Selina, Countess of Huntington

Selina, Countess of Huntington

Selina Shirley, the daughter of Earl Ferrers, was born in 1707. When she was twenty-one she married the Earl of Huntingdon. She joined the Methodists in 1739 and nine years later made George Whitefield, her chaplain. Whitefield's followers now became known as the the Countess of Huntingdon's Connection.

In 1768 she established a college in Trevecca in Brecknockshire where her ministers were educated. She also financed the building of 64 chapels in England and Wales. Selina, Countess of Huntington, died in 1791.

Primary Sources

(1) Phillis Wheatley, On the Death of George Whitefield (1770)

Hail, happy saint! on thine immortal throne,

Possest of glory, life, and bliss unknown;

We hear no more the music of thy tongue;

Thy wonted auditories cease to throng.

Thy sermons in unequalled accents flowed,

And ev'ry bosom with devotion glowed;

Thou didst, in strains of eloquence refined,

Inflame the heart, and captivate the mind.

Unhappy, we the setting sun deplore,

So glorious once, but ah! it shines no more.

Behold the prophet in his towering flight!

He leaves the earth for heaven's unmeasured height,

And worlds unknown receive him from our sight.

There Whitefield wings with rapid course his way,

And sails to Zion through vast seas of day.

Thy prayers, great saint, and thine incessant cries,

Have pierced the bosom of they native skies.

Thou, moon, hast seen, and all the stars of light,

How he has wrestled with his God by night.

He prayed that grace in ev'ry heart might dwell;

He longed to see America excel;

He charged its youth that ev'ry grace divine

Should with full lustre in their conduct shine.

That Saviour, which his soul did first receive,

The greatest gift that ev'n a God can give,

He freely offered to the num'rous throng,

That on his lips with list'ning pleasure hung.

"Take him, ye wretched, for your only good,

"Take him, ye starving sinners, for your food;

"Ye thirsty, come to this life-giving stream,

"Ye preachers, take him for your joyful theme;

"Take him, my dear Americans, he said,

"Be your complaints on his kind bosom laid:

"Take him, ye Africans, he longs for you;

"Impartial Saviour is his title due:

"Washed in the fountain of redeeming blood,

"You shall be sons, and kings, and priests to God."

Great Countess, we Americans revere

Thy name, and mingle in thy grief sincere;

New England deeply feels, the orphans mourn,

Their more than father will no more return.

But though arrested by the hand of death,

Whitefield no more exerts his lab'ring breath,

Yet let us view him in the eternal skies,

Let ev'ry heart to this bright vision rise;

While the tomb, safe, retains its sacred trust,

Till life divine re-animates the dust.