Samuel Wesley in 1688
Chapter 2 examines Wesley’s position while at Oxford and during the Glorious Revolution, when he graduated from Oxford, was ordained, and married. It also considers Wesley’s loyalty to James II and his willingness to switch his allegiance to William and Mary. Wesley was strongly committed to James II and supported him well into the autumn of 1688; he may even have times his marriage in November 1688 to ensure he did so under what he then saw as a legitimate monarch. Nevertheless, in 1689 Wesley swore the oaths to accept William and Mary, and unlike his wife, remained committed to the Protestant succession up to and beyond 1714. The chapter also examines Wesley’s marriage and his early career as a naval chaplain and later as a curate in London, neither of which provided him with sufficient income to support a family. It concludes with consideration of Wesley’s poetic output in the 1690s and especially his poems on the death of Mary II and Archbishop Tillotson.