Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon

Selina, Countess of Huntingdon (24 August 1707 – 17 June 1791) was an English religious leader who played a prominent part in the religious revival of the 18th century and the Methodist movement in England and Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

, and has left a Christian denomination (Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion

Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion

The Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion is a small society of evangelical churches, founded in 1783 by Selina, Countess of Huntingdon as a result of the Evangelical Revival. For years it was strongly associated with the Calvinist Methodist movement of George Whitefield...

) in England and Sierra Leone.

Early life

Selina Hastings was born as Lady Selina Shirley, the second daughter of Washington Shirley, 2nd Earl Ferrers

Earl Ferrers

Earl Ferrers is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1711 for Robert Shirley, 13th Baron Ferrers of Chartley. The Shirley family descends from George Shirley of Astwell Castle, Northamptonshire....

and Mary Levinge, at Staunton Harold, a mansion near Ashby-de-la-Zouch

Ashby-de-la-Zouch

Ashby-de-la-Zouch, — Zouch being pronounced "Zoosh" — often shortened to Ashby, is a small market town and civil parish in North West Leicestershire, England, within the National Forest. It is twinned with Pithiviers in north-central France....

in Leicestershire. She married Theophilus Hastings, 9th Earl of Huntingdon

Theophilus Hastings, 9th Earl of Huntingdon

Theophilus Hastings, 9th Earl of Huntingdon was the son of Theophilus Hastings, 7th Earl of Huntingdon and Mary Frances Fowler. He married Lady Selina Shirley, daughter of Washington Shirley, 2nd Earl Ferrers and Mary Levinge, on 3 June 1728.There is a monument to him in St Helen's Church,...

, the only son of Theophilus Hastings, 7th Earl of Huntingdon

Theophilus Hastings, 7th Earl of Huntingdon

Theophilus Hastings, 7th Earl of Huntingdon PC was an English politician. He was the son of Ferdinando Hastings, 6th Earl of Huntingdon, born in the 27th year of his parents' marriage, and became Earl of Huntingdon on 13 February 1656 on his father's death...

and Frances Fowler, on 3 June 1728. The couple had six children, three of whom died in childhood, and one (a daughter, also Selina) at the age of 26. The other two were:

Francis, Lord Hastings
Francis Hastings, 10th Earl of Huntingdon
Francis Hastings, 10th Earl of Huntingdon PC was a British peer and politician.He was the son of the 9th Earl of Huntingdon and his wife, Selina. Hastings succeeded as Earl of Huntingdon and Baron Botreaux on his father's demise in 1746...

(1729–1789), later 10th Earl of Huntingdon, died unmarried and without issue.
Lady Elizabeth Hastings (1731–1808), the only child to survive her mother, married John Rawdon, 1st Earl of Moira
John Rawdon, 1st Earl of Moira
John Rawdon, 1st Earl of Moira , known as Sir John Rawdon, Bt, between 1724 and 1750 and as The Lord Rawdon between 1750 and 1762, was an Irish peer.-Background:...

.

Religious revival

In 1739 she joined the first Methodist

Methodism

Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...

society in Fetter Lane

Fetter Lane

Fetter Lane is a street in the ward of Farringdon Without in London England. It runs from Fleet Street in the south to Holborn in the north.The earliest mention of the street is "faitereslane" in 1312. The name occurs with several spellings until it settles down about 1612. There is no agreement...

, London. Some time after the death of her husband in 1746, Lady Huntingdon threw in her lot with John Wesley

John Wesley

John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...

and George Whitefield

George Whitefield

George Whitefield , also known as George Whitfield, was an English Anglican priest who helped spread the Great Awakening in Britain, and especially in the British North American colonies. He was one of the founders of Methodism and of the evangelical movement generally...

in the work of the great revival. 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

Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion

". This was a Calvinistic

Calvinism

Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...

movement within the Methodist church, as were Whitefield's chapels.

In the earlier part of her life Isaac Watts

Isaac Watts

Isaac Watts was an English hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymnwriter, he was recognised as the "Father of English Hymnody", credited with some 750 hymns...

, Mary, Lady Abney, Philip Doddridge

Philip Doddridge

Philip Doddridge DD was an English Nonconformist leader, educator, and hymnwriter.-Early life:...

, and Augustus Montague Toplady

Augustus Montague Toplady

Augustus Montague Toplady was an Anglican cleric and hymn writer. He was a major Calvinist opponent of John Wesley. He is best remembered as the author of the hymn "Rock of Ages"...

were among her friends, as much later, after their death, was Lady Anne Erskine (eldest daughter of the 10th Earl of Buchan), who for many years of the latter part of Lady Huntingdon's life was her closest friend and companion.

Chapel building

In 1748 the Countess gave Whitefield a scarf as her chaplain, and in that capacity he frequently preached in one of her London houses, in Park Street, Westminster, to audiences that included Chesterfield

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield PC KG was a British statesman and man of letters.A Whig, Lord Stanhope, as he was known until his father's death in 1726, was born in London. After being educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, he went on the Grand Tour of the continent...

, Walpole and Bolingbroke

Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke was an English politician, government official and political philosopher. He was a leader of the Tories, and supported the Church of England politically despite his atheism. In 1715 he supported the Jacobite rebellion of 1715 which sought to overthrow the...

. She also held large dinner parties at which Whitefield would preach to the gathered dignitaries after they had eaten.

Moved to further the religious revival in a Calvinistic manner compatible with Whitfield's work, she was responsible for the founding of sixty-four chapels and contributed to the funding of others, insisting that they should all subscribe to the doctrines of the Church of England and use only the Book of Common Prayer. Amongst these were buildings at Brighton

Brighton

Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...

(1761), Bath (1765), Worcester

Worcester

The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...

(c. 1766), Tunbridge Wells

Royal Tunbridge Wells

Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in west Kent, England, about south-east of central London by road, by rail. The town is close to the border of the county of East Sussex...

(1769), several in Wales

Wales

, and a small number in London including founding one adjacent to her London home at Spa Fields

Spa Fields

Spa Fields is a park, and surrounding area, in the London Borough of Islington in London, bordering Finsbury and Clerkenwell. Historically it is known for the Spa Fields riots of 1816 and an Owenite community which existed there between 1821 and 1824...

, Clerkenwell

Clerkenwell

Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. From 1900 to 1965 it was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. The well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance...

/Finsbury

Finsbury

Finsbury is a district of central London, England. It lies immediately north of the City of London and Clerkenwell, west of Shoreditch, and south of Islington and City Road. It is in the south of the London Borough of Islington. The Finsbury Estate is in the western part of the district...

(which resulted in a case being brought before the ecclesiatical courts by the vicar of the parish church of St James

St James Church, Clerkenwell

St James Church, Clerkenwell is an Anglican parish church in Clerkenwell, London, England.- Nunnery of St Mary: c. 1100 - 1539 :The parish of St James, Clerkenwell, has had a long and sometimes lively history. The springs which give Clerkenwell its name are mentioned during the reign of Henry II...

) and partly funding the independent Surrey Chapel

Surrey Chapel

The Surrey Chapel was an independent Methodist and Congregational church established in Blackfriars Road, Southwark, London on 8 June 1783 by the Rev. Rowland Hill. His work was continued in 1833 by the Congregational pastor Rev. James Sherman, and in 1854 by Rev. Newman Hall. The chapel's design...

of Rowland Hill

Rowland Hill (preacher)

Rowland Hill A.M. , was a popular English preacher, enthusiastic evangelical and an influential advocate of small-pox vaccination. He was founder and resident pastor of a wholly independent chapel, the Surrey Chapel, London; chairman of the Religious Tract Society; and a keen supporter of the...

. 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 there was a curtained recess dubbed Nicodemus' corner where some of the bishops sat incognito to hear him. Following the expulsion of six Methodist students from St Edmund Hall, Oxford. in 1768 she founded a ministers' training college at Trefeca

Trefeca

Trefeca was the home of 18th-century Methodist leader Howell Harris, located in Wales between Talgarth and Llangorse Lake.-Teulu Trefeca:...

near Talgarth

Talgarth

Talgarth is a small market town and community in southern Powys , Mid Wales, with a population of 1,645. Notable buildings in the town include its 14th-century parish church and 13th century Pele Tower, located in the town centre, now home to the Tourist Information and Resource Centre...

, in Mid Wales

Mid Wales

Mid Wales is the name given to the central region of Wales. The Mid Wales Regional Committee of the National Assembly for Wales covered the counties of Ceredigion and Powys and the area of Gwynedd that had previously been the district of Meirionydd. A similar definition is used by the BBC...

, not far from Brecon

Brecon

Brecon is a long-established market town and community in southern Powys, Mid Wales, with a population of 7,901. It was the county town of the historic county of Brecknockshire; although its role as such was eclipsed with the formation of Powys, it remains an important local centre...

. George Whitefield preached at the opening ceremony. The college moved to Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

in 1792, being renamed Cheshunt College. It moved to Cambridge in 1906. It merged with Westminster College, part of Cambridge University and the training college of the Presbyterian Church of England (and subsequently after 1972 of the United Reformed Church), in 1967. The Presbyterian Church of Wales college at Trevecca is approximately 400m south of the Countess's college (which is now a farmhouse) and derives from the work of Howell Harris

Howell Harris

Hywel Harris was one of the main leaders of the Welsh Methodist revival in the 18th century, along with Daniel Rowland and William Williams Pantycelyn.-Life:...

. It is said that Lady Huntingdon expended £100,000 in the cause of religion.

A slave

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

owner herself, having inherited overseas estates, the Countess promoted the writings and independence of formerly enslaved Africans who promoted religious views compatible with her own. This included such as authors Ukawsaw Gronniosaw

Ukawsaw Gronniosaw

Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, also known as James Albert, was a freed slave and autobiographer. His autobiography is considered the first published by an African in Britain.-The autobiography:...

, Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley was the first African American poet and first African-American woman whose writings were published. Born in Gambia, Senegal, she was sold into slavery at age seven...

and Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano also known as Gustavus Vassa, was a prominent African involved in the British movement towards the abolition of the slave trade. His autobiography depicted the horrors of slavery and helped influence British lawmakers to abolish the slave trade through the Slave Trade Act of 1807...

. During the mid-1760s, she met and befriended Mohegan preacher Samson Occom

Samson Occom

The Reverend Samson Occom was a Native American Presbyterian clergyman and a member of the Mohegan nation near New London, Connecticut...

, then on a tour of England to raise funds for Indian missions.

Up to 1779 Lady Huntingdon and her chaplains were members of the Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

, but in that year the prohibition of her chaplains by the consistorial court from preaching in the Pantheon, a large building in London rented for the purpose by the countess, compelled her, in order to evade the injunction, to take shelter under the Toleration Act

Toleration Act

Toleration Act may refer to:* Act of Toleration 1689, in England* Maryland Toleration Act, of 1649...

. This step, which placed her legally among dissenters, had the effect of severing from the connexion several eminent and useful members, among them William Romaine

William Romaine

William Romaine , evangelical divine of the Church of England, was author of works once held in much favour by the evangelicals, namely the trilogy The Life, the Walk, and the Triumph of Faith....

and Henry Venn.

Arrangements after her death

Up until her death in London, Lady Huntingdon continued to exercise an active, and even autocratic, superintendence over her chapels and chaplains. She successfully petitioned George III

George III of the United Kingdom

George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...

about the gaiety of Archbishop 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, her sixty-four chapels and the college were bequeathed to four trustees. Amongst these was Dr. Ford, and Lady Ann. Lady Ann was requested to occupy and constantly reside in Lady Huntingdon's house, adjoining Spa Fields Chapel, and to carry on all needful correspondence, which was immense. She carried this on dutifully until her own death in 1804, and burial at Bunhill Fields

Bunhill Fields

Bunhill Fields is a cemetery in the London Borough of Islington, north of the City of London, and managed by the City of London Corporation. It is about 4 hectares in extent, although historically was much larger....

.

The Principal Trustee was the Reverend Thomas Haweis

Thomas Haweis

Thomas Haweis was born in Redruth, Cornwall, on 1 January 1734, where he was baptised on 20 February 1734...

, who continued to preside at the Convocation of the Connexion, comprising at that time about 120 chapels, even though he continued as a Church of England priest (Rector of All Saints, Aldwincle, from 1764 until his death in 1820). He made every effort to ensure the Connexion kept as close to the Church of England

Church of England

as was possible. Many of these chapels became part of the Free Church of England

Free Church of England

The Free Church of England is an Anglican church which separated from the established Church of England in the course of the 19th century. The church was founded by evangelical clergy and congregations in response to the rise of Anglo-Catholicism. The first congregations were formed in 1844...

in 1863.

One of the earliest changes under the new trustees was to complete plans to relocate the college. In 1792 it was removed to Cheshunt

Cheshunt

Cheshunt is a town in Hertfordshire, England with a population of around 52,000 according to the United Kingdom's 2001 Census. It is a dormitory town and part of the Greater London Urban Area and London commuter belt served by Cheshunt railway station...

, Hertfordshire. Here it remained, under the name Cheshunt College, until 1905, when its functions were transferred to Cambridge University. The college was noted for the number of men it sent into the foreign mission field.

In 1795, shortly after her death, her London chapel, Spa Fields Chapel, was used by the founders of the non-denominational Missionary Society, which became the London Missionary Society

London Missionary Society

The London Missionary Society was a non-denominational missionary society formed in England in 1795 by evangelical Anglicans and Nonconformists, largely Congregationalist in outlook, with missions in the islands of the South Pacific and Africa...

, for preachers contributing to this, its founding meeting. Following her death, much of her movement merged with the Congregationalist Church

Congregational church

Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....

, who also came to predominate in the London Missionary Society

London Missionary Society

, and more joined the Free Church of England

Free Church of England

in 1863, although there are still today twenty-five Connexion congregations functioning in England, with others in Sierra Leone.

In her will, she requested that no biography should be written of her, so none was attempted until almost ninety years after her death. However obituaries and later tributes were frequently written: Horace Walpole described her as the patriarchess of the Methodists, whilst the Roman Catholic, John Henry Newman, commented She 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, located in Montgomery, Alabama, is a coeducation liberal arts college that was named after the Countess of Huntingdon to honour her contributions to Methodism.

External links

Kirby, Gilbert W. The Elect Lady
Cook, Faith, Selina, Countess of Huntingdon – article in Evangelical Times, October 2001

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