Susanna Wesley

Susanna Wesley; Mother of John, Charles
Susanna Annesley was born Jan. 20, 1669 to Dr. Samuel Annesley and Mary White, his 2nd wife. She was his 25th and last child. He was a nonconforming, Puritan clergyman in London. At 12, Susanna stopped attending his church and joined the COE. The following year, she met Samuel Wesley, 6 years her senior, at her older sister’s wedding. Samuel, the son of a nonconforming clergyman, had joined the COE to further his education. After graduating from Oxford, Exeter College, and ordination in the COE, Susanna and Samuel were married in 1688; she was 19 and he was 26. Susanna was married to Samuel through sickness and health, 19 pregnancies and good and bad times for 46 years until his death in 1735. Susanna and Samuel Wesley had 19 children. Nine of her children died as infants. Two sets of twins, four children died. A maid accidentally smothered one child. A review of the baptismal records suggests that Susanna was pregnant 12 years of her 24 years of marriage. Following her husband’s death in 1735, she left Epworth where she had raised the family for 38 years and lived with her kids; Emily, Samuel Jr. , and Martha. Finally, she joined Joht at the Foundry, the new center for Methodism in London, in 1740, and remained there until her death in 1742. At Susanna’s death at age 73, only 8 of her children were still alive.