59-569: Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon ( née Shirley ; 24 August 1707 – 17 June 1791) was an English Methodist leader who played a prominent part in the religious revival of the 18th century and the Methodist movement in England and Wales. She founded an evangelical branch in England and Sierra Leone , known as the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion . She helped finance and guide early Methodism and
118-679: A city. Westminster is often used as a metonym to refer to the Parliament of the United Kingdom , which sits in the Palace of Westminster . The City and Liberty of Westminster and other historical Westminster administrative units (except the broader modern City of Westminster , a London Borough created in 1965) extended from the River Thames to the old Roman road from the City to western England, which
177-507: A community of Benedictine monks on the site. Between 1042 and 1052, King Edward the Confessor began rebuilding St Peter's Abbey to provide himself with a royal burial church. It was the first church in England built in the Romanesque style. The building was completed around 1060 and was consecrated on 28 December 1065, only a week before Edward's death on 5 January 1066. A week later, he
236-507: A fisherman himself, coming to the island to consecrate the newly built church, which later developed into Westminster Abbey . He rewarded Edric with a bountiful catch when he next dropped his nets. Edric was instructed to present the king and St. Mellitus, Bishop of London , with a salmon and various proofs that the consecration had already occurred. Every year on 29 June, St Peter's Day, the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers presents
295-540: A ministers' training college at Trefeca (Trevecca) near Talgarth , in Mid Wales , not far from Brecon . George Whitefield preached at the opening ceremony. The college moved to Hertfordshire in 1792, and was renamed Cheshunt College . It moved to Cambridge in 1906. Cheshunt College, Cambridge merged with Westminster College, Cambridge , the training college of the Presbyterian Church of England (and after 1972, of
354-576: A right to employ as many chaplains as she pleased. In her chapel at Bath (now owned by the Bath Preservation Trust and housing the Building of Bath Collection which is open to the public), there was a curtained recess dubbed " Nicodemus ' Corner" where bishops sat incognito to hear services. Following the expulsion of six Methodist students from St Edmund Hall , Oxford in 1768 the Countess founded
413-462: A small number in London including founding one adjacent to her London home at Spa Fields , Clerkenwell / Finsbury (which resulted in a case being brought before the ecclesiastical courts by the vicar of the parish church of St James ). She partly funded the independent Surrey Chapel, Southwark of Rowland Hill . She appointed ministers to officiate in them, under the impression that as a peeress she had
472-712: A tour of England to raise funds for Indian missions in the colonies. She became a slave owner herself in 1770 when she inherited Whitefield's overseas estates in Georgia and South Carolina , including the Bethesda Home for Boys . On Whitefield's advice, she bought additional slaves for the orphanage's benefit. The Countess promoted the writings and freedom of formerly enslaved Africans who espoused religious views compatible with her own. For instance, she supported publication of memoirs, or slave narratives , by Ukawsaw Gronniosaw and Olaudah Equiano . She also used her influence in
531-557: 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, the 64 chapels and the college were bequeathed to four trustees. Amongst them were Dr Ford, as well as Lady Ann, who was requested to occupy and reside in Lady Huntingdon's house adjoining Spa Fields Chapel, and carry on all needful correspondence (which
590-508: Is a typical Central London property distinction within the area which is very acute, epitomised by grandiose 21st-century developments, architectural high-point listed buildings and nearby social housing (mostly non- council housing ) buildings of the Peabody Trust founded by philanthropist George Peabody . Given the focus on Westminster in English and British public life over centuries,
649-583: Is also remembered for her adversarial relationships with other Methodists. Selina Shirley was born in August 1707 at Astwell Castle , Northamptonshire , second daughter of Washington Shirley, 2nd Earl Ferrers , and Mary Levinge, daughter of Sir Richard Levinge, 1st Baronet . The family moved to Staunton Harold Hall , in Leicestershire when she was 17 and in 1728, she married Theophilus Hastings, 9th Earl of Huntingdon , who lived at nearby Donington Hall . This
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#1732854990131708-539: Is now locally called Oxford Street . {{{annotations}}} Thorney Island lay between the arms of the former River Tyburn at its confluence with the Thames, while the western boundary with Chelsea was formed by the similarly lost River Westbourne . The line of the river still forms (with very slight revisions) the boundaries of the modern borough with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea . Further north, away from
767-503: Is the name given to a person upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname , the given name , or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth register may by that fact alone become the person's legal name . The assumption in the Western world is often that the name from birth (or perhaps from baptism or brit milah ) will persist to adulthood in
826-461: Is the masculine form. The term née , having feminine grammatical gender , can be used to denote a woman's surname at birth that has been replaced or changed. In most English-speaking cultures, it is specifically applied to a woman's maiden name after her surname has changed due to marriage. The term né can be used to denote a man's surname at birth that has subsequently been replaced or changed. The diacritic mark (the acute accent ) over
885-530: The Black Loyalists . Until her death in London, Lady Huntingdon exercised an active, and even autocratic, superintendence over her chapels and chaplains. Alice Membury, appointed schoolmistress in Melbourne, Derbyshire by Lady Elizabeth Hastings, was ejected by the Countess for 'not turning Methodist'. Selina successfully petitioned George III about the gaiety of Archbishop Cornwallis' establishment, and made
944-687: The Church of England , with which most Methodists were still connected. That year the consistorial court prohibited her chaplains from preaching in the Pantheon in Spa Fields, Clerkenwell, which had been rented by the Countess. To evade the injunction, she was compelled to take shelter under the Toleration Act . This placed her among classified dissenters . Such prominent members as William Romaine and Henry Venn did not want to be classified in that status, and left
1003-401: The City and Liberty of Westminster , Middlesex . The exceptions to this were St Clement Danes , St Mary le Strand and possibly some other small areas. The ancient parish was St Margaret ; after 1727 this became the civil parish of 'St Margaret and St John', the latter a new church required for the increasing population. The area around Westminster Abbey formed the extra-parochial Close of
1062-903: The Colony of Georgia . Lady Huntingdon Lane at the Givens Estates in Asheville, North Carolina , a retirement community affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Lady Huntingdon Road on the grounds of the United Methodist Assembly, Lake Junaluska, NC, located near the World Methodist Center. Huntingdon : County seat of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania (founded September 20, 1787) are both named for her. By her marriage to Theophilus Hastings, 9th Earl of Huntingdon, she had seven children. Of those, three died in childhood and
1121-634: The English Reformation there was also an Eastminster , near the Tower of London , in the East End of London ). The abbey's origins date from between the 7th and 10th centuries, but it rose to national prominence when rebuilt by Edward the Confessor in the 11th century. Westminster has been the home of England's government since about 1200, and from 1707 the Government of the United Kingdom . In 1539, it became
1180-458: The Free Church of England 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 , Hertfordshire where it remained as Cheshunt College , until 1905, when its functions were transferred to Cambridge University. The college was noted for the number of men it sent to foreign missions. In 1795, Spa Fields Chapel
1239-602: The Georgian period became connected through urban ribbon development with the City along the Strand. Henry VIII 's Reformation in the early 16th century abolished the abbey and established a cathedral – thus the parish ranked as a "City", although it was only a fraction of the size of the City of London and the Borough of Southwark at that time. Indeed, the cathedral and diocesan status of
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#17328549901311298-467: The Palace of Westminster , Buckingham Palace , Westminster Abbey , Westminster Cathedral , Trafalgar Square and much of the West End cultural centre including the entertainment precinct of West End Theatre . The name ( Old English : Westmynstre ) originated from the informal description of the abbey church and royal peculiar of St Peter's (Westminster Abbey), west of the City of London (until
1357-465: The Royal Courts of Justice in the late-19th century. The settlement grew up around the palace and abbey, as a service area for them. The parish church, St Margaret's Westminster served the wider community of the parish; the servants of the palace and abbey as well as the rural population and those associated with the high status homes developing on the road from the city. The area became larger and in
1416-456: The e is considered significant to its spelling, and ultimately its meaning, but is sometimes omitted. According to Oxford University 's Dictionary of Modern English Usage , the terms are typically placed after the current surname (e.g., " Margaret Thatcher , née Roberts" or " Bill Clinton , né Blythe"). Since they are terms adopted into English (from French), they do not have to be italicized , but they often are. In Polish tradition ,
1475-459: The natural ford which is thought to have carried Watling Street over the Thames in the vicinity. The wider district became known as Westminster in reference to the church. The legendary origin is that in the early 7th century, a local fisherman named Edric (or Aldrich) ferried a stranger in tattered foreign clothing over the Thames to Thorney Island . It was a miraculous appearance of St Peter ,
1534-554: The Abbey with a salmon in memory of this event. A charter of 785, possibly a forgery, grants land to the needy people of God in Thorney, in the dreadful spot which is called Westminster . The text suggests a pre-existing monastic community who chose to live in a very challenging location. The recorded origins of the Abbey (rather than a less important religious site) date to the 960s or early 970s, when Saint Dunstan and King Edgar installed
1593-493: The Anglican clergy from whom she had preferred not to separate, she founded the " Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion ", a Calvinistic movement within the Methodist church. In the earlier part of her life Isaac Watts , Mary, Lady Abney , Philip Doddridge , and Augustus Montague Toplady were among her friends. Lady Anne Erskine (eldest daughter of the 10th Earl of Buchan ), was her closest friend and companion for many years in
1652-543: The Collegiate Church of St Peter . Like many large parishes, Westminster was divided into smaller units called Hamlets (meaning a territorial sub-division, rather than a small village). These would later become independent daughter parishes. Until 1900 the local authority was the combined vestry of St Margaret and St John (also known as the Westminster District Board of Works from 1855 to 1887), which
1711-845: The Connexion. After the Patriot victory in the American War of Independence , the Crown fulfilled promises to enslaved Africans and African Americans who had fled their American masters to join the British. The British evacuated thousands of former slaves from the colonies, who became known as Black Loyalists . About 3,000 were resettled in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick , where they were to be given land and supplies. The Countess sent missionaries to these colonies, including John Marrant and William Furmage, to attend to
1770-731: The Foundling Hospital 'one of the most fashionable charities of the day.' Selina would later provide the Coram with 'financial support for fees, stamp duties, vellum, seals and others expenses [sic] connected with the presentation of the Foundling Hospital Charter for the King's signature.' The petition was presented to King George II in 1735. In 1739, Lady Huntington joined the first Methodist society in Fetter Lane , London. Sometime after
1829-572: The Palace of Westminster and in Government ministries. The area has a substantial residential population. By the 20th century Westminster saw rising numbers of residential apartments with wealthy inhabitants. Hotels, large Victorian homes and barracks exist near to Buckingham Palace . Westminster hosts the High Commissions of many Commonwealth countries: Within the area is Westminster School ,
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1888-562: The United Kingdom and for those other nations, particularly in the Commonwealth of Nations and for other parts of the former British Empire that adopted it. The term "Westminster Village", sometimes used in the context of British politics, does not refer to a geographical area at all; employed especially in the phrase "Westminster Village gossip", it denotes a supposedly close social circle of members of parliament, political journalists, so-called spin-doctors and others connected to events in
1947-629: The United Reformed Church), in 1967. In 1842, the Presbyterian Church of Wales opened a college at Trefeca which is approximately a quarter of a mile south of the site of the Countess's college (which is now a farmhouse). The Countess had an interest in the Thirteen Colonies , and issues related to Native Americans and enslaved Africans there. During the mid-1760s, she met and befriended Mohegan preacher Samson Occom , then on
2006-508: The church lasted only from 1539 to 1556, but the "city" status remained for a mere parish within Middlesex. As such it is first known to have had two Members of Parliament in 1545 as a new Parliamentary Borough , centuries after the City of London and Southwark were enfranchised. The growing Elizabethan city had a High Constable, Bailiff, Town Clerk, and a keeper of the ponds. Charles Booth 's poverty map showing Westminster in 1889 recorded
2065-644: The day. On 21 April 1730, she became one of the 21 aristocratic women whose support Thomas Coram would enlist in his efforts to establish the Foundling Hospital . Securing the support of notably pious women such as Lady Huntingdon as signatories to the Ladies' Petition for the Establishment of the Foundling Hospital lent his endeavour not only respectability but cachet; many of the women were lending their signature where their husbands had previously refused, making
2124-830: The death date of a fourth is unknown. Her longest surviving children were: On the Countess of Huntingdon and the Welsh Methodists, see E. Wyn James, 'Blessèd Jubil!’: Slavery, Mission and the Millennial Dawn in the Work of William Williams of Pantycelyn', in Cultures of Radicalism in Britain and Ireland , ed. John Kirk, Michael Brown & Andrew Noble, 'Poetry and Song in the Age of Revolution', vol. 3 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2013), 95-112. Birth name#Maiden and married names A birth name
2183-590: The death of her husband in 1746, she threw in her lot with John Wesley and George Whitefield in the work of the great revival. According to Schlenther, it was Wesley who first attracted her to Methodism, noting a visit to his chapel in Donnington (Wood) in East Shropshire, in which a rare exception to egalitarian principles was made and she was offered a private pew. Whitefield became her personal chaplain, and, with his assistance, following problems put in her path by
2242-555: The full range of income- and capital-brackets living in adjacent streets within the area; its central western area had become (by 1850) (the) Devil's Acre in the southern flood-channel ravine of the River Tyburn , yet Victoria Street and other small streets and squares had the highest colouring of social class in London: yellow/gold. Westminster has shed the abject poverty with the clearance of this slum and with drainage improvement, but there
2301-455: The latter part of Lady Huntingdon's life. In 1748, the Countess gave Whitefield a scarf as her chaplain, and in that capacity, he preached in one of her London houses, in Park Street, Westminster , to audiences that included Chesterfield , Walpole and Bolingbroke . She held large dinner parties at which Whitefield preached to the gathered dignitaries after they had eaten. Moved to further
2360-531: The local government of Westminster was further reformed in 1900, when the court of burgesses and the parish vestries were abolished and replaced by the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster . The borough was given city status at the same time, allowing it to be known as the City of Westminster and its council as Westminster City Council . The City and Liberty of Westminster and the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster were very similar in extent, covering
2419-592: The monastic dormitory, an extension of the south transept, survive in the Norman Undercroft of the Great School, including a door said to come from the previous Saxon abbey. Increased endowments supported a community that increased from a dozen monks in Dunstan's original foundation, up to a maximum of about eighty monks. Most of the parishes of Westminster originated as daughter parishes of St Margaret's parish , in
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2478-531: The name "Westminster" is casually used as a metonym for the UK Parliament and for the political community of the United Kingdom generally. (The civil service is similarly referred to using the name of the northern sub-neighbourhood which it inhabits, " Whitehall ".) "Westminster" is consequently also used in reference to the Westminster system , the parliamentary model of democratic government that has evolved in
2537-472: The neighbouring boroughs of Paddington and Marylebone in 1965 to form a larger modern borough. These neighbouring areas (except for a small area of Paddington in part of Kensington Gardens), lie north of Oxford Street and its westward continuation, Bayswater Road. The district's open spaces include: The development of the area began with the establishment of Westminster Abbey on a site then called Thorney Island . The site may have been chosen because of
2596-405: The normal course of affairs—either throughout life or until marriage. Some reasons for changes of a person's name include middle names , diminutive forms, changes relating to parental status (due to one's parents' divorce or adoption by different parents), and gender transition . The French and English-adopted née is the feminine past participle of naître , which means "to be born". Né
2655-423: The palace housed the developing Parliament and England's law courts . Thus, London developed two focal points: the City of London (financial/economic) and Westminster (political and cultural). The monarchs moved their principal residence to the Palace of Whitehall (1530–1698), then to St James's Palace in 1698, and eventually to Buckingham Palace and other palaces after 1762. The main law courts moved to
2714-536: The parts of the wider modern City of Westminster south of the Oxford Street , and its continuations Hyde Park Place. The exception is that part of Kensington Gardens , south of that road, are part of Paddington . Westminster merged with St Marylebone and Paddington in 1965, but the combined area was allowed to keep the title City of Westminster . For a list of street name etymologies for Westminster see Street names of Westminster The former Thorney Island ,
2773-570: The religious revival in a Calvinistic manner compatible with Whitefield's work, she was responsible for founding 64 chapels and contributed to the funding of others, insisting they should all subscribe to the doctrines of the Church of England and use only the Book of Common Prayer . Amongst these were chapels at Brighton (1761), Bath (1765), Worcester (c. 1766), Tunbridge Wells (1769), several in Wales, and
2832-470: The river mouth, Westminster included land on both sides of the Westbourne, notably Knightsbridge (including the parts of Hyde Park west of the Serpentine lake (originally formed by damming the river) and most of Kensington Gardens). Westminster includes the sub-districts of Soho , St James , Mayfair , Covent Garden , Pimlico , Victoria , Belgravia and Knightsbridge (shared with neighbouring Kensington ). The former City of Westminster merged with
2891-435: The site of Westminster Abbey , formed the historic core of Westminster. The abbey became the traditional venue of the coronations of the kings and queens of England from that of Harold Godwinson (1066) onwards. From about 1200 the Palace of Westminster , near the abbey, became the principal royal residence, a transition marked by the transfer of royal treasury and financial records to Westminster from Winchester . Later
2950-406: The term z domu (literally meaning "of the house", de domo in Latin ) may be used, with rare exceptions, meaning the same as née . Westminster Westminster is a cathedral city and the main settlement of the London Borough of the City of Westminster in Central London , England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including
3009-459: The world of the arts to secure publication for Phillis Wheatley 's 1773 volume of poems, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Phillis Wheatley, Negro Servant to Mr. John Wheatley, of Boston, in New England , which was dedicated to the Countess. Because the Countess was ill when Wheatley visited London, the two women never met. Several pieces of their correspondence are extant. Until 1779, Lady Huntingdon and her chaplains were members of
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#17328549901313068-430: Was arranged by his elder half-sister, Lady Elizabeth Hastings , a well-known religious philanthropist and supporter of women's education. She gave birth to seven children in the first ten years of the marriage, four of whom died young; her husband died in 1746, while she allegedly suffered from poor health. The family were interested in politics, religion and the arts, and commissioned portraits from fashionable artists of
3127-407: Was attempted until 90 years after her death. Obituaries and tributes were 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
3186-427: Was based at Westminster Town Hall in Caxton Street from 1883. The Liberty of Westminster, governed by the Westminster Court of Burgesses , also included St Martin in the Fields and several other parishes and places . Westminster had its own quarter sessions , but the Middlesex sessions also had jurisdiction. Under local government reforms in 1889, the area fell within the newly created County of London , and
3245-408: Was buried in the church; and, nine years later, his wife Edith was buried alongside him. His successor, Harold II , was probably crowned in the abbey, although the first documented coronation is that of William the Conqueror later the same year. The only extant depiction of Edward's abbey, together with the adjacent Palace of Westminster , is in the Bayeux Tapestry . Some of the lower parts of
3304-409: Was clearly a pivotal figure in the Evangelical Revival. Huntingdon College , in Montgomery, Alabama , is a coeducation liberal arts college named after the Countess of Huntingdon to honour her contributions to Methodism. Huntingdon Street in Savannah, Georgia , is likewise named after her in recognition of her association with Whitefield and John and Charles Wesley in their apostolic works in
3363-425: Was immense). She did this dutifully until her own death in 1804 and burial at Bunhill Fields . The principal trustee was the Reverend Thomas Haweis , who presided at the Convocation of the Connexion, comprising about 120 chapels. As rector of the Church of England parish at Aldwincle until his death in 1820, he ensured the Connexion kept as close to the Church of England as was possible; many chapels became part of
3422-399: Was the first principal of Trevecca College, Wales , established in 1768 to train Methodist ministers. With the construction of 64 chapels in England and Wales, plus mission work in colonial America, she is estimated to have spent over £100,000 on these activities, a huge sum when a family of four could live on £31 per year. A regular correspondent of George Whitefield and John Wesley , she
3481-560: Was used by the founders of the non-denominational Missionary Society , which became the London Missionary Society , for preachers contributing to this, its founding meeting. After her death, much of her movement merged with the Congregationalist Church , who came to predominate in the London Missionary Society, and more joined the Free Church of England in 1863, although in 2022 there were still 22 Connexion congregations functioning in England, with others in Sierra Leone. In her will, she requested no biography of her should be written and none
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