This second conference paper represents a first tentative exploration of the vexed issue of George Whitefield and the Moravians. It examines an incident in the career of the evangelist George Whitefield, the eighteenth century’s most sensational preacher—the incident of “Andrew the Negro boy” and the Moravian Church. (On his return to England from the American colonies in 1742, Whitefield brought with him a twelve-year old black boy, Andrew, whom he left with the Moravians to bring up and educate until Andrew was twenty-one. “Negro” was the term most often used by Whitefield in speaking of enslaved blacks. In this paper it is employed only within the context of his and his contemporaries’ discourses.)
The story casts light on Whitefield’s own attitude to slavery and on the changing roles of Christian churches in complicity with and opposition to slavery—but also can be read as part of the history of the Moravian Church in Fetter Lane in relation to the African Diaspora—and ultimately to Zinzendorf’s conception of “First Fruits”—that there were a few special individuals in every land who were eagerly waiting for the gospel and would accept it readily. Such was Andrew.
The paper explores Whitefield’s motives in entrusting “Andrew the Negro Boy” to Moravian care, expands on previous accounts, and shows how this relates to other episodes in Whitefield’s relationship with the Moravian Church before the decisive violent break following the publication of his Expostulatory Letter of 1753. In addition to my text presented in Bethlehem PA, I have added comments (Scholia) not explored on that occasion and a biographical listing (Prosopography) of persons mentioned in the text.
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George Whitefield was born on 16 December 1714 at The Bell Inn, Gloucester, the youngest child of Thomas Whitefield, proprietor of the inn, and his wife Elizabeth. In November 1732, Whitefield became a student at Pembroke College, Oxford, and through a fellow student, Charles Wesley, joined the “Holy Club”, a group practising lengthy devotions, and meticulous self-examination, led by Charles’s elder brother John. Whitefield himself took on the leadership of the Oxford Holy Club in March 1736, when the Wesleys departed for Georgia.
George Whitefield’s friendship with the future Moravian leader James Hutton began when they were both in their early twenties. In 1735 Hutton had met the Wesleys, was “awakened” by them, and, being unable (since he was then still a journeyman-apprentice) to accompany them to Georgia, saw them off at Gravesend. Hutton read the journal which John Wesley sent to the Methodist religious societies and collected money for the poor. When Hutton established himself as a bookseller with a shop at the Bible and Sun in Wild Street, London it was only natural for Whitefield to publish through his friend’s shop, and to visit the new Christian fellowship group with premises at Fetter Lane (his own bookshop being too small for the intended meetings) that Hutton had established in 1736.
Whitefield’s earliest surviving letter to Hutton is dated October 15th 1736:
At length I have gotten a little leisure to return d[ea]r Mr Hutton my hearty thanks for his last kind letter particularly for the excellent advice therein contained, w[hi]ch I hope through divine Grace I shall endeavour to follow.This, I think, is the only occasion on which Whitefield writes of taking someone else’s advice. In subsequent letters to Hutton, he hands it out.
Whitefield had been ordained deacon on 20 June 1736 in Gloucester Cathedral by the bishop, Martin Benson. Most of 1737 was devoted to preaching charity sermons for Georgia; he collected £1,000 for English charity schools and £300 for Georgia. In his first publication--his subsequently most widely distributed sermon, The Nature and Necessity of our New Birth in Christ Jesus (published of course by James Hutton)—he castigated fellow clerics for presenting only “the shell and shadow of religion”.
Even when the Fetter Lane Society had taken a decidedly Moravian turn, Whitefield continued to attend meetings and occasionally preached at Fetter Lane before his own departure for America. It was at Fetter Lane that on 1 May 1738 Peter Böhler established a Moravian-style band, Hutton being one of nine founder members.
Whitefield had sailed for Georgia in February 1738. To promote and finance his work, Whitefield had already began publishing journals of his ministry, and seven volumes appeared from 1737 to 1741 with Hutton as publisher. As in England, he aimed attacks at Anglican clergymen, publicly portraying them as God’s persecutors. He told Americans that the bishop of London, Edmund Gibson, knew “no … more of Christianity, than Mahaomet, or an Infidel”. In Charleston, South Carolina, the bishop of London’s commissary, Alexander Garden, determined to put a stop to “the fascinating Gibberish of Young Geo”. When Garden suspended him from the Anglican Ministry, Whitefield published a letter attacking all of South Carolina’s clergy, for which he was arrested and granted bail; to colonial clerics, he became “the Noisie Mr. Whitefield”.
When Whitefield arrived in Georgia in May 1738, he secured the trustees’ approval and energetically solicited funds for an orphanage. His inspiration was the Halle Orphanage in Germany—the powerhouse of German pietism. (Missions both in Europe and abroad were supported by the resources Halle generated.)
He returned to England after four months in Georgia. Bishop Benson ordained Whitefield priest on 14 January 1739, but later wrote to caution against his acting contrary to the purpose of that ordination: to undertake settled service in a Georgia parish. Rejecting any ecclesiastical authority restricting his actions, Whitefield, six weeks after his ordination, declared that “the whole world is now my parish”. (This apparently antedates by a month John Wesley’s similar statement.)
Whitefield’s plan for a Georgia orphanage was central to his preaching, and the basis of his fundraising. On 25 March 1740, he laid the first brick for what he called Bethesda, ten miles from Savannah. But when the Georgia trustees asked Whitefield to submit financial accounts, he replied that he would never feel obliged to do so. One of the Georgia trustees’ objections to his control of Bethesda was that “a wrong Method” was taken with the children who “are often kept praying and crying all the Night”.
Whitefield took an energetic role with children. During the 1738 crossing, he beat a four-year-old boy until he recited the Lord’s Prayer:
Last Night, going between Decks, as I do every Night, to visit the Sick, and examine my People, I asked one of the Women to bid her little Boy, that stood by her, say his Prayers: She answer’d, his elder sister would, but she could not make him. Upon this, I bid the Child kneel down before me, but he would not, till I took hold of his Feet, and forc’d him down. I then bid him say the Lord’s Prayer, being informed by his Mother, he could say it if he would; but he obstinately refused, till at last, after I had given him several Blows, he said his Prayers as well as I could expect.
His preaching made Whitefield the most famous person in America, but he faced serious difficulties upon his return to England in March 1741. He was more than £1,000 in debt for Bethesda. He wrote:
As yet we have no Advantage from our Stock, it being a very dry Season last Summer. So that our Cattle of all Kinds have scarce food to eat. But in a Year or two, We hope, by the divine Blessing, to have a considerable Quantity of Fresh Provisions for our Family.
As for manuring more Land than the hired Servants and great Boys can manage, I think it is impracticable without a few Negroes. It will in no wise answer the Expence.
Zeal for Bethesda led to a fateful course of action. Whitefield published in 1740 a criticism of slaves’ treatment in the southern colonies and occasionally preached to slaves. Nevertheless, as early as 1738, Whitefield had called for an end to General Oglethorpe’s and the Georgia trustees’ prohibition of slavery. Within eleven years, Whitefield himself owned slaves at Bethesda. Whitefield saw himself as a model and well-loved slave-owner, providing his slaves with what was just and equal, knowing that he also had a master in heaven. Of his experience during a period of grave sickness, he reports, “The poor negroes crowded round the windows, and expressed a great concern for me. Their master had acquainted them, I believe, that I was their friend”.
Meanwhile, Whitefield purchased 5,000 acres, in Pennsylvania, ostensibly to establish a school for black slaves (but also as a bolthole for English Methodists if they faced persecution). In a letter to England Whitefield explained further:
Pennsylvania seems to be the best Providence for such an undertaking. The negroes meet there with the best usage, and I believe many of my acquaintance will either give me or let me purchase their young slaves at a very easy rate.
His Journal entry of April 22 [1740] reads:
This day I bought five thousand acres of land on the forks of the Delaware, and ordered a large house to be built thereon, for the instruction of these poor creatures. The land I hear is extremely rich … I took up so much because I intend settling some English friends there, when I come next from England. I have called it Nazareth.
In South Carolina, the Bishop of London’s commissary, Alexander Garden, remained Whitefield’s chief opponent. Garden was opposed to Whitefield’s evangelical fervour, though he too believed that each large plantation should have a black schoolmaster, a slave like those whom he taught, but one trained to read the Bible, to say the catechism by heart, and to use the Book of Common Prayer. Garden hoped to train some slaves, who would then be sent out through the neighbouring parishes to teach the other slaves. In 1740, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel set aside £1,500 so that he might purchase two slaves and open a school. The schoolhouse was erected in 1743 on the glebe land near the parsonage house in Charleston. Spelling books, Psalters, Bibles, and prayer books were sent over, and soon sixty scholars were at work. The “Negroe School House” was operative for twenty-two years, with slaves serving as teachers under the direction of the rector of St. Philip’s, Charleston. Whitefield’s “negro school” at Nazareth was in some sense a riposte to Garden.
It is thus not entirely surprising that when Whitefield returned from a preaching tour of America in March 1742, he brought with him a twelve-year-old slave child, Andrew. The episode is ignored by Whitefield’s biographers, but a brief account is given in Daniel Benham, Memoirs of James Hutton. We find Whitefield united in conference with Spangenburg, Viney, Schlicht, and the English Moravian brethren, apparently on the subject of this black boy, whom he offered to commit to the care of the Brethren to bring up and educate until he was twenty-one. From Paul Peucker’s assiduous research, we learn that Andrew was born 19 February 1730 in Charleston, South Carolina. His father was a carpenter and slave to an Englishman, his mother was baptised.
The Fetter Lane Archives include some brief notes about Andrew:
Mr Whitefield has given A Negro Boy to the Brethren, who is bound to Him till the Boy shall become 21 Years of age, should not some Indenture be? perhaps it is not necessary. Sp[angenberg] will speak to Cennick about this Boy. Whitef[iel]d has left orders with Cennick about Him.Concern for an indenture, that is, a formal written contract, perhaps acknowledging Andrew’s slave status, seems to have been brushed aside. Certainly, nothing of the sort survives nor is mentioned later. Slavery was, it seems, an embarrassing topic some thirty years before Lord Mansfield's judgement in the James Somerset case established that slavery in England was prohibited under common law tradition.
Thus, in June 1742
B[rothe]r Spangenberg got this morning a present for the Br[ethre]n from Mr Whitefield namely; his negro boy whom he has given to the Brn to bring up for the Lord and to dispose of him as they shall find fitand
It would be well if an English Br could go along, to take care of the Negro boy because Br Thiele (who was to take him to Rotterdam) could not talk with him.
Br Bowes goes along with Br Thiele & the Negro-Boy to Herrendyke tomorrow. … Somebody should go to see the Boy Br Cennick offer’d for the Brn perhaps Br Gussenbouer.The reference to Andrew’s physiognomy is striking. The Moravian leader, Zinzendorf, believed that facial expressions reveal the state of our souls and our relationship with Jesus Christ, and in a sermon regarding “The Health of thy Countenance” declared that true Christians should “never be out of countenance”.
There is a great Deal in the Physiognomy tho’ a spiritual Judgement is required in it.
The boy was committed to the care of Br. Thiele, accompanied by Br. Bowes, who embarked wih him for Heerendijk in the Netherlands. Again the Fetter Lane archive includes some brief notes
Thursday June 17. [1742] … the Negro Boy has wrote some Strange Lettersand
Tuesday June 22d [1742] … A Letter from the Negroe-Boy to his Mother at Carolina. Teach, dear Lord, thy [illegible] Mystery &c.and
Thursday July 8. [1742] … Several Letters from Andrew the Negro were read.
This, of course, is firm evidence of Andrew’s literacy. But Andrew it seems was to be educated beyond the role of simple catechist envisaged by Alexander Garden for the pupils of the slave-school in South Carolina. Was it Whitefield’s intention that, his education at Marienborn completed, Andrew would return to as a preacher to the slaves? Or a teacher at that “negro school” in Nazareth? Did the Moravians understand and acquiesce with Whitefield’s intentions?
Another Fetter Lane diary entry notes that
Another Fetter Lane diary entry notes that
Friday Jul 30. 1742 … Andrew Reid the negro boy has wrote a L[ette]r to Ockershausen.
This is the only occasion on which he is granted a surname, presumably that of the plantation-owner in South Carolina. (I have found reference to a “Reid Plantation” in South Carolina in the late eighteenth century but not so far in the first decades.)
And the last of the sequence
And the last of the sequence
Friday Oct: 1st [1742] … Read a Letter from ye Negro Boy to Ockershousen. D[itt]o from ye same to Spangenberg –
Apparently, none of these letters have survived. Though who knows what may yet turn up in some unexpected Moravian archive.
On 3 August 3 1742, Andrew moved from Heerendijk to Marienborn in Saxony, where he was placed in the Kinderanstalt (Children’s House).
But in December 1743, Fetter Lane sources reveal:
On 3 August 3 1742, Andrew moved from Heerendijk to Marienborn in Saxony, where he was placed in the Kinderanstalt (Children’s House).
But in December 1743, Fetter Lane sources reveal:
Mr Whitefield wants to have Andrew the black boy again, he himself going soon to Carolina; and the mother of the boy would be sadly displeased if he should not bring the boy along. He insisted upon the boy’s return from Germany in a very unfriendly manner, he being at present prejudiced against us. It is a great disappointment, he having made a present of the boy to our Church that he should be brought up there ‘till he should be of age, and the boy was not being quite settled, can be quite spoiled.
Then, in January 1744
In the Helpers Conference Br Hutton told us that Mr Whitefield, who has returned to Town, has sent him Word that he has thought better of it & will allow the Negro Boy Andrew to remain longer in Germany.
By the end of March 1744, Andrew was seriously ill. The one-time “Cambridge Methodist”, Francis Okely, then in Marienborn, wrote to James Hutton translating “A Letter from Andrew, the black boy in Marienborn, to Br Saalwächter [literally “hall guardian”] the Governour of the School there.”
[recto] I’ll write you a line or two, how it goes with me in my heart, I feel myself very poor, but I feel too that our Saviour is unspeakably nigh to me. When I think of Salvation I can’t express how it is in my heart. I pray the Sav[iou]r that he would be pleased to take me soon to himself. I often think of John ((i e Peter the Black Boy, that was baptized here last Winter by Br Jno Nitschmann, and went to our Savr a few days after)) and I think the Savr will take me also to himself soon: It makes me very glad. I also beg him to let me be baptized soon, if it is time. My dear Saalwächter, entreet the Savr for me that he may soon take me into the Cong[regatio]n above. I often think how when I come to my Savr I’ll put my hand into the Prints of the Nails, and kiss his feet; and I’ll rejoice with the Angels. I often think of Conrad ((Conrad Frey, who went to our Savr very lately)) I’ll kiss him too. I can’t express how it is in my heart I am quite happy, I am always satisfied and chearful. O may the Savr never leave me a poor sick child. Sung, his Eyes, his Mouth, his Side. No 234. Hymn CL.
Okely continues:
D[ea]r Br Hutton, Br F: Marshall put it into my Mind to translate and send you the Letter above, sc it was read at the Children’s Prayer Day here in Marienborn. I dare say it will not be unacceptable to those Brn that know him in [verso] London.
I’ve quoted Andrew’s letter in full. Even mediated through Okely’s translation and interpellations, here indicated in ((brackets)), I think we can still hear Andrew’s voice.
When there was no hope of recovery, Andrew was baptised by Johannes von Watteville on 7 August 1744 with the name of Johannes. He died the next day and was buried on 9 August in Marienborn while verses written by Zinzendorf were sung: “O Ihr wunden JESU, wo wir drein begraben! Wollt diess schwartze Hüttlein haben.”. A burial hymn in the 1754 English hymnal paraphrases it as “O ye Wounds of Jesus! | Into which we bury; | Take ev’n this frail Corpse quite near ye”, though Zinzendorf, using a curious Pietist metaphor, called Andrew’s remains a little black hut (“diess schwartze Hüttlein”).
In March 1745, Whitefield wrote to James Hutton a short letter with news of the Moravian Brethren in Pennsylvania. He concludes:
When there was no hope of recovery, Andrew was baptised by Johannes von Watteville on 7 August 1744 with the name of Johannes. He died the next day and was buried on 9 August in Marienborn while verses written by Zinzendorf were sung: “O Ihr wunden JESU, wo wir drein begraben! Wollt diess schwartze Hüttlein haben.”. A burial hymn in the 1754 English hymnal paraphrases it as “O ye Wounds of Jesus! | Into which we bury; | Take ev’n this frail Corpse quite near ye”, though Zinzendorf, using a curious Pietist metaphor, called Andrew’s remains a little black hut (“diess schwartze Hüttlein”).
In March 1745, Whitefield wrote to James Hutton a short letter with news of the Moravian Brethren in Pennsylvania. He concludes:
I rejoice that Andrew went home so happy.
This is almost the last we hear of Andrew.
After 1750, the Georgia trustees sanctioned slavery, and Whitefield developed a fulsome defence of the institution, claiming its full scriptural justification. “As for the lawfulness of keeping slaves, I have no doubt”. Over the coming years, he added to his stock of slaves, with preaching tours focused on raising money for that purpose. “Blessed be God for the increase of the negroes.” Whitefield had emerged as perhaps the most energetic, and conspicuous, evangelical defender and practitioner of slavery.
On his death in 1770, Whitefield bequeathed sums to friends and family members totalling nearly £1,500. Questions concerning the source of his personal wealth dogged his memory. Bethesda still bore a debt of £1,235, and soon it lay in ruins. Despite the enormous total of £16,000 expended, only 180 children had at various sporadic times been resident since its founding. He willed everything in Georgia to the countess of Huntingdon, including 4,000 acres of land and fifty slaves. Two years after Whitefield’s death, his first biographer, John Gillies, wrote specifically to counter negative images of his ministry, not least concerning financial affairs. There is no mention of Andrew. Of the numerous subsequent biographies, all of them tarred with the brush of hagiography, only Tyerman, in 1876, in a footnote, even acknowledges Andrew’s existence.
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Scholia
After 1750, the Georgia trustees sanctioned slavery, and Whitefield developed a fulsome defence of the institution, claiming its full scriptural justification. “As for the lawfulness of keeping slaves, I have no doubt”. Over the coming years, he added to his stock of slaves, with preaching tours focused on raising money for that purpose. “Blessed be God for the increase of the negroes.” Whitefield had emerged as perhaps the most energetic, and conspicuous, evangelical defender and practitioner of slavery.
On his death in 1770, Whitefield bequeathed sums to friends and family members totalling nearly £1,500. Questions concerning the source of his personal wealth dogged his memory. Bethesda still bore a debt of £1,235, and soon it lay in ruins. Despite the enormous total of £16,000 expended, only 180 children had at various sporadic times been resident since its founding. He willed everything in Georgia to the countess of Huntingdon, including 4,000 acres of land and fifty slaves. Two years after Whitefield’s death, his first biographer, John Gillies, wrote specifically to counter negative images of his ministry, not least concerning financial affairs. There is no mention of Andrew. Of the numerous subsequent biographies, all of them tarred with the brush of hagiography, only Tyerman, in 1876, in a footnote, even acknowledges Andrew’s existence.
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Johann Valentin Haidt. Erstlingsbild ("The First Fruits"). Evangelische Broedergemeente, Zeist.
Easel Painting, oil on canvas, 1747. 2520 x 3940 mm.
Inscription forming the lower border, from left to right: "Der Mingrel: Thomas Mamucha. Guly von Schamuchie in Persien. Samuel Kajarnak von stra. David. Sam der wilde von Boston. Der Armenier Christian. der [?] Thomas von den Hurons. Gracia.Die Mulattin Cathrin S. Jan mit [?] Rebecca [?] das Zigeuner Mad [?]. Neben dem [?]eyland unter hand. Carmel aus Guinea. Jupiter aus Newyork. Der Bilden-lehrer Johanas. Der Floridaner Francesco. ind. Andreas [?] [?]. A. Maria u. Michelgm. Die Bilwe Hanna von Guinea. Der Caroline Neger Johannes. Der Hottentot Kibbobo. Die Bildin Ruth."
Andrew was not quite forgotten. On 15 March 1747, news reached Herrnhaag that the Mahican Indian, Johannes (formerly Tschoop), the first of his people to be baptised, had died. Upon hearing this news, Zinzendorf counted “eighteen first fruits from all our heathen nations” that had died and were in heaven with Christ. Whereupon the “painting preacher”, Johann Valentin Haidt, began work on a painting that would become one his best-known pieces of art: the First Fruits or Erstlingsbild. This enormous painting depicts Zinzendorf’s vision of a group of converts from many different nations (including Andrew) standing around the Saviour on his heavenly throne. These were “the first fruits” of Moravian missionary work. “They were purchased from among men and offered as first fruits to God and the Lamb” (REVELATIONS 14:4). Haidt could have met Andrew in London in 1742, so it may be a portrait. Andrew’s memory then is preserved by the Moravian church in a few diary entries, a single letter, and a much-copied painting.
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Scholia
Whitefield clearly knows and remains in touch with Andrew’s enslaved mother. My assumption is that she is probably one of his slaves and Whitefield’s sexual partner in Georgia where sexual relations with an enslaved woman would not be regarded as adulterous. A century or more later, Harriet Jacobs spells out what had become now established practice:
Southern women often marry a man knowing that he is the father of many little slaves. They do not trouble themselves about it. They regard such children as property, as marketable as the pigs on the plantation; and it is seldom that they do not make them aware of this by passing them into the slave-trader's hands as soon as possible, and thus getting them out of their sight.
Whitefield had married a young widow, Elizabeth James, at Capel Martin, Caerphilly, on 14 November 1741. Rather than honeymoon, the newlyweds went off on a preaching tour. For Whitefield, fornication with an enslaved woman was much less of a sin than adultery; and much more easily concealed.
In 1743 Elizabeth gave birth to their son John in London. Whitefield was away preaching in Northampton. At John’s baptism at the Moorfields Tabernacle, Whitefield pronounced that John would grow to be a great preacher of the gospel. John, sadly, died in Gloucester aged just 4 months. The Whitefields were to have no further children. The constant travelling took its toll on Elizabeth and she remained in the chapel house in London while Whitefield toured Britain and America. Elizabeth wrote to a friend that she was remaining in London because she had in the previous 16 months suffered four miscarriages. She was to become pregnant yet again, and the pregnancy appears to have reached full term, but the child was stillborn. Elizabeth died on 9 August 1768 after a short illness.
One wonders if Elizabeth knew of Whitefield’s liaison with an enslaved woman, or how she reacted when her husband returned from America accompanied by twelve-year old Andrew. Did Andrew replace the lost son for Whitefield himself? Andrew also was intended to be a preacher of the gospel. Though Whitefield seems to have had no great fondness for children.
William Blake’s mother, Catherine, joined the Moravians at Fetter Lane in the 1750s. There were effectively three categories of worshippers at Fetter Lane. There were those who came regularly to the Preaching Services; these people were known as the “constant hearers”. Then there were the members of the Fetter Lane Society—the fellowship group which actually predated the formal establishment of the Moravian Church in London. Both John and Charles Wesley had been members of the Fetter Lane Society before they left to establish their separate Methodist movement. Members of the Society could also request individual one-to-one spiritual counselling—there’s a note in one of the church diaries of Catherine doing precisely that. It was an intense experience which would often lead to a wish for a closer association. Catherine, Blake’s mother, was allowed full communicating membership in the Moravian church, the “Congregation of the Lamb” in November 1750.
Catherine’s first husband, Thomas Armitage, died in 1751 after which she left the Congregation, and eleven months later married James Blake. They probably remained “constant hearers”. For a year or so she had been part of a Congregation which still vividly remembered Andrew. Later at Lindsey House, the Moravian headquarters in Chelsea, her young son William could have seen Haidt’s painting of the “First Fruits”. Was Andrew, indeed, the “Little Black Boy” of Blake’s Songs? Though the song was written decades later, Andrew’s story fits so well.
Prosopography
Benson, Martin (1689–1752), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; bishop of Gloucester. In a sermon before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in February 1740, he highlighted the damage done to the church in America through the lack of a resident episcopate.
Blake, Catherine (1725?-1792), Moravian sister. Born the daughter of Gervas Wright and his wife Mary, in Walkeringham, Nottinghamshire. Married a hosier Thomas Armitage in London in 1746. Thomas died November 1751. She married another hosier James Blake in 1752 and her son William was born in 1757, the third of the five children of James and Catherine Blake.
Blake, William (1757-1828), OxfordDNB; engraver, artist, and poet. Still under discussion is the extent to which his Songs may have been influenced by the Moravian hymns Blake would have learned from his mother.
Böhler, Peter (1712-1775); superintendent of the Moravian Church in England from 1747 to 1753, bishop of the church from 1748.
Bowes, George (d. 1757); Moravian brother. Accompanied Andrew to the Netherlands. Died 10 January 1757. Buried 17 January 1757 at Sharon, the Moravian burying ground in Chelsea.
Cennick, John (1718–1755), OxfordDNB; lay preacher and Moravian minister of Bohemian descent, served the Methodist movement and the Moravian Church in England and Ireland. By the time of his death at age thirty-six, he had helped establish more than forty churches.
Frey, Conrad (d. 1744); Andrew’s fellow student at the Marienborn school.
Gussenbauer, John Balthasar (1711-1789); Moravian brother, Viney’s brother-in-law.
Garden, Alexander (1685-1756); Anglican clergyman and rector of the most important parish in Charleston from 1724 to 1754. His encounter with Whitefield's evangelicalism in the early I740s led to sometimes vitriolic exchanges between Garden and Whitefield.
Gibson, Edmund (bap. 1669, d. 1748), OxfordDNB; bishop of London.
Haidt, Johann Valentin, otherwise John Valentine Haidt (1700-1780), Moravian artist, painter of portraits and religious subjects. Grew up in Berlin where his father was court goldsmith. Studied at Berlin Academy and travelled widely in Europe. Joined the Moravian Church in London about 1725 (the German-speaking congregation) and in 1754 went to America to join the Moravian community at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
One wonders if Elizabeth knew of Whitefield’s liaison with an enslaved woman, or how she reacted when her husband returned from America accompanied by twelve-year old Andrew. Did Andrew replace the lost son for Whitefield himself? Andrew also was intended to be a preacher of the gospel. Though Whitefield seems to have had no great fondness for children.
William Blake’s mother, Catherine, joined the Moravians at Fetter Lane in the 1750s. There were effectively three categories of worshippers at Fetter Lane. There were those who came regularly to the Preaching Services; these people were known as the “constant hearers”. Then there were the members of the Fetter Lane Society—the fellowship group which actually predated the formal establishment of the Moravian Church in London. Both John and Charles Wesley had been members of the Fetter Lane Society before they left to establish their separate Methodist movement. Members of the Society could also request individual one-to-one spiritual counselling—there’s a note in one of the church diaries of Catherine doing precisely that. It was an intense experience which would often lead to a wish for a closer association. Catherine, Blake’s mother, was allowed full communicating membership in the Moravian church, the “Congregation of the Lamb” in November 1750.
Catherine’s first husband, Thomas Armitage, died in 1751 after which she left the Congregation, and eleven months later married James Blake. They probably remained “constant hearers”. For a year or so she had been part of a Congregation which still vividly remembered Andrew. Later at Lindsey House, the Moravian headquarters in Chelsea, her young son William could have seen Haidt’s painting of the “First Fruits”. Was Andrew, indeed, the “Little Black Boy” of Blake’s Songs? Though the song was written decades later, Andrew’s story fits so well.
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Prosopography
Benson, Martin (1689–1752), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; bishop of Gloucester. In a sermon before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in February 1740, he highlighted the damage done to the church in America through the lack of a resident episcopate.
Blake, Catherine (1725?-1792), Moravian sister. Born the daughter of Gervas Wright and his wife Mary, in Walkeringham, Nottinghamshire. Married a hosier Thomas Armitage in London in 1746. Thomas died November 1751. She married another hosier James Blake in 1752 and her son William was born in 1757, the third of the five children of James and Catherine Blake.
Blake, William (1757-1828), OxfordDNB; engraver, artist, and poet. Still under discussion is the extent to which his Songs may have been influenced by the Moravian hymns Blake would have learned from his mother.
Böhler, Peter (1712-1775); superintendent of the Moravian Church in England from 1747 to 1753, bishop of the church from 1748.
Bowes, George (d. 1757); Moravian brother. Accompanied Andrew to the Netherlands. Died 10 January 1757. Buried 17 January 1757 at Sharon, the Moravian burying ground in Chelsea.
Cennick, John (1718–1755), OxfordDNB; lay preacher and Moravian minister of Bohemian descent, served the Methodist movement and the Moravian Church in England and Ireland. By the time of his death at age thirty-six, he had helped establish more than forty churches.
Frey, Conrad (d. 1744); Andrew’s fellow student at the Marienborn school.
Gussenbauer, John Balthasar (1711-1789); Moravian brother, Viney’s brother-in-law.
Garden, Alexander (1685-1756); Anglican clergyman and rector of the most important parish in Charleston from 1724 to 1754. His encounter with Whitefield's evangelicalism in the early I740s led to sometimes vitriolic exchanges between Garden and Whitefield.
Gibson, Edmund (bap. 1669, d. 1748), OxfordDNB; bishop of London.
Haidt, Johann Valentin, otherwise John Valentine Haidt (1700-1780), Moravian artist, painter of portraits and religious subjects. Grew up in Berlin where his father was court goldsmith. Studied at Berlin Academy and travelled widely in Europe. Joined the Moravian Church in London about 1725 (the German-speaking congregation) and in 1754 went to America to join the Moravian community at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
The Right Hon.ble Selina Countess Dowager of Huntindon Engraved for the Gospel Magazine
Publish’d as the Act directs, by Vallance & Simmons No 120 Cheapside July 1776. Engraving, platemark 145 x 100 mm
Anonymous engraving derived from a painting by John Russell (1745-1806).
Hastings, Selina, countess of Huntingdon (1707–1791), OxfordDNB; founder of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, her own society of preachers, and known for her philanthropic support of the Evangelical Revival. After an initially close relationship with John Wesley, she moved towards the ideas of George Whitefield before his departure for America in 1751. She provided funds for the establishment of sixty-four chapels, missionary work in America, and Trefeca College, the first Methodist theological college. In 1783 the rigidly Calvinistic Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion was formed when several Trevecca students were ordained. Left fifty slaves in George Whitefield’s will, which she subsequently added to. In her final years she was sceptical about further work in England and was concentrating on sending a mission to the South Seas.
James Hutton by and published by John Raphael Smith, and published by John Stockdale, after Richard Cosway; mezzotint, published 22 February 1786; 382 x 277 mm plate size; 404 x 297 mm paper size. National Portrait Gallery.
Hutton, James (1715–1795), OxfordDNB; Moravian minister and bookseller. Publisher and friend of Whitefield.
Marshall, Frederic William (1721–1802), senior civilis (administrator) of the Moravian church. Born in Germany, his given name was Friedrich Wilhelm von Marschall. Frederic Marshall joined the Unity of the Brethren (Moravian church) in 1739, and travelled to Holland and England in the service of the church. Marshall assisted in negotiations with the English Parliament, culminating in the Act of 1749 which encouraged Moravians to settle in the American colonies.
Ockershausen, John (1710-1777); Moravian pastor. We know very little about John Ockershausen's early life. He came to London from Germany, probably in the 1730s, and worked there as a merchant. Like a number of Germans living in London, he was soon drawn to the Fetter Lane Society, eventually becoming the leader of a "band" for some of the younger men.
Oglethorpe, James Edward (1696–1785), OxfordDNB; army officer and founder of the colony of Georgia. Opponent of the introduction of slavery into the colony.
Okely, Francis (1719–1794), OxfordDNB; Moravian minister and translator of mystical writings.
Der Caroline Neger Johannes [i.e. Andrew Reid]. (Detail from Haidt, Erstlingsbild.)
Reid, Andrew (1730-1744); “Andrew the Negro Boy”. On his deathbed baptised as Johannes.
Schlicht, Ludolph Ernst (1714-1769); Moravian minister, musician, and hymn writer.
Spangenberg, August Gottlieb (1704-1792); Moravian bishop. While in England, Spangenberg helped organize the growing Moravian work in London and Yorkshire. He was also involved in a futile attempt to heal the breach between John Wesley and the Moravians.
Thiele (fl. 1742); German-speaking Moravian brother. Accompanied Andrew to the Netherlands.
Tschoop, or Job, later baptised as Johannes (died 1747); the first of the Mahican Indians in Shekomeko, New York, to be baptised.
Viney, Richard (fl. 1742-1748); Moravian brother, later Methodist, staymaker.
Watteville, Johannes von, born Johannes Langguth (1718-1788); Moravian bishop, Zinzendorf’s son-in-law, married to Zinzendorf's daughter Benigna. Wattevillle originated the Christingle tradition in 1747 when he gave each child in his church a lighted candle wrapped in a red ribbon with a prayer that said "Lord Jesus, kindle a flame in these dear children's hearts".
Wesley, Charles (1707–1788), OxfordDNB; Church of England clergyman and a founder of Methodism. Brother of John.
Schlicht, Ludolph Ernst (1714-1769); Moravian minister, musician, and hymn writer.
Spangenberg, August Gottlieb (1704-1792); Moravian bishop. While in England, Spangenberg helped organize the growing Moravian work in London and Yorkshire. He was also involved in a futile attempt to heal the breach between John Wesley and the Moravians.
Thiele (fl. 1742); German-speaking Moravian brother. Accompanied Andrew to the Netherlands.
Tschoop, or Job, later baptised as Johannes (died 1747); the first of the Mahican Indians in Shekomeko, New York, to be baptised.
Viney, Richard (fl. 1742-1748); Moravian brother, later Methodist, staymaker.
Watteville, Johannes von, born Johannes Langguth (1718-1788); Moravian bishop, Zinzendorf’s son-in-law, married to Zinzendorf's daughter Benigna. Wattevillle originated the Christingle tradition in 1747 when he gave each child in his church a lighted candle wrapped in a red ribbon with a prayer that said "Lord Jesus, kindle a flame in these dear children's hearts".
Wesley, Charles (1707–1788), OxfordDNB; Church of England clergyman and a founder of Methodism. Brother of John.
John Wesley, A.M. European Magazine. W.m Bromley Sculp.t. Published by J. Sewell Cornhill April 1; 1971. Engraving. 175 x 115 mm.
Wesley, John (1703–1791), OxfordDNB; Church of England clergyman and the founder of the Methodist movement which, under his organisation, grew from the 'Holy Club' of his Oxford friends into a great religious movement. An indefatigable traveller, preacher and writer, Wesley averaged 8,000 miles a year on horseback and gave 15 sermons a week. Wesley expressed his opposition to slavery in a tract, Thoughts upon slavery, of 1744, denouncing slavery as “that execrable sum of all villainies”. Note that in this publication, the citation of Scripture, which dominates most of Wesley's writings, is intentionally muted because a common Biblical justification was made by Whitefield and others in support of the institution of slavery.
The Reverend Mr. George Whitfield. A.M. Chaplain to the Countess of Huntingdon. [Detail]. N.Hone pinx.t Carington Bowles Excudt. J. Greenwoood Fecit. London Published as the Act diects July 1st, 1769. Printed for carington Bowles, No.69. St .Paul’s Church Yard. Mezzotint. 350 x 250 mm.
Zinzendorf, Nikolaus Ludwig, Graf von (1700-1760); German religious and social reformer, bishop of the Moravian Church, founder of the Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine, Christian mission pioneer and a major figure of 18th-century Protestantism. John Wesley travelled to Germany to meet Zinzendorf and to observe his community at Marienborn.
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Sources and Further Reading
Daniel Benham.—Memoirs of James Hutton : comprising the Annals of his Life and Connection with the United Brethren Daniel Benham.—London : Hamilton, Adams, 1856.
Kenneth Coleman, ed.—The colonial records of the state of Georgia, 30 : Trustees' letter book, 1738–45.—Athens GA : University of Georgia Press, 1985.
A Collection of Hymns of the Children of God in All Ages, From the Beginning till Now. In Two Parts. Designed Chiefly for The Use of The Congregations in Union With The Brethren’s Church … --London Printed; And to be had at all the Brethren’s Chapels, M DCC LIV.
Compiled and edited by John Gambold.
Frederick Dalcho.—An historical account of the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina.—Charleston : published by E. Thaer, 1820.
Arnold Dallimore.—George Whitefield: the life and times of the great evangelist of the eighteenth-century revival.—2 vols.—Edinburgh : Banner of Truth trust, 1970-1980.
Keri Davies.—"‘The Swedishman at Brother Brockmer’s’: Moravians and Swedenborgians in eighteenth-century London” in Stephen McNeilly, ed.—Philosophy, Literature, Mysticism: an anthology of essays on the thought and influence of Emanuel Swedenborg.—London : Swedenborg Society, 2013.
John Gillies.—Memoirs of the life of the Reverend George Whitefield, MA.—London, 1772.
Timothy D. Hall.—Contested Boundaries: Itinerancy and the Reshaping of the Colonial American Religious World.—Durham NC : Duke University Press, 1994.
Leon O. Hynson.—“Wesley's 'Thoughts upon Slavery': a Declaration of Human Rights”.—Methodist History, vol. 33 no 1 (October 1994).
Harriet Jacobs.—Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself. Boston, MA. 1861.
William Howland Kenney, III.—“George Whitefield, Dissenter Priest of the Great Awakening, 1739–1741”.—William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series, 26 (1969).
Roger H. Martin.—"John Ockershausen's Ockbrook Diary: The First Three Years of a Derbyshire Moravian Community 1750-1753”.— Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society , 1996, Vol. 29 (1996),
Moravian Church Archive and Library.—Archives Book (AB), Folder 14: Letters (53) from George Whitefield, 1736-1749.
Moravian Church Archive and Library.—Archives Book (AB), Folder 15: Francis and John Okely (13 items), Letters and copies of letters:.
Moravian Church Archive and Library.—C/36/11/1: Daily Helpers Conference Minute Book, 29 April 1742—24 August 1742.
Moravian Church Archive and Library.—C/36/11/4: Helpers Conference Minute Book, 19 September 1743—11 October 1744.
Moravian Church Archive and Library.—C/36/14/2 : Labourers Conference Minute Book, 10 January 1744—23 January 1751
Moravian Church Archive and Library.—Daniel Benham: Collections respecting James Hutton 1856. MS notes. 2 vols.
Moravian Church Archive and Library.—Pilgrim House Diary (Provincial), 27 July 1743—30 Oct ’48.
Paul Peucker.—“Aus allen Nationen: Nichteuropäer in den deutschen Brüdergemeinen des 18. Jahrhundert”.—Unitas Fratrum (2007).
George C. Rogers, Jr.— Charleston in the age of the Pinckneys.—[New ed.].—Columbia SC : University of South Carolina Press, 1980.
Originally published.—Norman IL : University of Oklahoma Press, 1969.
Boyd Stanley Schlenther.—"Whitefield, George (1714–1770), Calvinistic Methodist leader”.--Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.--Published online: 23 September 2004.
http;//www.oxforddnb.com
W. Stephens.—A journal of the proceedings in Georgia, 2 vols. (1742).—Vol. 2.
Luke Tyerman.—The Life of the Rev. George Whitefield, B.A., of Pembroke College Oxford.—In two volumes.—London : Hodder and Stoughton, MDCCCLXXVI-MDCCCLXXVII.
Richard Viney.—“Richard Viney’s Memoranda [Diary] 1744”, Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, vols XIII-XV (1921-1926), 122-25, 189-95.
Transcribed and introduced by Marmaduke Riggall.
John Wesley.—Thoughts upon slavery.—London : printed by R. Hawes, 1744.
George Whitefield.—An account of money received and disbursed for the orphan-house in Georgia.—London : printed by W. Strahan for T. Cooper, 1741.
George Whitefield.—An expostulatory letter, addressed to Nicholas Lewis, Count Zinzendorff and Lord Advocate of the Unitas Fratrum.—London : Printed for G. Keith, MDCCLIII [1753].
George Whitefield.—George Whitefield's Journals; introduction by Ian Murray.—London : Banner of Truth Trust, 1965.
George Whitefield.— A journal of a voyage from Gibraltar to Georgia.—London : T. Cooper, 1738.
George Whitefield.—Three letters from the Reverend Mr. G. Whitefield: viz. Letter I. To a friend in London, concerning Archbishop Tillotson. Letter II. To the same, on the same subject. Letter III. To the inhabitants of Maryland, Virginia, North and South-Carolina, concerning their Negroes.—Philadelphia : Printed and sold by B. Franklin, at the new printing-office near the market, M.DCC.XL. [1740].
Fred E. Witzig.—Sanctifying Slavery and Politics in South Carolina: The Life of the Reverend Alexander Garden, 1685-1756.—Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2018.
Nikolaus Ludwig, Graf von Zinzendorf.—Hauptschriften [von] Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf Reden in und von Amerika.—G. Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1963.
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My thanks to Ted Ryan and Andrew Tems for their comments on an earlier draft of this blogpost.
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