Copy of Letter

From William Seward to his 'cousin and brother in Christ' [William Seward]. He rejoices that his cousin has received Christ’s minister into his house and heard his glad tidings of salvation. One should never be ashamed of the gospel or the Lord’s servants. Spiritual matters are further discussed. Reference is made to his cousin’s wife.

'Mr Hall of Salisbury is brother to Mr [Westley] Hall [see note below] the clergyman who is with us, and we are to visit him if not lay at his house in Salisbury'.

Note

• Westley Hall (1711-1776) was the son of Thomas Hall, gentleman of Salisbury. He was educated at Lincoln College Oxford from 1731 where he was a member of the Holy Club. Hall proposed marriage to John Wesley’s sister Keziah despite being secretly engaged to her sister Martha. Against her parents’ approval, Martha married Hall. Hall was ordained into the Anglican ministry and after spending some time as a curate in Gloucestershire, moved to Salisbury where he established a Methodist society. Despite this involvement with the evangelical revival, Hall quickly began to follow his own highly unstable path. He started to espouse polygamy and deserted Martha to move to the West Indies with a mistress. Hall appears to have repented in later life and John Wesley conducted his funeral service in 1776. Source: A Dictionary of Methodism in Britain and Ireland, edited by John Vickers (2000), Dictionary of Evangelical Biography 1739-1860, edited by Donald M. Lewis (1995) and Joseph Foster, Alumni Oxonienses (1891)