Susannah Wesley Memorial - City Road, London, UK
Posted by: Groundspeak Regular Member Master Mariner
N 51° 31.420 W 000° 05.232
30U E 702061 N 5712083
This memorial to Susannah Wesley stands in the south west corner of forecourt in front of Wesley's Chapel in City Road.
Waymark Code: WMGWH4
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 04/16/2013
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member saopaulo1
Views: 2

The Memorial, dated 1870, was sculpted by Albert Dunkley. It is a Portland stone obelisk on a square base with carved foliage ornament. The main inscription reads:

In the
Bunhill Fields
Burial Ground opposite
lie the remains of
Susannah Wesley,
widow of
the Rev. Samuel Wesley M.A.
Rector of Epworth Lincolnshire
who died July 23rd 1742
aged 78 years
She was the youngest daughter of
the Rev. Samuel Annesley D.D.
ejected by the Act of Uniformity
from the rectory of
St. Giles Cripplegate Aug. 24th 1662
She was the mother of
the Revs. John and Charles Wesley
the former of whom was under God
the founder of
the Societies of the People
called Methodists.

On the base is inscribed:

This monument
was erected by public subscription
December 1870

This article tells us more about the monument and how it came to be in this location:

"Susanna Wesley, the mother of John and Charles spent the last few years of her life, after the death of her husband, Samuel, staying with her sons at the Foundery, the first London base of Methodism.

She died on July 23rd 1742 aged 76 years, (although different dates appear on different inscriptions) and was buried in Bunhill Fields by her son John.

It is quite ironical that she should be buried in a graveyard which was set aside for those who were not Anglicans but Dissenters of one sort or another for as a young girl she had made a decision to leave the Dissenting faith of her parents and return to the Anglican Church.

In the 1860s the Corporation of the City of London invited owners of significant gravesites in Bunhill Fields to provide new grave markers and monuments. So an obelisk was commissioned for Susanna with the intention that it be erected over her grave in Bunhill Fields. For some reason the authorities did not allow the obelisk to be erected in Bunhill Fields so it was placed in the forecourt of Wesley’s Chapel, just in front of John Wesley’s House.

A new but simpler headstone was placed above Susanna’s grave in 1828 and yet another one, the current one, was placed there in 1936. In 2008 this latest headstone was conserved and restored by the City of London, who are responsible for Bunhill Fields

The Ghanaian Methodist Women’s organisation, the Susanna Wesley Mission Auxiliary, which has a UK branch, has taken responsibility for the cleaning of the monument to Susanna and it was recently cleaned thanks to a kind donation from them. This is the second time that they have taken such an initiative to keep Susann’s Memorial in good condition.

Each July, on a Saturday close to the death of Susanna the SUWMA-UK come to Wesley’s Chapel and have a service around her grace and a ceremony at the Memorial.

Susanna Wesley was a very formative influence on all her children and especially John so it is only right and proper that we honour her, along with John and Charles, in this place."

Website with more information on either the memorial or the person(s) it is dedicated to: [Web Link]

Location: Wesley's Chapel forecourt.

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