USA > Georgia > A history of Georgia : from its first discovery by Europeans to the adoption of the present constitution in MDCCXCVIII. Vol. I > Part 25
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His eyes were now opened to see the artifices which had been employed to win him, and his mind was confirmed in the suspicions suggested by Delamotte, by the confessions of one who was in the plot; and he shaped his conduct towards her with the greatest caution, withdrawing as much as possible from her company, and avoiding everything which tended to continue the intimacy between them. She soon per- ceived the change, and suspecting the cause, broke off at once the engagement, and, in eight days after, was married to Mr. William Williamson.
Painful was the sacrifice which duty, truth, and religion rendered necessary, and his journal bears
333
WARRANT ISSUED AGAINST HIM.
witness of his anguish. But he was soon to rejoice in this very stroke, and regard it as a special favour sent to him from heaven. Not three months had passed since this trying scene, before we find in his journal the following record : "God has showed me yet more of the greatness of my deliverance, by opening to me a new and unexpected scene of Miss Sophy's dissimulation." Shortly after, acting upon his proper notions of clerical duty, he took occasion, after the communion, to mention to Mrs. Williamson some things reprovable in her behaviour. This made her extremely angry ; and, declaring that she did not expect such usage from him, abruptly walked away. A month after, having failed to discover in her those marks of penitence which he thought requisite, he repelled her from the communion ; and the next day, August 8th, a warrant was served on him by one of the constables, " to answer the complaint of William Williamson and his wife Sophia, for defaming the said Sophia, and refusing to administer to her the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, in a public congregation, without cause, by which the said William Williamson is dam- aged £1000."
He refused, most properly, to answer to the court ; stating that as it was a matter purely ecclesiastical, he could not acknowledge their power to interrogate him. £ The bitterest feelings were now excited against him. The controversy engrossed the atten- tion of the town, and the partizans on both sides did not hesitate to cast much scandal on their adversa- ries.14 Causton, the uncle of the lady, who had always been his friend, now told him: "I have drawn the
14 Stephens's Journal, i. 9.
334
COUNTS IN HIS INDICTMENTS.
sword, and I will not sheathe it till I have satisfac- tion."
On the 1st of September the packed jury, which had been empannelled to try Wesley on the warrant of Williamson, after a long charge from Causton, " to beware of spiritual tyranny, and to oppose the new illegal authority which was usurped over their con- sciences," delivered into court two presentments con- taining ten counts or charges. These declared, " that John Wesley, clerk, has broken the laws of the realm, contrary to the peace of our sovereign Lord the King, his crown and dignity-
" 1. By speaking and writing to Mrs. Williamson against her husband's consent.
" 2. By repelling her from the Holy Communion.
"3. By not declaring his adherence to the Church of England.
" 4. By dividing the morning service on Sundays.
" 5. By refusing to baptize Mr. Parker's child other- wise than by dipping, except the parents would cer- tify that it was weak and not able to bear it.
" 6. By repelling William Gough from the Holy Communion.
" 7. By refusing to read the burial service over the body of Nathaniel Polhill.
" 8. By calling himself Ordinary of Savannah.
" 9. By refusing to receive William Aglionby as a godfather, only because he was not a communicant.
" 10. By refusing Jacob Mathews for the same rea- son, and baptizing an Indian trader's child with only two sponsors."
The more sober part of the grand jury dissented from the finding of the majority ; and believing that the whole was an artifice of Mr. Causton, designed
335
WESLEY URGES TRIAL.
rather to blacken the character of Mr. Wesley than to free the colony from religious tyranny, drew up a paper, and sent it to the Trustees, in which, review- ing the several counts of the presentment, they say, among other things, that he had declared his adhe- rence to the Church of England in a stronger manner than by a formal declaration; that the said William Gough publicly declared that Mr. Wesley had done right in repelling him from the communion ; that Thomas Polhill had desired in his lifetime not to be interred with the office of the Church of England, and that not only so, but that Mr. Wesley was at Frede- rica, or on his return thence, when Mr. Polhill was buried. The whole, in fact, were proved to be mali- cious, having only for their object the defaming of Wesley and the driving him from the colony. Upon nine of the counts Wesley told the court they had no cognizance, because they were matters of an ecclesi- astical nature ; but on the one concerning writing and speaking to Mrs. Williamson, being of a secular na- ture, he demanded a trial. The court, controlled by Mr. Causton, evaded. He urged a trial ; but that was not the wish of his enemies, for they knew that no jury, except by perjury, could convict him of a single misdeed. But by delaying the trial, they hoped to har- ass him and drive him from the colony. All kinds of charges were now brought against him. He was ac- cused of coming into court in a menacing manner ; of exciting a riotous disposition in the people ; of the most tyrannous and inquisitorial behaviour ; of attempting to enslave the people by debasing their minds, and humbling them with fastings, penances, and mortifications ; of unmercifully damning all dis- senters, and shutting them out from the religious ordi-
336
MORAVIANS ADVISE HIS RETURN TO ENGLAND.
nances of the Church; and to crown the whole, of being regarded by all persons of any consideration as a Roman Catholic.
But the solemn farce of these proceedings was visi- ble on the face of them. Persons of discernment saw the mockery, and contemned the insult offered by these suborned perjurers to law and equity. From one act performed in the conscientious discharge of his clerical duty, the refusing the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to one whom he honestly believed un- worthy of it, originated all this turmoil and conten- tion. This was the head and front of his offending ; and for this, and this alone, because he dared to do his duty, he was hunted down as a malefactor, wor- ried and barked at by a snarling, Cerberus-headed faction, and pursued with relentless rage and vindic- tiveness, until he quitted our borders. Everything else that was said against him was but the mere scaf- folding, to build up this primitive charge. Mr. Caus- ton, the chief man of Savannah, was offended : he determined on revenge. Mr. Williamson, who mar- ried his niece, was offended : he also vowed ven- ' geance. And men at the head of society thus excited, can readily find sycophants enough to espouse their quarrel and inflame their rage.
Finding that justice had fallen in the streets, and truth could not enter, he consulted with the Moravian Brethren as to the best course to pursue; and they advised his return to England to vindicate his course before the Trustees. He accordingly called on Caus- ton, and told him of his design ; and the next day he put up this advertisement in the great square :-
" Whereas John Wesley designs shortly to set out for England, this is to desire those who have borrowed
337
DISSIMULATION OF THE MAGISTRATES.
any books of him to return them as soon as they con- veniently can to John Wesley."
This was what the magistrates most earnestly desired ; but in order to cover up their feelings, and carry out a show of law to the last, they sent for him, to say that he must not quit the province till he had entered into recognizance to answer the alle- gations against him. Wesley told them that he had appeared at six courts successively, and had openly desired a trial, but was refused it. They said that he must give security to appear again, and demanded of him a bond, under a penalty of £50, to answer Mr. Williamson's action of £1,000 damages. "I then began," says Wesley, "to see into their design of spinning out time, and doing nothing; and I told the recorder plainly : 'Sir, you use me very ill, and so you do the Trustees. I will give neither any bond nor any bail at all. You know your business, and I know mine.'"
In the afternoon, the magistrates published an order prohibiting his leaving the province, requiring all offi- cers and sentinels to prevent his departure, and for- bidding any person to assist him in so doing. But notwithstanding this public order, they still privately wished his departure, but took this method to keep up appearances in their favour. It is manifest that they had no intention of giving him a candid hearing, or the cause a fair trial. They knew well that the evidence was so strong in Wesley's favour, that they could not even invent a plausible pretence for giving the cause against him. To give it in his favour, would be to con- demn themselves, and manifest their own hypocrisy. On the other hand, they hoped, by multiplying accusa- tions, and procrastinating the trial, they might weary
22
338
JOHN WESLEY LEAVES GEORGIA.
his patience, and thus induce him to leave of his own accord; while, by this proclamation, they could stigma- tize his departure, as if it were a flight from justice.
This magisterial order did not alter the resolution of Wesley; and as soon as evening prayers were over15 on Friday, December 2d, 1737, about four o'clock, the tide then serving, he left Georgia, after having resided there one year and nine months. After suffering great hard- ships, he reached Charleston, on the 13th of December ; sailed thence for England on the 22d ; and on the 1st of February, 1738, landed on his native soil.16
The main object for which the Wesleys and Rev. Mr. Ingham came to Georgia-the conversion of the Indians-was entirely defeated; there being no possi- bility as yet of instructing the Indians, who were not only too much divided and contentious among them- selves, but who had also been made disgusted with European Christianity by the treacherous mummery of the French and Spanish on the one side, and the hy- pocrisy and evil living of the English colonists on the other. Whenever Wesley spoke of going to the In- dians, Oglethorpe objected, on account of the danger of being intercepted or killed; and when this scarcely restrained him, Oglethorpe told him: "You cannot leave Savannah without a minister." Ingham did in- deed live among the Creek Indians for a few months, and had begun to compose a grammar of their language ; but in the then turbulent state of the neighbouring tribes nothing could be effected. "Now," said one of their chiefs, " our enemies are all about us, and we can do nothing but fight; but if the beloved ones should
15 Stephens's Journal, i. 11, 15, 36. tion of his Works, 18 vols., New York, 16 These facts are gathered from Moore, Southey, Watson, Whitehead, and the Journal of Wesley, in the edi-
1827. In some places I have given the narrative almost in the words of the journal or biographer.
339
LEARNING OF THE WESLEYS.
ever give us to be at peace, then we would hear the Great Word."
The proceedings of the Wesleys in Georgia have indeed been violently assailed; and even writers who can offer no excuse for their ignorance, accuse them of immorality and blame. But it was not so. They were men delicately brought up, of fine sensibilities, of cul- tivated minds, of deep learning, and of ardent devo- tion. As scholars, they had few to surpass them; and the rank they took at England's oldest university, shows the strength and character of their minds. In the exact and natural sciences they were well versed. In the classics they were great proficients, reading, writ- ing, and conversing in Latin and Greek, with ease and elegance. During their residence in Georgia, the brothers, finding their letters intercepted, frequently corresponded in Greek ; and when they met, for fear of eaves-droppers, conversed in Latin.
John was also versed in the Hebrew, Arabic, French, Spanish, Italian, and German; and while in Savannah, he often held service on Sunday in four different languages-English, French, German, and Italian.17 Charles was also a poet, of great power and excellence ; and though his poems were mostly lyrical, he evinced, , in some fugitive pieces, a Virgilian strength and ele- gance, that, if properly cultivated, would have placed him beside Cowper, and above Montgomery. Accom- plished, though reserved, in their manners, associating from childhood with refined and learned society, they could not conform at once to the tastes and habits of communities like those of Savannah and Frederica, but were rather repelled by the gross immoralities and offensive manners of the early colonists. Their error
17 Hawkins's Mission of the Church of England, 97.
340
CAUSTON ORDERED HOME
was, especially in John, of holding too high ideas of ecclesiastical authority, and the being too rigid and repulsive in their pastoral duties. They stood firmly on little things as well as great, and held the reins of church discipline with a tightness unsuitable to an in- fant colony. But no other blame can attach to them.
The Trustees approved the course of John Wesley in leaving Savannah. Causton, his bitter persecutor, was shortly degraded, and ordered home; and Ogle- thorpe ever after retained for both John and Charles Wesley the highest esteem and veneration. When Oglethorpe first met John Wesley after his return from Georgia, though in a large company, he advanced, and bowing down, kissed his hand.
In connection with the labours of the Wesleys, it is proper to mention, that John Wesley distinguished the origin of Methodism into three distinct periods. "The first rise of Methodism," says he, " was in 1729, when four of us met together at Oxford. The second was at Savannah, in 1736, when twenty or thirty persons met at my house. The last was at London, on this day, May 1st, 1738, when forty or fifty of us agreed to meet together every Wednesday evening." Savannah, therefore, may be regarded as one of the birth-places of Methodism; and differ as we may about ecclesiasti- cal forms and theological views, we cannot but admit that the Methodists, as a body, for their piety, simpli- city, and integrity, are respectable, as well by their excellencies and virtues, as by the vastness of their numbers and the extent of their communion. It is not a little remarkable, that of the few young men, students of Oxford University, who gave rise to Methodism, four of them, viz., Rev. John Wesley, a graduate of Lincoln College, Rev. Charles Wesley, of Christ Church Col-
341
FIRST SUNDAY SCHOOL IN AMERICA.
lege, Rev. Benjamin Ingham, of Queen's College, and Rev. George Whitefield, of Pembroke College, should visit and settle in Georgia, and three of them have the care of churches in the colony.
As a part of John Wesley's parochial labours, he established a school of thirty or forty children, which he placed under the care of Mr. Delamotte, a man of good education, who endeavoured to blend religious instruction with worldly learning; and, on Sunday afternoon, Wesley met them in the church before evening service, heard the children " recite their cate- chism, questioned them as to what they had heard from the pulpit, instructed them still further in the Bible, endeavouring to fix the truth in their under- standings, as well as their memories." This was a regular part of his Sunday duties, and it shows that John Wesley, in the parish of Christ Church, Savan- nah, had established a Sunday school nearly fifty years before Robert Raikes originated his noble scheme of Sunday instruction in Gloucester, England, and eighty years before the first school in America, on Mr. Raikes's plan, was established in the city of New York. Mr. Delamotte returned to England in the summer of 1737 ; and such was the esteem of the inhabitants for his person and services, that they accompanied him in a body to the water-side, to bid him adieu, and speed him homeward with their heartfelt wishes. These are all interesting events, linking the early history of our State with some of the most remarkable men, and some of the most remarkable movements in the eighteenth century ; for Georgia was the scene of the labours, and the cradle of measures connected with the found- ers of that religious sect, which, from the twenty or thirty persons who, on Sunday after evening service,
-
342
REV. JOHN McLEOD AT DARIEN.
used to meet at the rector's house in Savannah, but little more than a hundred years ago, has now in- creased to more than a million of members, with its thousands of churches and preachers, spreading from age to age, and nation to nation, until the name of Wes- ley, and the tenets of Methodism, are known and cher- ished in every Christian land, and the earth has been almost girdled with the love-feasts of his disciples.
At Darien, Rev. Mr. John McLeod, a Presbyterian, ministered to the Scotch families settled there. This gentleman, a branch of the Dunnegan family, (McLeod of McLeod,) was well recommended by his brother clergymen, and sustained a good examination before the Presbytery of Edinburgh, previous to his ordina- tion and commission, 13th of October, 1735. He was appointed by the directors of the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge, "not only to officiate as minister of the Gospel to the Highland families going thither," and others who may be inclined to join in public worship, according to Presbyterian form, but also " to use his utmost endeavours for prop- agating Christian knowledge among Indian natives in the colony." He suffered somewhat for want of a place of worship, but Oglethorpe, who always showed him kindness, promised to build him a plain one until he could get a fund to put up a neat and substantial building ; which the missionary hoped to do, as he had heard that a lady in London had left a " disputable claim of several hundred pounds upon the East India Company, to be applied to the use of the Presbyterian Church in Georgia." In his letter to the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge, dated November 25, 1740, he describes the deplorable con- dition of things at New Inverness, in consequence of
343
EARLY LIFE OF GEORGE WHITEFIELD.
the loss of so large a number of its inhabitants at the massacre of Fort Moosa; "those who remain being so situated that the enemy can come upon them to their bedside."18
He still continued to labour there until the fall of 1741, when he went to South Carolina, and was settled at Edisto.
Urged by the letters of Wesley, the Rev. George Whitefield resolved to answer his call for help, and go over to his assistance in Georgia. This young gentle- man, born in an inn, of humble yet worthy parents, was early left fatherless, and thrown upon resources so slender as scarcely to give him support. At school his talents for oratory were very nearly turned towards the drama ; but, at the age of fourteen, he persuaded his mother to take him from school, and, putting on his "blue apron, washed mops and cleaned gowns" in his mother's tavern. Learning, accidentally, from a Pem- broke servitor, that, by the aid of such a menial office, he could go through college with small means, and hav- ing already made himself a good scholar in the classics, he hastened, when eighteen years of age, to Oxford, and, by the aid of £10, borrowed from a friend to defray the expense of entering, he was admitted as a servitor in Pembroke College.
Soon drawn towards the religious club of which the Wesleys were leaders, he found in their society just what his earnest and seeking heart desired, and he cast in his lot among them, preferring to endure their worldly reproach if he might partake of their heavenly joy. He was also so charmed with the mystic dog-
18 " Minutes of the Directors of the Committee of the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge."
For extracts from these records rela- ting to Rev. Mr. McLeod, I am indebted to Professor Mackenzie of Edinburgh.
344
ORDAINED DEACON.
mas, that he sought for sanctification in works of self- abasement, and therefore practised austerities worthy of monkish penances, or Braminical usage. He chose the worst food, wore mean apparel, put on a patched gown and dirty shoes, as visible signs of humility. He would kneel under the trees in Christ Church walk until he was benumbed with cold, and passed Lent in such rigorous fastings, that by Easter he had to be put under a physician for many weeks. But this sick- ness was the means of his deliverance from " this spirit of bondage under which he groaned," and became to him the period of his espousals to the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ. Then began, in his soul, that joy, which, like a spring-tide, overflowed its banks, and filled him with the fulness of peace in believing on Jesus.
Recommended to the notice and benefactions of Sir John Philips, Bart., one of the Trustees for Georgia, and winning by his general character the favour of the good Doctor Benson, Bishop of Gloucester, he was by that prelate ordained, 20th of June, 1736, at the age of twenty-one, to the office of Deacon in the Church of England. He commenced his clerical life with six guineas and one sermon ; but soon called to officiate in London, he began to make that impression upon his congregation by his eloquence, for which in after years he was so much noted. Crowds attended his preaching at London, Bath, Bristol, Gloucester, and other places ; villages and cities were moved by his commanding oratory ; and eyes that never knew the tears of penitence, and hearts that never felt the emotions of godly love, wept and stirred at his sound- ing appeals. A profitable curacy in London, with the great preferment which his talents opened before him,
345
HIS STRENGTH OF CHARACTER.
he refused ; and offering himself to the Trustees, as a missionary to Georgia, was, on December 21st, 1737, when he had just completed his twenty-second year, accepted. Never before, in England, had so young a clergyman produced such wonderful effects. The churches wherein he preached could not contain the multitudes that thronged to hear him, and thousands turned away from the already overflowing aisles. His youth, doctrines, boldness, surpassing oratory, and renunciation of church honours and preferments at home, that he might devote himself to the spiritual wants of a feeble colony abroad, conspired to beget an interest in the young divine which many lordly prelates, and beneficed dignitaries, might have striven for in vain. Yet in the midst of this tide of popular applause, that would have swept away the buttresses of a less firmly grounded character, we find him pre- serving his piety, his humility, and his unswerving zeal. It is surely a great proof of the strength of his mind, and the depth of his piety, that he could stem such a current of flattery, swelled by the praises of the press, the pulpit, and the people. No temptation sooner saps ministerial character, and undermines its moral strength, than the flatteries of an admiring yet injudicious people. Troubles nerve the arm of the minister of God ; difficulties he can erect himself to bear; reproofs he can patiently endure ; opposition he can manfully oppose with the sword of the spirit in his right hand, and the shield of faith buckled upon his left ; but flattery, like the shears of a heartless Delilah, cuts off the locks of his strength, and delivers him, weakened and powerless, into the hands of his enemies.
Whitefield could say with David, "Let the righteous
346
EMBARKS FOR GEORGIA.
rather smite me friendly, and reprove me, but let not their precious balms break my head ;" for, alas ! many have been the moral deaths caused by the breaking of some alabaster box of precious ointment on the head of the gifted and half-worshipped minister.
He left London December 28th, 1737, after admin- istering the sacrament at St. Dunstan, where " the tears of the communicants mingled with the cup," and " in the strength of God as a poor pilgrim," went on board the Whittaker, to embark for Georgia.19 He had with him, however, one friend, Mr. James Haber- sham, whom he affectionately styles his " dear fellow- traveller," who, relinquishing the kind offers of friends in England, and in opposition to the views of his uncle and guardian, resolved to cast in his lot among the people where Whitefield was to labour. The ship in which the two friends were embarked, was a trans- port employed to convey part of General Oglethorpe's regiment to Georgia ; but it was nearly a month, how- ever, before it got fairly to sea, being detained by head- winds at Margate and Deal, and January had nearly passed before a favouring wind enabled them to clear the Downs, and shape their course down the Channel. The passage to Gibraltar, whither they were bound to take in two companies which had been detailed as part of the regiment, was one of peril ; but the kind- ness they received at that military stronghold made
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