relating their case, that Mr. Oglethorpe was obliged to check them more than once.”
Saturday, August 21, 1736 – Wesley was probably still not feeling well or weak. The rest of his day matched his health. This is a bit lengthy, but important, to see the degree of trouble that Wesley was experiencing. Anyone who has ever dealt with difficult people will relate.
Wesley said in his Journal, “I spent an hour with Mr. Horton, and labored to convince him I was not his enemy. But it was labour in vain. He had heard stories which he would not repeat, and was consequently immovable as a rock. Many things indeed he mentioned in general, as that I was always prying into other people’s concerns, in order to set them together by the ears; that I had betrayed every one who had trusted me; that I had revealed the confessions of dying men; that I had belied every one I had conversed with, himself in particular, to whom I was determined to do all the mischief I could. But whenever I pressed him to come to particulars, he absolutely refused it. I asked him what motive he thought I had to proceed thus. He said he believed it as a pure delight in doing mischief, and added, ‘I believe, in a morning when you say your prayers, you resolve against it; but by the time you have been abroad two hours, all your resolutions are vanished, and you can’t be easy till you’re at it again.’
[Here Mrs. Welch, coming up, asked with a curse what I meant by saying she was an adultress, and entertained me and a pretty many other auditors with such a mixture of scurrility and profaneness as I had not heard before. God deliver thee from the gall of bitternerness and the bond of iniquity! …
He then meets with Mrs. Hawkins. Wesley has asked maid to stay in room.
[When I came in, she said, ‘Sir, sit down.’ I sat down on the bedside. She stood close to me, with her hands behind her, and said, ‘Sir, you have wronged me, and I will shoot you through the head this moment with a brace of balls.’ I caught hold of the hand with which she presented the pistol, and at the same time of her other hand, in which she had a pair of scissors. On which she threw herself upon me, and forced me down upon the bed, crying out all the while, ‘Villain, dog, let go my hands,’ and swearing bitterly, with many imprecations both on herself and me, that she would either have my hair or my heart’s blood. I was very unwilling either to cry out, which must publish to all the world what, for her sake, I desired should be more private; or to attempt rising by force, which could not have been done without hurting her. Just then the maid came in, whom she ordered to reach a knife, swearing she would be the death of her if she did not.”
This fight goes on for a while, other people come in and eventually ends when Dr. Hawkins lifts his wife away. Wesley’s clothes had been ripped by Mrs. Hawkins teeth.
Monday, August 23, 1736 – Oglethorpe tries a reconciliation. Oglethorpe calls them in and the Hawkins are dismissed after they promise to behave better in the future.
Curnock included a lengthy interpretation here. P. 265 “It was characteristic of Wesley that, having realized his duty as a pastor responsible to God for the cure of souls, he should cleave to it at all costs, until, by some unmistakable sign, he was set free. He believed that God had called him to fulfil this ministry of restoration for a woman who, on her own showing, was a sinner of deepest guilt, whose husband was the only doctor in the town and Wesley’s personal friend. He might suffer, lose his best friends, anger his brother, be misunderstood and reviled by those whose good opinion he valued; yet he was willing to be a fool for Christ’s sake, if only he might, no matter at what risk to himself, save some. We think of Wesley as a soul-saving evangelist from the hour of his ‘evangelical conversion’; but the spirit of the evangelist, mounting into what the world regarded as a mania, was in him long before he reached Aldersgate Street. …”
Wesley wrote in his Journal between Aug. 23 and 26, 1736: “At one Mr. Oglethorpe sent for me and talked fully upon the same subject; and at eight again, at which time I found Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins sitting with him. For above an hour was he labouring to reconcile us. No, I had obliged them beyond all reconciliation. The wrongs I had done might be forgiven (for indeed they were none at all); but my friendship never can till the day of their death. However, something like an agreement was patched up, one article of which was that we should speak to each other no more. Blessed be God who hath at length given me a full discharge, in the sight of men and angels, from all intercourse with one ‘whose heart is snares and knots and her hands as bands.’”
Wednesday, August 25, 1736 – Wesley’s diaries indicate that Mark Hird kept guard at night. Wesley read Heylin’s Tracts to Miss Sophy. Oglethorpe was anxious as “Spaniards threatened the frontiers of the colony; Indian allies were not always proof against the wiles of the enemy, and the colony was a house divided against itself.” I might add here that the Spaniards were only defending borders which they had earlier claims. Later that evening, Wesley had 30 present at “evening exposition” including Mr. Horton.
Friday, August 27, 1736 – Here is further evidence of Spanish and English activities during this time. Wesley’s Journal said, “Fr. Don Antonio de Arredondo came to St. Simon’s from the Havanna, to treat with Mr. Oglethorpe. He said he had full powers from the King his master to conclude as he judged convenient…”
Saturday, August 28, 1736 – Wesley leaves some books for the library at Frederica. He was visiting with Mrs. Patterson, a Scotch Presbyterian, “who was dangerously ill.” Mrs. Hawkins came in. Wesley wrote “But I exchanged not a word with her, good or bad.” He read Hickes. Wesley walked with Mark Hird to the fort. They get lost in the woods on their way back. “We walked, however, straight forward, and crept where we could not walk, till between nine and ten o’clock; when, being heartily tired and thoroughly wet with dew, we lay down and slept till morning.
Sunday, August 29, 1736 – Hird and Wesley walk lost for some time in the early morning. After sunrise, they come to the “Great Savannah, near Frederica.” Now, Wesley is preparing to leave Frederica for Savannah. A Mr. Reed promised to read evening prayers in his absence. Wesley reads his Greek Testament for a few minutes. He then is dressed for preaching and Holy Communion. He read Heylin, Hickes, Law and Cave.
Monday, August 30, 1736 – The diary says “Much business had to be transacted at home and with Oglethorpe … read ‘verses on Death,’ and …had a conversation with Jemmy….”
Houses once lined the streets of Frederica on St. Simons Island during John Wesley’s time in Spanish Florida and the Colony of Georgia 1736 - 1737. (c) Photograph by Brenda Rees
