September 1737

SEPTEMBER  1737

September 1737 

Wesley's Warming Journey

By Brenda Rees © All Rights Reserved

September 1737  Scurrilous attacks had been made against John Wesley, but a letter of response from the minority opinion challenged them and were later mentioned in the 1789 “The European Magazine.”  Causton also had charges against him that were sent to England.  Causton went to England to answer to the Trustees.  On the return trip he “found a watery grave.” 

 If you are new to this blog, consider starting with the Introduction of Wesley’s Warming Journey Blog and then each month from February 1736.  Earliest months were grouped together, but Blog is now by month.  This blog carries you from Wesley’s landing at Tybee Island in 1736 eventually through his warming at Aldersgate back in London in 1738.

SIXTH SAVANNAH JOURNAL cont.

Picture of Johnny Mercer’s house in Savannah.  Savannah has long been the sight for trials and tribulations between good and evil.  Photograph Brenda Rees ©

 September 1, 1737 – Court had been adjourned until today.  The Grand Jury returned ten indictments against John Wesley and they were read, in detail, into the court records.  The charges included communicating with Miss Sophy (Mrs. Sophia Christiana Williamson), not administering the Lord’s Supper, wrong proceedings, readings at contrary hours, refusing to baptize other than dipping, refusing to read burial notice, called himself Ordinary, and refusing Godfather and Godmother status.

 Friday, September 2, 1737 – Wesley said most of these charges were ecclesiastical with only speaking and writing to Miss Sophy of “secular nature.”

Saturday, September 3, 1737 – Wesley wrote, “I was seized with a violent flux, which so weakened me before evening that I had much ado to get to church ….”

Wednesday, September 7, 1737 – Mr. Dison, chaplain of soldiers at Frederica, called on Wesley and said he now had “authority from the magistrates to perform ecclesiastical offices at Savannah …”.

Thursday, September 8, 1737 – Wesley sends the magistrates a note on Mr. Dison’s activities. 

Friday, September 9, 1737 –  Delamotte advised Wesley to go to England.

Saturday, September 10, 1737 – Wesley wrote, “Having consulted my friends, I laid aside the thoughts of going to England ….”

Sunday, September 11, 1737 – Wesley confirmed he would continue his practice of allowing Holy Communion only for those with prior notice and other practices based on Church of England regulations.  Wesley said, “I was only a servant of the Church of England, not a judge ....”

Monday, September 12, 1737 – Grand Jury members with a minority opinion wrote letter to the Trustees of Georgia backing Wesley and refuting charges.  If the jury had consisted of a regular number, this group would have been in the majority.

Thursday, September 15, 1737 – Mr. Causton and Wesley engage in court gymnastics and counter charges.

Friday, September 30, 1737 – The last entry in Wesley’s Third Georgia Diary had been Wednesday, August 31, 1737.  In his Journal, Wesley wrote, “Having ended the Homilies, I began reading Dr. Rogers’s eight sermons to the congregation, hoping they might be a timely antidote against the poison of infidelity which was now with great industry propagated among us; ….”

January 1737 Wesley's Warming Journey

JANUARY  1737

January 1737 

Wesley's Warming Journey

By Brenda Rees

Between the end of December, 1736 and January, 1737 is a time in which Wesley first offers an extempore prayer.  In this Fifth Frederica Journal, Wesley is visiting Frederica for the fifth and last time.  Nehemiah Curnoch, in published 1909 book , reprinted in 1938, gives details from Wesley’s deciphered diary.  Material is “accumulated for its elucidation.”  Curnoch wrote (1909) “an unusual shorthand had to be learned … a cipher without a key deciphered.”

FIFTH FREDERICA JOURNAL cont.

Mural of Darien, a Scotch Highlander settlement near Frederica.  John Wesley would visit this disputed borderland in Spanish Florida and the developing Colony of George in 1736 – 1737.  Bishop Hendrix of Kansas had provided one of the missing Georgia Diaries that filled in gaps in Wesley’s Journal.  Photograph by Brenda Rees ©

After spending New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31, 1736 in the woods, John Wesley begins a new year and his evangelistic endeavors with a wild, raw early American experience.

Saturday, Jan.1, 1737 – Provisions short.  Had “barbecued bear’s flesh….”

Sunday, Jan. 2, 1737 –  At Darien, Scotch Highlanders settlement, 20 miles from Frederica.  “I was surprised to hear an extempore prayer before a written sermon,” Wesley wrote.  In diary, evening entry

7¾  “Mrs. MacKintosh’s supper and singing; I prayed extempore

Monday, Jan. 3, 1737 –  Wesley left Darien in a periagua for Frederica.

Wednesday, Jan. 5, 1737 –  Wesley arrived in Frederica for the fifth time and stayed with the Hirds.  For most of this last visit to Frederica, Wesley stayed indoors and limited personal contact to Hirds and Westons.

Saturday, Jan. 22, 1737 – Mr. Tackner and Mr. Hird are in a dispute.

Sunday, Jan. 23, 1737 – Wesley admonishes “two or three who were going a – shooting; … they made light of it and went on.”

Wednesday, Jan. 26, 1737 – Wesley hears of sloop in river preparing to travel to Savannah.  Wesley’s first thought is of Miss Sophy.

“After having beaten the air in this unhappy place for twenty days, at noon I took my final leave of Frederica.  It was not any apprehension of my own danger, though my life had been threatened many times, but an utter despair of doing good there, which made me content with the thought of seeing it no more.” Curnoch 312,313

Wesley reads Machiavelli’s Works.  Weather is stormy and foggy.

Monday, Jan. 31, 1737 – At Skidoway, then Thunderbolt and finally Savannah.  He met Miss Sophy with Mrs. Musgrove at Cowpen.

Wesley wrote in his Journal, “For indeed from March 13, 1736, the day I first spoke to her, till that hour, I cannot recollect so much as a single instance of my proposing anything to her, or expressing any desire, which she did not fully comply with.”  Curnoch 313, 314