Olleson, Philip (2000) The letters of Samuel Wesley: social and professional correspondence, 1797-1837. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. 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For more information, please contact [email protected] THE LETTERS OF SAMUEL WESLEY: SOCIAL AND PROFESSIONAL CORRESPONDENCE, 1797-1837 Vol. 1 Edited by Philip John Olleson, MA ýýý-ý71Nß/ýqý AIA Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, January 2000 CONTENTS Abstract iii Acknowledgements v Abbreviations and Cue Titles ix Chronology -- xxii Biographical Introduction xxix Textual Introduction lxxxix The Letters 1 Appendix: undatable letters 984 ABSTRACT The life of the composer and organist Samuel Wesley (1766-1837) encompassedmomentous changes in British society. Born in the early years of the reign of George III, Wesley died in the first months of the reign of Victoria. He saw equally momentouschanges in music. As a child he was taught by musicians who rememberedand in some cases had played for Handel; in adult life, he witnessedthe introduction of the music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoveninto England, and late in his career saw the visits to London of Liszt, Weber, and Mendelssohn. Wesley's life on both a personal and professionallevel was highly unconventional.Born into the first family of Methodism - his father was the hymn-writer Charles Wesley (1708-88), his uncle was John Wesley (1703-91) - he converted in his teens to Roman Catholicism and spent most of his life alienated from his family and from his Methodist upbringing. His marriage to Charlotte Louisa Martin in 1793 followed years of family opposition and a period when the couple lived togetherunmarried. In 1810 he left her for his teenagehousekeeper, with whom he lived until his death. His professional career was brilliant but uneven,bedevilled by periods of mental illness which left him incapacitatedfor long periods. Wesley was a prolific correspondent:over 600 letters out of a far larger number of letters that he is known to have written are extant. The letters fall into two fairly distinct categories:those to membersof his family, and thoseto correspondentsoutside the family. This division is paralleled to iii a large degreein the subjectmatter of the letters. In general,Wesley kept his family and his professionaland social life well apart. He only rarely discusses family matters rarely in his social and professional letters; conversely, although there are many mentions of his social and professionallife in the family correspondence,they do not form a very large proportion of it as a whole. The two sequencesof letters are thus largely self-contained. The bulk of Wesley's discussionsof music are containedin the social and professional letters, and these form the largest and most important collection of letters by an English musician of the late eighteenthand early nineteenthcenturies. This edition brings togetherall such letters from 1797 until Wesley's death in 1837. It also includesa few family letters where the subject matter is wholly or largely music: further details are given in the Textual Introduction. It can therefore be seen as the first part of a complete edition of Wesley's letters. The second part, containing the family letters, will, I hope, follow in due course. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I gratefully acknowledgefinancial assistancefrom the University of Nottingham, who provided funds for the initial purchaseof microfilms and photocopiesunder the HumanitiesRolling Small Grants Schemeand have given generoussupport subsequently,including a period of study leave in 1997-8. A number of individuals have beenparticularly closely involved with this volume. Robert Pascallfirst suggestedthat I might look at Wesley's letters. Michael Kassler, with whom I am compiling the Samuel Wesley Sourcebook,has sharedwith me his extensiveknowledge of Wesley's life and has made a large contribution to establishingthe chronology and dating of the letters. Fr Alvaro Ribeiro, SJ, editor of the correspondenceof CharlesBurney, has answerednumerous queries about Burney, provided advice and wisdom on editorial procedures, and given much support and encouragement.Ian Wells has provided information on matters of Roman Catholic liturgy. Andrew Drummond has identified and translated Wesley's quotations from Greek and Latin. Anne Allcock copied the music examples.To all of theseI am most grateful. I must also express my particular thanksand gratitude to Cyril Ehrlich, who has been involved in this project since its beginning and has been characteristicallygenerous in his advice, support, and encouragement. I acknowledgewith thankspermission granted by the following libraries and private individuals to publish letters in their collections: the V Revd Frank Baker; Bath Public Libraries; BeineckeRare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University; BostonPublic Library; The British Library, London; Michael Burney-Cumming;Cambridge University Library; CheshireRecord Office; John R. G. Comyn; RaymondC. Currier; Drew University, Madison, New Jersey; Duke University, Durham, N. Carolina; Edinburgh University Library; Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; GloucesterPublic Library; HampshireRecord Office; Houghton Library, Harvard University; John Wesley's Chapel, Bristol; Library of Congress,Washington, DC; Michael and Jamie Kassler; London University Library; Methodist Archives and ResearchCentre, John Rylands University of Manchester; London Metropolitan Archives; National Library of Scotland;The National Trust; New York Public Library; Norfolk Record Office; Princeton University; The Royal College of Music; The Royal Institution of Great Britain; Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; SouthernMethodist University, Dallas, Texas; University of California at SantaBarbara; The Upper Room, Nashville, Tennessee. InvestigatingWesley's letters has involved me in correspondence with, and visits to, a large number of libraries and record offices. In addition to the institutions listed above, I would like to thank the following: Birmingham Archives; Bodleian Library, Oxford; British Library NewspaperLibrary; Bristol Public Library; The Brotherton Library, University of Leeds; Dorset Record Office; Guildhall Library; Hertfordshire Record Office; The PendleburyLibrary, Cambridge; The V1 Royal Society of Musicians; St Albans Public Library; Suffolk Record Office; Watford Public Library; Wesley College, Bristol. I am also grateful to the following, who have answeredqueries or provided assistancein other ways: Mark Argent, Chris Banks, Christina Bashford, The Revd Mark Beach, Heather Blackburn, Barra Boydell, Donald Burrows, David Byers, Rachel Cowgill, Donald Cullington, Oliver Davies, Nigel Day, Fr Ian Dickie, Sally Drage, Pippa Drummond, Michelle Elverson, Kathy Flewitt, Peter Forsaith, Maggie Gibb, Jane Girdham, Leo Gooch, Bette Gray-Fow, Sam Hammond, JaneHatcher, John Henderson,Peter Holman, Peter Horton, Bronwen Jenkins, H. Diack Johnstone,Jamie Kassler, ChristopherKent, ST Kimbrough, Jr., Leanne Langley, Gareth Lloyd, Simon McGuire, Simon McVeigh, The Ven. John Marsh, SanderMeredeen, Anne Micallef, John Morehen, Johyn Morgan, Kenneth Newport, Peter Nockles, John Ogasapian,Michael Ogden, Edward Olleson, Stanley Pelkey, Lynda Prescott,Peter Preston, Rebecca Preston,Kenneth E. Rowe, Brian Robins, Graca Almeida Rodrigues, Alan E. Rose, StephenRoe, Francis Routh, Gillian Ward Russell, Wendy Sharpe,Hilary Silvester, the Revd William Simpson, Christopher Smith, Meg Smith, Alan Sommerstein,Nicholas Temperley, Richard Turbet, John Vickers, Arthur Wainwright, John Wardroper, Paul Weaver, William Weber, John Whittle, RosemaryWilliamson, Peter Wright, Carlton Young, BennettZon. My greatestthanks, however, are due to my wife Hilary, who over a period of almost ten years has sharedwith great good humour and vii tolerancethe ups anddowns of a projectwhich at timeshas seemed never- ending. vii' ABBREVIATIONS AND CUE TITLES Manuscript collections Argory The Argory, near Moy, Co. Armagh. Austin Harry RansomHumanities Research Centre, The University of Texas at Austin. BL British Library, London. Drew Methodist Collection, Drew University