“My Dear Sammy”: Letter to an Unspiritual Nephew

Abstract

A letter of 1789 kept in the Sugden Heritage Collection of Queen's College Library, Melbourne, reveals the pathos of the spiritual search of the musically brilliant, mentally unstable and Roman Catholic nephew of the Revd John Wesley, the tercentenary of whose birth falls this year. This short essay explores the context in both John and Samuel's lives of the exchange, and builds on the ecumenical and pastoral fact that John, the founder of Methodism, recommends three Catholic authors for his nephew to meditate on. It then compares this personal advice with his public plea in A Letter to a Roman Catholic, written from Dublin forty years earlier.