A Tory Marriage

Abstract Chapter 7 examines the Wesleys’ marriage as a deeply political and fraught relationship. Samuel and Susanna Wesley were both Tories and held High Church principles, but it seems that Susanna was a Jacobite, following the Revolution of 1688; whereas Samuel accepted the offer of the throne to William and Mary. In contrast to the usual accounts of the marriage, which suggest two moments of discord, this chapter suggests that their relationship was marked by sustained and enduring conflict. Starting in 1701–2 the couple separated over Susanna’s refusal to say ‘amen’ at prayers for the King. The breach was only superficially resolved in 1702. Thereafter the marriage remained a source of tension. In 1711 Susanna’s establishment of a prayer meeting in Epworth while Samuel was in London led to friction between them. A year later, Samuel reported his wife to the Bishop of Lincoln for her failure to accept the invalidity of her dissenting baptism.