The Countess of Huntingdon | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Known for | Methodism |
| Born | Selina Shirley (1707-08-24)24 August 1707 Astwell Castle,Northamptonshire, England |
| Died | 17 June 1791(1791-06-17) (aged 83) |
| Nationality | British |
| Spouse | |
| Issue |
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| Father | Washington Shirley, 2nd Earl Ferrers |
| Mother | Mary Levinge |
Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon (néeShirley; 24 August 1707 – 17 June 1791) was an EnglishMethodist leader who played a prominent part in thereligious revival of the 18th century and the Methodist movement in England and Wales. She founded an evangelical branch in England andSierra Leone, known as theCountess of Huntingdon's Connexion.
She helped finance and guide early Methodism and was the first principal ofTrevecca College, Wales, established in 1768 to train Methodist ministers. With the construction of 64 chapels in England and Wales, plus mission work in colonial America, she is estimated to have spent over £100,000 on these activities, a huge sum when a family of four could live on £31 per year.[1]
A regular correspondent ofGeorge Whitefield andJohn Wesley, she is also remembered for her adversarial relationships with other Methodists.
Selina Shirley was born in August 1707 atAstwell Castle,Northamptonshire, second daughter ofWashington Shirley, 2nd Earl Ferrers, and Mary Levinge, daughter ofSir Richard Levinge, 1st Baronet. The family moved toStaunton Harold Hall, inLeicestershire when she was 17 and in 1728, she marriedTheophilus Hastings, 9th Earl of Huntingdon, who lived at nearbyDonington Hall. This was arranged by his elder half-sister,Lady Elizabeth Hastings, a well-known religious philanthropist and supporter of women's education.[2]
She gave birth to seven children in the first ten years of the marriage, four of whom died young; her husband died in 1746, while she allegedly suffered from poor health.[3] The family were interested in politics, religion and the arts, and commissioned portraits from fashionable artists of the day.
On 21 April 1730, she became one of the 21 aristocratic women whose supportThomas Coram would enlist in his efforts to establish theFoundling Hospital. Securing the support of notably pious women such as Lady Huntingdon assignatories to the Ladies' Petition for the Establishment of the Foundling Hospital lent his endeavour not only respectability but cachet; many of the women were lending their signature where their husbands had previously refused, making the Foundling Hospital 'one of the most fashionable charities of the day.'[4] Selina would later provide the Coram with 'financial support for fees, stamp duties, vellum, seals and others expenses [sic] connected with the presentation of the Foundling Hospital Charter for the King's signature.'[5]
The petition was presented toKing George II in 1735.[6][7]
In 1739, Lady Huntington joined the first Methodist society inFetter Lane, London. Sometime after the death of her husband in 1746, she threw in her lot withJohn Wesley andGeorge Whitefield in the work of the great revival. According to Schlenther, it was Wesley who first attracted her to Methodism, noting a visit to his chapel in Donnington (Wood) in East Shropshire, in which a rare exception to egalitarian principles was made and she was offered a private pew. Whitefield became her personal chaplain, and, with his assistance, following problems put in her path by the Anglican clergy from whom she had preferred not to separate, she founded the "Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion", aCalvinistic movement within the Methodist church.
In the earlier part of her lifeIsaac Watts,Mary, Lady Abney,Philip Doddridge, andAugustus Montague Toplady were among her friends.Lady Anne Erskine (eldest daughter of the10th Earl of Buchan), was her closest friend and companion for many years in the latter part of Lady Huntingdon's life.[8]
In 1748, the Countess gave Whitefield a scarf as her chaplain, and in that capacity, he preached in one of her London houses, in Park Street,Westminster, to audiences that includedChesterfield,Walpole andBolingbroke. She held large dinner parties at which Whitefield preached to the gathered dignitaries after they had eaten.
Moved to further the religious revival in a Calvinistic manner compatible with Whitefield's work, she was responsible for founding 64 chapels and contributed to the funding of others, insisting they should all subscribe to the doctrines of the Church of England and use only theBook of Common Prayer. Amongst these were chapels atBrighton (1761),Bath (1765),Worcester (c. 1766),Tunbridge Wells (1769), several in Wales, and a small number in London including founding one adjacent to her London home atSpa Fields,Clerkenwell/Finsbury (which resulted in a case being brought before the ecclesiastical courts by the vicar of the parish church ofSt James). She partly funded the independentSurrey Chapel, Southwark ofRowland Hill. She appointed ministers to officiate in them, under the impression that as a peeress she had a right to employ as many chaplains as she pleased. In her chapel at Bath (now owned by theBath Preservation Trust and housing theBuilding of Bath Collection which is open to the public), there was a curtained recess dubbed "Nicodemus' Corner" where bishops sat incognito to hear services.
Following the expulsion of six Methodist students fromSt Edmund Hall,Oxford in 1768 the Countess founded a ministers' training college atTrefeca (Trevecca) nearTalgarth, inMid Wales, not far fromBrecon. George Whitefield preached at the opening ceremony. The college moved toHertfordshire in 1792, and was renamedCheshunt College. It moved to Cambridge in 1906.[9] Cheshunt College, Cambridge merged withWestminster College, Cambridge, the training college of the Presbyterian Church of England (and after 1972, of the United Reformed Church), in 1967.[10]
In 1842, thePresbyterian Church of Wales opened a college at Trefeca[11] which is approximately a quarter of a mile south of the site of the Countess's college (which is now a farmhouse).
The Countess had an interest in theThirteen Colonies, and issues related to Native Americans andenslaved Africans there. During the mid-1760s, she met and befriendedMohegan preacherSamson Occom, then on a tour of England to raise funds for Indian missions in the colonies.[14]
She became aslave owner herself in 1770 when she inherited Whitefield's overseas estates inGeorgia andSouth Carolina, including theBethesda Home for Boys. On Whitefield's advice, she bought additional slaves for the orphanage's benefit.[15]
The Countess promoted the writings and freedom of formerly enslaved Africans who espoused religious views compatible with her own. For instance, she supported publication of memoirs, orslave narratives, byUkawsaw Gronniosaw andOlaudah Equiano.[citation needed]
She also used her influence in the world of the arts to secure publication forPhillis Wheatley's 1773 volume of poems,Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Phillis Wheatley, Negro Servant to Mr. John Wheatley, of Boston, in New England, which was dedicated to the Countess.[16] Because the Countess was ill when Wheatley visited London, the two women never met. Several pieces of their correspondence are extant.[16]
Until 1779, Lady Huntingdon and her chaplains were members of theChurch of England, with which most Methodists were still connected. That year the consistorial court prohibited her chaplains from preaching in the Pantheon in Spa Fields, Clerkenwell, which had been rented by the Countess. To evade the injunction, she was compelled to take shelter under theToleration Act. This placed her among classifieddissenters. Such prominent members asWilliam Romaine andHenry Venn did not want to be classified in that status, and left the Connexion.
After the Patriot victory in theAmerican War of Independence, the Crown fulfilled promises to enslaved Africans and African Americans who had fled their American masters to join the British. The British evacuated thousands of former slaves from the colonies, who became known asBlack Loyalists. About 3,000 were resettled inNova Scotia andNew Brunswick, where they were to be given land and supplies. The Countess sent missionaries to these colonies, includingJohn Marrant and William Furmage, to attend to theBlack Loyalists.[12][13]
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Until her death in London, Lady Huntingdon exercised an active, and even autocratic, superintendence over her chapels and chaplains. Alice Membury, appointed schoolmistress inMelbourne, Derbyshire by Lady Elizabeth Hastings, was ejected by the Countess for 'not turning Methodist'.[17] Selina successfully petitionedGeorge III about the gaiety ofArchbishop Cornwallis' establishment, and made a vigorous protest against the anti-Calvinistic minutes of the Wesleyan Conference of 1770, and against relaxing the terms of subscription of 1772.
On the Countess's death in 1791, the 64 chapels and the college were bequeathed to four trustees. Amongst them were Dr Ford, as well as Lady Ann, who was requested to occupy and reside in Lady Huntingdon's house adjoining Spa Fields Chapel, and carry on all needful correspondence (which was immense). She did this dutifully until her own death in 1804 and burial atBunhill Fields.[8]
The principal trustee was the ReverendThomas Haweis, who presided at the Convocation of the Connexion, comprising about 120 chapels. As rector of the Church of England parish atAldwincle until his death in 1820, he ensured the Connexion kept as close to the Church of England as was possible; many chapels became part of theFree Church of England in 1863.[18]
One of the earliest changes under the new trustees was to complete plans to relocate the college. In 1792 it was removed toCheshunt, Hertfordshire where it remained asCheshunt College, until 1905, when its functions were transferred to Cambridge University. The college was noted for the number of men it sent to foreign missions.
In 1795, Spa Fields Chapel was used by the founders of the non-denominationalMissionary Society, which became theLondon Missionary Society, for preachers contributing to this, its founding meeting. After her death, much of her movement merged with theCongregationalist Church, who came to predominate in the London Missionary Society, and more joined theFree Church of England in 1863, although in 2022 there were still 22 Connexion congregations functioning in England,[19] with others in Sierra Leone.
In her will, she requested no biography of her should be written and none was attempted until 90 years after her death. Obituaries and tributes were written: Horace Walpole described her asthe patriarchess of the Methodists, whilst the Roman Catholic,John Henry Newman, commentedShe devoted herself, her means, her time, her thoughts, to the cause of Christ. She did not spend her money on herself; she did not allow the homage paid to her rank to remain with herself. She was clearly a pivotal figure in the Evangelical Revival.
Huntingdon College, inMontgomery, Alabama, is a coeducation liberal arts college named after the Countess of Huntingdon to honour her contributions to Methodism.
Huntingdon Street inSavannah, Georgia, is likewise named after her in recognition of her association withWhitefield andJohn andCharles Wesley in their apostolic works in theColony of Georgia.
Lady Huntingdon Lane is at the Givens Estates inAsheville, North Carolina, a retirement community affiliated with the United Methodist Church.
Lady Huntingdon Road is on the grounds of the United Methodist Assembly, Lake Junaluska, NC, located near the World Methodist Center.
Huntingdon, Pennsylvaniais the county seat ofHuntingdon County, Pennsylvania (founded September 20, 1787), both of which are named for her.[20]
By her marriage to Theophilus Hastings, 9th Earl of Huntingdon, she had seven children. Of those, three died in childhood and the death date of a fourth is unknown.[citation needed] Her longest surviving children were:
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Huntingdon, Selina Hastings, Countess of".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 950.On the Countess of Huntingdon and the Welsh Methodists, see E. Wyn James, 'Blessèd Jubil!’: Slavery, Mission and the Millennial Dawn in the Work of William Williams of Pantycelyn', inCultures of Radicalism in Britain and Ireland, ed. John Kirk, Michael Brown & Andrew Noble, 'Poetry and Song in the Age of Revolution', vol. 3 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2013), 95-112.
