THOSE GENTLEMEN SHALL NOT OFFICIATE: THE WESLEYS AND WHITEFIELD
While John Wesley (1703-1791), the founder of Methodism, did not exactly get his start in Islington, St Mary's played a prominent role in his early career, as it did with that of his brother Charles Wesley (1707-1788) and their associate George Whitefield (1714-1770). Their Islington connection was due in large part to the Rev. George Stonehouse, whose family then held the living, and who served as vicar from 1738 to 1740. This represents one of the shortest tenures in St Mary's history, and it was directly related to the Wesleys and Whitefield.
John Wesley's conversion took place in Aldersgate on May 24, 1738. While attending a religious lecture there, he felt his heart "strangely warmed" by the Holy Spirit. Both before and after, he conferred with Stonehouse, who allowed him the use of St Mary's pulpit, where he preached ten times between the end of October 1738 and March 18, 1739. Stonehouse also permitted Wesley (who had been ordained at Oxford in 1728) to administer communion and baptism. During that time, George Whitefield made a circuit to Wales and the west country, preaching to huge crowds gathered in the fields. John Wesley joined him in Bristol, and - although initially opposed to preaching outside churches, or field preaching - came round when he saw the effect such services had on multitudes that the established church had not reached.
Meanwhile, on 15 April 1739, Charles Wesley, who had also conducted services at St Mary's, and who had, like his brother John, officiated at an adult re-baptism in the church, was confronted by the churchwardens. Acting under the auspices of a somewhat obscure church canon, the wardens asked him to show his license from the Bishop of London, which would have permitted him to preach within the diocese. He was, of course, unable to meet the requirement. When Whitefield returned to London towards the end of April, 1739, only one church, St Mary, Islington, was available to him, or so he thought. At Vicar Stonehouse's invitation, he prepared to preach on Friday, April 27. Forewarned, and again acting under the auspices of the church canon they had used to deal with Charles Wesley, the wardens asked Whitefield to show his license from the Bishop of London. When he was unable to meet their requirement, they physically denied him the right to enter the pulpit. Whitefield held his peace until the service was over, then, outside in the churchyard, climbed onto a tombstone and delivered a sermon "to a prodigious concourse of people." He repeated the performance the following day, apparently to an even more prodigious concourse, then decided to return to the fields. Early on Sunday, April 29, he preached at Moorefields, then - in the afternoon - at Kennington Common, south of the Thames.
Illustration 14: George Whitefield, standing on a tombstone in front of the old St Mary's, preaching "to a prodigious concourse of people." The original painting by Gustave Sintzennich was reputedly destroyed in the Second World War. (from Dallimore, Arnold A., George Whitefield, 1975).
For their part, St Mary's churchwardens convened an emergency vestry meeting that same Sunday to end what they regarded as a potentially disastrous ruckus. Not mincing matters, they chastised Stonehouse as "the real occasion of the frequent disturbances in this church and churchyard, by his introducing strangers to preach in this church." They then appointed a committee of ten (five selected by Stonehouse, five by the churchwarden) to determine a future course of action. On May 6, after approving the committtee's report, the Vestry made its resolution:
the Rev. Mr. Stonehouse shall absolutely refuse the granting his pulpit to Mr. John Wesley, Mr. Chas. Wesley, and Mr. George Whitefield, and that those gentlemen shall not officiate any more for him in the parish church or churchyard in any part of the duty whatsoever.
Denying the gentlemen not only the church but also the churchyard effectively put a halt on Methodist preaching in Islington. Wesley, apparently not one to hold grudges, recorded in his journal on 13 June, 1739, only a month and a week after the decree: "in the morning I came to London; and after receiving the holy communion at Islington, I had once more an opportunity of seeing my mother." His mother was then living in Islington at the home of her daughter Martha and son-in-law, John Westley Hall. In November of that year, perhaps as an attempted retaliation for his rebuke, Stonehouse attempted to have Hall licensed and appointed curate at St Mary's. Again he was thwarted, as the churchwardens implored the Bishop of London not to license Hall "or any other person that has rendered himself disagreeable by being such a common field preacher." Not surprisingly, Stonehouse resigned from his post in 1740. He ultimately settled near Bristol.
For their parts, the Wesleys and Whitefield went on to preach and codify their Methodist principles. In 1778 John Wesley opened his chapel on City Road, between London and Islington, and moved to an adjacent house the next year. In 1781, at the age of seventy-eight, Wesley, once again on the road, was near Bristol and, upon learning that he was within a mile of his old friend, decided to visit George Stonehouse. After spending an hour, he departed, and later recorded in his diary: "he is all-original still, like no man in the world, either in sentiments or anything about him. But perhaps if I had his great fortune, I might be as great an oddity as he."