Sarah Wesley, Gwynne, also known as Sally Wesley (1726 – 28 December 1822) was the wife of itinerant Methodist

Charles Wesley Charles Wesley (18 December 1707 – 29 March 1788) was an English leader of the Methodist movement. Wesley was a prolific hymnwriter who wrote over 6,500 hymns during his lifetime. His works include "And Can It Be", "Christ the Lord Is Risen T ...

, brother of John Wesley, the main founder of

Methodism Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's br ...

. The daughter of a wealthy family, Wesley once performed musically for

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

and passed this talent onto two of her sons, both of whom were musical prodigies.

Life

Sarah Wesley was born in

Garth Garth may refer to: Places * Garth, Alberta, Canada * Garth, Bridgend, a village in south Wales :* Garth railway station (Bridgend) * Garth, Ceredigion, small village in Wales * Garth, Powys, a village in mid Wales :* Garth railway station (Powy ...

, Brecknockshire, to Sarah (née Evans) and

Marmaduke Gwynne Marmaduke Gwynne (1691–1769) was a descendant of the Gwynne family of Glanbrân near Llandovery and an early and influential Methodist convert. He married well and employed Theophilus Evans as an Anglican private chaplain. He was converted to Met ...

. Marmaduke was a wealthy man and a committed Anglican who employed his own chaplain. A local magistrate, he went to arrest

Howell Harris Howell Harris ( cy, Howel Harris, italic=no; 23 January 1714 – 21 July 1773) was a Calvinistic Methodist evangelist. He was one of the main leaders of the Welsh Methodist revival in the 18th century, along with Daniel Rowland and William Will ...

for stirring up sedition, but while listening to Harris' sermon was converted to his beliefs. He brought Harris back to his house where his wife refused to see him. The only member of Gwynne's family who did listen was his daughter, Sarah.Marmaduke Gynne
National Library of Wales, retrieved 28 September 2013 By 1747 her father was offering accommodation to evangelical travellers and for five days in August he offered a place to stay to Charles and his brother John Wesley. The age gap between Sarah and Charles Wesley was nearly twenty years but they were both attracted to each other. Charles returned in the following April and proposed marriage.
ArchiveHub, retrieved September 2013 Sarah's mother had been unenthusiastic about her husband's interest in the

evangelical revival The First Great Awakening (sometimes Great Awakening) or the Evangelical Revival was a series of Christian revivals that swept Britain and its thirteen North American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. The revival movement permanently affected ...

that was taking place, but she was happy to see Charles Wesley become her son-in-law.

Marriage

Charles and Sarah were married in 1749 at the small and lonely parish church at Llanlleonfel near

, which is west of Builth Wells. The marriage was conducted by John Wesley, who had encouraged the union and guaranteed his brother an income of £100 per annum from book sales to reassure the Gwynne family of Charles financial position. This reassurance contrasted with the £600 a year that her mother had as her private income when she married Marmaduke Gwynne. In September 1749 the Wesleys moved into 4 Charles Street in Bristol which remained their main residence until 1771. This house is now preserved as " Charles Wesley's House". Charles was described as a "preacher at the horsefair" by St. James Church which was his place of worship. The churchyard holds the remains of five of Wesley's children (John, Martha Maria, Susannah, Selena and John James) who died as infants during the 22 years they lived in Bristol. The Wesley family were not known for their happy marriages but the marriage between Charles and Sarah seems to have been very happy. In 1753 Sarah suffered from smallpox. Although she survived the disease, the effects left her difficult to recognize.Henry D. Rack, 'Wesley, Charles (1707–1788)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 201
accessed 29 Sept 2013
/ref> Wesley took her own line on her religion and continued to attend the Calvinist church of George Whitefield who she would have met as a child when he stayed at her father's house. Ironic blue plaques Charles Wesley

Sarah and Charles Wesley had a number of children but only three survived to be adults. The surviving children were

Charles Wesley junior Charles Wesley junior (11 December 1757 in Bristol – 23 May 1834 in London) was an English organist and composer. He was the son of Sarah and Charles Wesley (the great hymn-writer and one of the founders of Methodism), and the brother of Samue ...

Samuel Wesley Samuel Wesley (24 February 1766 – 11 October 1837) was an English organist and composer in the late Georgian period. Wesley was a contemporary of Mozart (1756–1791) and was called by some "the English Mozart".Kassler, Michael & Olleson, Ph ...

and Sarah Wesley. The two sons were musically gifted and made this their careers. Their mother was known for her musical abilities including her singing voice which she was still using to entertain in her old age. Sarah senior had performed musically for King George III. After the death of her husband, Wesley was maintained by other Methodists and Evangelicals including

William Wilberforce William Wilberforce (24 August 175929 July 1833) was a British politician, philanthropist and leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becom ...

. She died on 28 December 1822 and she was interred with her husband at

St Marylebone Parish Church St Marylebone Parish Church is an Anglican church on the Marylebone Road in London. It was built to the designs of Thomas Hardwick in 1813–17. The present site is the third used by the parish for its church. The first was further south, near Ox ...

Legacy

Wesley was painted in her lifetime and she has a 20th-century portrait by David Keal; who also painted other members of her family. The house that Charles and Sarah (aka Sally) had in

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it me ...

, London has now been demolished. Ironically the blue plaque that records the location of this couple's house, who were part of the temperant Methodist movement, is now attached to a

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

.File:Charles Wesley (4368240967).jpg
Geolocation, retrieved 1 October 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wesley, Sarah 1726 births 1822 deaths People from Brecknockshire 18th-century Welsh people 18th-century Welsh women 19th-century Welsh people 19th-century Welsh women Burials at St Marylebone Parish Church