read in their churches, while Archbishop Sancroft and six of his suffragans protested, and were in consequence imprisoned in the Tower. Thus it came to pass that, in the enforced absence of the Bishop of London, Samuel Wesley received deacon's orders at the hands of Dr. Sprat, Bishop of Rochester. The curacy that gave him a title was worth only twenty-eight pounds a year ; but he did not remain in it more than twelve months, when he was ordained priest by Dr. Compton, Bishop of London, at St. Andrew's, Holborn, on the 24th of February 1689, exactly twelve days after William and Mary had been declared sove- reigns of Great Britain. It is said that he wrote and printed the first pamphlet that appeared in support of the new government. It is possible that this procured for him the appointment of chaplain on board a man-of-war, where he was comparatively rich with seventy pounds a year, and had leisure for a good deal of writing, most of which he employed in the composition of a curious poem on the Life of Christ.
He was most likely anxious to be in London, for he soon resigned the chaplaincy, and became again a curate in the metropolis, with an income of thirty pounds, which he doubled by his pen. Money was worth much more then than now, yet it was hardly prudent to marry on so small a pittance; but lovers have so much faith in one another, that he and Susanna Annesley seem to have had no misgivings but plighted their troth in the spring of 1689. It is not known in what church they were married, nor who married them, but it is believed that the bride's new home was in apartments near Holborn.
