Sarah Gwynne Wesley (Charles Wesley's wife)

Sarah Gwynne, the daughter of a Welsh magistrate, married Charles Wesley on April 8, 1749. She was 23; Charles 40. John Wesley officiated at the wedding. Earlier, he had had doubts about the marriage, fearing that his brother would no longer seek happiness primarily from God.¹

Charles' life with Sarah was a happy one, unlike the marriages of most of Charles' siblings. She moved from a mansion to a small house to marry him. They had eight children, five of whom died in infancy. The other three grew to adulthood and survived their parents. The children, like both Charles and Sarah, were known for their musical talent. She lived to the age of 96 years old, and astonished people with her beautiful singing voice at age 80 and perhaps beyond. A Rev. Francis Fortescue wrote in his diary of her, that Mrs. Wesley, "who is upwards of eighty years of age, sung, to our great astonishment, two of Handel's songs most delightfully--'He shall feed His flock,' etc. and 'If God be with us,' etc. A part of the company staid supper, and we did not return till near 2."²

For Further Study

The drawing near the top of most the web pages for Holiness of Heart and Life depicts the Reverend John Wesley (1703-1791) at age 48. All of the black and white drawings have been scanned by Nancy A. Carter from public domain nineteeth century or early twentieth century Methodist history books. Please acknowledge this web site, John Wesley: Holiness of Heart and Life, http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/wesley/, if you reproduce these. Sorry, the graphics are available only in the 72 dpi resolution you see here.

Notes

¹Richard P. Heitzenrater, Wesley and the People Called Methodists (Nashville, Abingdon, 1995), p. 172.