Page:Susanna Wesley (Clarke 1886).djvu/19

Rh Act of Uniformity was passed, he refused to subscribe to it, and, like Howe and Baxter, and two thousand of the best and most prominent clergy of the time, was ejected on St. Bartholomew's Day. The Earl of Anglesey strove hard to persuade his kinsman to conform, and promised him preferment; but it was impossible to move him, and he frequently preached in private, though ten years elapsed before the Declaration of Indulgence made it safe for him to get the Meeting House in Little St. Helen's licensed, where he officiated to a large and affectionate congregation till his death. He was a remarkably handsome man, tall and dignified, and of a very robust constitution, and several of his children resembled him in personal beauty. Comparison of his portraits with those of living types, show that his aquiline nose, short upper lip, wavy brown hair, and peculiarly strong and durable sight, have been largely transmitted to his descendants. Few of them, however, have been tall, although the majority have been strong and hardy.

He was devotedly fond of his wife, and their family increased annually and even oftener. There were two boys, Samuel who died in India, and Benjamin who was executor to his father's will, but most of the children were girls. Judith was a very handsome and strong-minded woman, whose portrait was painted by Sir Peter Lely; Anne was a wit as well as a beauty, and married a rich man; Elizabeth, who married Dunton, the eccentric bookseller, was very pretty, sweet-natured, and perhaps as near perfection as any mortal can be. There was also a Sarah and three others, of whom all we know is that they grew up to womanhood and married. Susanna was slim and very pretty, and retained her good looks and symmetry