pp xvi 233 1995 hardback ISBN 0-7083-1280-2
A new perspective on a woman who succeeded in a `man's world' and who, until now, has been badly underestimated.
`I have read your book and am greatly impressed by the thoroughness and indefatigability of your research and documentation and by the skill in organization, which succeeds in presenting a remarkable personality in the context of actual fact and events.' (Dr Geoffrey Nuttall, FBA)
'In this short but compact book he gives us much new information and provides a more rounded picture of her remarkable career than any previous biographer . . . this valuable study fits a missing piece into the jigsaw of evangelical historiography.' (English Historical Review)
'Edwin Welch has obviously trawled through the available sources with an admirable thoroughness and attention to detail. The result is a lucid and comprehensive account of both the public and private life of the Countess of Huntingdon.' (British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies)
' . . . will amply reward the careful reader, who will return to this excellent book again and again.' (Ecclesiastical History)
Selina, Countess Dowager of Huntingdon, was a talented eighteenth-century woman. Brought up in Ireland in poor circumstances, she returned to England following the separation of her parents. There in 1728 she met and married the Earl of Huntingdon + the one great love of her life. He died when she was only 39 leaving her with a young family and responsibility for the Hastings estates. Even after her eldest son came of age she continued this responsibility while he lived abroad.
Although converted to Methodism in 1739 and a friend to all the early preachers, she only began to take an active part in the movement when she was 60. In 1768 she founded a college at Trefeca, Powys, to train evangelical ministers for any denomination. In 1770 she inherited from George Whitefield responsibility for Bethesda College in Georgia. Over the next twenty years she built up a `Connexion' of chapels throughout England and Wales whose congregations looked to her for ministers and occasional financial support. In 1782 she seceded from the Church of England and the Connexion became a separate denomination. Nine years later she died, concerned with her students, ministers and congregations to the end.
From letters and papers scattered throughout the western world Dr Welch has pieced together the story of this remarkable woman. For the first time he tells of the legal problems of her own family, her passion for building, and her many friendships with Methodists, Moravians, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Baptists and Unitarians.
Author: Hon. Archivist, Cheshunt College Foundation, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Prior to retirement he was Territorial Archivist/Records Manager, Northwest Territories, Canada.