Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1888-12-20

SAMUEL WESLEY. CHARLES WESLEY, JR.
In lineage and succession the Wes-
leyan record is more curious still. John
Wesley was one of nineteen children,
and his mother was the youngest of
twenty-five, and yet in a very few years
the family was nearly extinct, and eX-
cept the descendants of Charles Wesley,
there is not representative in name of
the original rector of Epworth. But,
though Charles was pronounced by his
contemporaries the most impractical of
men, he was practically itself compared
with his remarkable son Charles, whose
mother and sister put ON his clothes, tied
his cravat, fixed his napkin under his
chin at the table and otherwise treated
him like child as long as they lived.
He was incapable Of making the small
est bargain, and was as helpless after
the death of his sister as an ordinary
10-year-old child; yet at the age of IS
months he drummed out tune On the
harpsichOrd, and at 18 years he per-
formed before George III and his court
in the hearing Of the finest musicians Of
Europe, to loud and earnest applause.
This remarkable musician died unmar-
ried, as did his sister Sarah, but their re-
naming brother, Samuel, married and
talents to his posterity. He was the
seventh child Of Charles Wesley, and
although not quite so precocious as his
brother Charles, could produce fairly
good music at years Of age, and soon
after could supply true bass to any air.
He played from his inner consciousness.
But Methodists of Bristol viewed the
natural gifts Of these young Wesleys
with anything but pleasure, and little by
little there grew up strained feeling be-
tween the two branches of the Wesley
family, SO much so that the children Of
one branch objected very strongly to all
the religious proceedings of the other.
But this Samuel Wesley, having more
practical sense than his brother Charles,
became settled citizen and married
Miss Charlotte Louisa Martin, daughter
Of the then demonstrator of anatomy
in st. Thomas hospital In April, 1893,
and yet he had so much of the family
eccentricity that he lived with her
two years before informing his
mother that he had taken a partner.
She died young, and he married again
about 1915 and had several more children.
He acquired some means by the exercise
Of his talents, and on his death bed
he said to his son: "Keep thy knowledge
Of Latin; remember the Wesleys were all
gentlemen and scholars" Rev. Dr..
Charles Wesley, sub-deacon of the
Chapel Royal, and DR.. Samuel Sebastian,
Of Gloucester cathedral, were sons Of
this Samuel Wesley, and therefore grand
sons Of Charles, and their sons now In
England are the only representatives by
name of the once prolific Wesley family.
Charles Wesley, the : poet, was born at
Epworth rectory Dec. 1S, 1908, and died
In London March 20, 1888. He was edu-
Gated at Westminster school and at Ok
ford, and during all the early and middle
part of his life pursued substantially the
same career as his brother John, and was
so closely associated with him that those
familiar with the life of John are neces-
sarily so with that of Charles. His
hymns and spiritual songs are literally.
household words in every country where
the English language is spoken; but his
personal eccentricities are, of course,
much less known. Samuel, the older |
brother Of John, left but one surviving
child, daughter. John married late IN |
life and never became father. Charles, |
having escaped fancy free till his 41st |
year, married Sarah Gwynne, then aged |
81. She was unusually well educated |
for the days in which she lived, and had
a sweet voice and good musical training.
In 1862 their eldest son was born and |
named John. He surprised every one
by humming tunes and beating time
correctly when only 10 months old. He |
died soon after with the smallpox, and
bis mother, who had never been vaccin-
ated, was SO horribly disfgured by the
disease that from being a noted beauty
she became almost absolutely repugnant.
In 1857 another son was born, the noted
and musical Charles; then daughter,
Sarah. Their three subsequent children
lied in infancy. Mrs. Wesley was ac-
customed to soothe her loneliness and
amuse her babes by playing ON the harp
sichord, and before little Charles could
speak he showed his sense of complete
ness by taking her left hand and placing
t on the instrument whenever she
played the treble with her right hand
alone. She soon found that when she
led him in q chair before the hard