Notes on John's letter to his mother

Samuel Wesley (1690-1739) went from Westminster School to Christ Church, Oxford; and in 1732 became Head Master at Tiverton. He was now Usher at Westminster School, and was almost a father to his two younger brothers. He had written to Wesley's tutor at Christ Church about him (see previous letter). John's eagerness to see his mother at Westminster shows how strong were his domestic affections. His uncle Samuel Annesley, on whom so many family hopes were built, never reached London. Adam Clarke says, in his Memoirs of the Wesley Family, that Wesley used to tell his nephews, ' You are heirs to a large property in India, if you can find it out; for my uncle is said to have been very prosperous.' In Annesley of Surat Arnold Wright gives the will of this relative, and states that he died in Surat in 1732, leaving no fortune. The letter shows Wesley's humor, and gives the first verses from his pen that have been preserved.

This letter and that of March 21, 1726, were sent to the Westminster Magazine (1774, pp. 180-2) by the Rev. Samuel Badcock, to whom they had been given by Mrs. Earle, Samuel Wesley's daughter. Wesley criticizes his article in Mary's New Review for December 1784 (Works, xiii. 408-11). Badcock says that the letters had been 'closely locked up for some thirty years,' and were accidentally discovered. 'I have learnt more of his original character than can possibly be known by his public life.' He describes Wesley at twenty-one as ' the very sensible and acute collegian, baffling every man by his subtleties of logic, and laughing at them for being so easily routed; a young fellow of the finest classical taste, of the most liberal and manly sentiments.' He was ' gay and sprightly, with a turn for wit and humor.' Dr. Warburton called him ' this transcendent man.'

From the The Letters of John Wesley, Telford Edition