December, 1736

December  1736

December 1736 

Wesley's Warming Journey

By Brenda Rees

Just as John Wesley and other colonists in Georgia and Spanish Florida did not celebrate Thanksgiving in 1736, there were no special celebrations leading up to or on Christmas.  What Wesley was doing included his duties, pastoral visits, concern about Miss Sophy, writing hymns, praying, and without much ado, surviving in this wild new land (at least new to Europeans and others involved in this great Atlantic Zone development and conflict in Spanish Florida and the developing Colony of Georgia).  It is also a time in which he first offers an extempore prayer.

FIFTH SAVANNAH JOURNAL cont.

Wesley wrote in his Journal:  “In the beginning of December I advised Miss Sophy to sup earlier, and not immediately before she went to bed.  She did so; and on this little circumstance (for by this she began her intercourse with Mr. Williamson) what an inconceivable train of consequences depend!  not only ‘All the colour of remaining life’ for her; but perhaps all my happiness too, in time and eternity!”

Brenda Rees visiting with "John Wesley" at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina.

Wednesday, Dec.1, 1736 – Wesley read and studied German.  Weather very cold.

Friday, Dec. 3, 1736 – In his diary Wesley wrote “severe frost” and then by twelve “warm”.  Moses Nunes came, also Mr. Hermsdorf.  With Nunes he seems to have read Spanish.  He buried a German.

Sunday, Dec. 5 –  Wesley read Freylinghausen’s Gesang-Buch and Thomas a Kempis.  Sixty were present for afternoon catechizing.  Curnoch lets us know that  “a devotional book, Nicodemus; or, A Treatise on the Fear of Man, is named.  Leter it gave a title to one of Wesley’s lost Journal note-books.  Still later it was translated and abridged for the Methodist Societies.”

Monday, Dec. 6 – Wesley wrote in his diary:  Curnoch tells us “From this time onward shorthand was studied and practiced, until, in the Diary, it was substituted for the abbreviated longhand and cipher hitherto used.”

4        Prayed with them; German.  Mild, wind.

5        On business; read prayers, expounded; Miss Sophy came; 13 present

6        Talked; sat within; Hickes.

7        German

8        With Miss Sophy; French; in talk; German

9        Prayed with them; began shorthand

10   Shorthand; garden; shorthand.

11   Shorthand; German.

Thursday, Dec. 9, 1736 – An important day for Florida mention.  He travels to Cowpen with Miss Sophy and Delamotte.  Curnoch said,  “With Mrs. Musgrove he read an account of Florida.”  Also, Wesley wrote “Hearing a poor woman was dangerously ill, I went to her immediately.  She told me that she had long wanted to speak with me, and had sent several messengers – who never came – that she had many things to say.  But the time was past; for her weakness prevented her saying more, and on Friday the 10^th God required her soul of her.”

Wednesday, Dec. 15, 1736 – Mrs. Hawkins shows up and he writes “Cave!”.

Friday, Dec. 17, 1736 – Wesley wrote in his diary: 

            5 m.rpbxl12tb.

Curnoch tells us “The interpretation is this:  at five o’clock he meditated.  Read prayers; began exposition of the last twelve chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, ending the service with a psalm from the New Version (Tate and Brady).  The line might have been undecipherable but for the Calendar.  The book appointed for Second Lessons in December is the Acts.  There were three festival days with their special Lessons;  allowing for these, the ‘last twelve’ chapters would finish the book and end this year.”

Curnoch continued that the day was also noteworthy as Wesley “abjured” his classical studies of Homer and Horace and read Plato instead.  The Second Morning Lesson was the story of St. Paul’s visit to Mars’ Hill and his sermon on the Athenian ‘altar to the Unknown God.’

The Wednesday and Friday Charlestown Collection psalm was

Through every Age, eternal God,

Thou art our Rest, our safe Abode;

High was Thy throne ere Heaven was made,

Or Earth, Thy humble Footstool, laid. (Watts:  Psalm xc.)

The first verse in the first Methodist Hymn-book by Watts:

Ye holy souls, in God rejoice;

Your Maker’s praise becomes your voice.

Great is your theme, your songs be new;

Sing of His Name, His Word, His Ways,

His works of nature and of grace,

How wise and holy, just and true!

Charles Wesley is not around to influence John Wesley’s hymn selections.

Note:  No special Christmas events mentioned.  No shopping.  No giving of gifts.

Monday, Dec. 20, 1736 – Wesley uses some longhand, but his Diary is in shorthand.  John and Charles Wesley use this method to keep prying eyes from reading their correspondence.

Wednesday, Dec. 22 1736 – Delamotte and Wesley, with a guide, become lost.  They sleep on the ground overnight.  “The ground was wet as well as our clothes, which in a short time (it being a sharp frost) were as hard as the tree we lay against.”  They survive and rest at Mrs. Musgrove’s.

Saturday, December 25, 1736 – Many of Wesley’s Journal entries at this time are lost, but his Diaries fill in many gaps.  Curnoch said, “There is no trace of special Christmas Day celebration, except the sermon and Holy Communion.  An hour or two he devoted to hymns.  In the evening he buried a German.  The record is partly in shorthand and partly in longhand.”

FIFTH Frederica JOURNAL

Huts and houses at Frederica.  Photograph by Brenda Rees

Historical markers are very helpful and entertaining as one travels about America.  My Great-Uncle T.T. Wentworth, Jr., had significant influence in promoting this custom in Florida.  However, historical markers should be read with caution.  For example, the marker at Frederica reads that John Wesley visited Frederica four times.  Of course, we see here that he visited Frederica five times.  I published this observation first in my “John Wesley in Spanish Florida” (short title) paper.  We also have historical markers in Walton County, Florida that are not quite accurate.  Alaqua, with an early Methodist Church, served as the first county seat of Walton County.  Eucheeanna has a marker stating it is the first county seat.

This was Wesley’s Fifth and Last Journey to Frederica.

Tuesday, Dec. 28, 1736 – Wesley, with Mr. Delamotte continued travel to Frederica.  “… and I with a better guide set out for Frederica by land.  We stayed that night and the next morning at the Cowpen and in the evening came to Fort Argyle.  It stands pleasantly on the high bank of the river Ogeechy, having woods at a little distance on every side.  Here we were obliged to stay til the next afternoon.  Then we went on to Cooanoochi river, over which we swam our horses by the side of the small canoe in which we crossed it ourselves.  We made a fire on the bank, set up our blankets for a tent, commended ourselves to God, and, notwithstanding the rain, slept quietly till the morning.

Friday, Dec. 31, 1736 – “After riding through woods between thirty and forty miles, we made a good fire, and cheerfully ended the old year.”

Wesley’s notes written in these harsh conditions, real that it during this trip is probably the first time Wesley offered extempore prayer.

In his notes, Curnock states that “It seems to have been Mr. McLeod of Darien who first introduced him to Haliburton’s Life.  McLeod is an early Walton County, Florida name.