John Westlock

“ WESTALL, WILLIAM [BURY] (1834–1903) , novelist and journalist, born on 7 Feb. 1834 at White Ash, near Blackburn, in Lancashire, was eldest son of John Westall, a cotton spinner of White Ash, by his wife Ann, daughter of James Bury Entwistle. Richard Westall the painter [q. v.] belonged to the same stock. After being educated at the Liverpool high school, Westall engaged in his father's cotton-spinning business. But about 1870 he retired, lived much abroad, and devoted himself to journalism. ”

“ John took advantage of the break to head off what he had reason to fear might turn into a lengthy digression from the matter in hand by saying, "I beg pardon, but how does it happen that Mrs. Cullom is in such circumstances? Has the family all died out?"
"Wa'al," said David, "they're most on 'em dead, all on 'em, in fact, except the widdo's son Charley, but as fur 's the family 's concerned, it more 'n died out—it gin out! 'D ye ever hear of Jim Wheton's calf? Wa'al, Jim brought three or four veals into town one spring to sell. Dick Larrabee used to peddle meat them days. ”

“ WESLEY (FAMILY) . The Wesley family sprang from Welswe, near Wells in Somerset. Their pedigree has been traced back to Guy, whom Athelstan made a thane about 938. One branch of the family settled in Ireland. Sir Herbert Westley of Westleigh, Devon, married Elizabeth Wellesley of Dangan in Ireland. Their third son, Bartholomew, studied both medicine and theology at Oxford, and, in 1619, married the daughter of Sir Henry CoUey of Kildare. In 1660 he held the rectories of Catherston and Charmouth in Dorset valued at £35, 10s. per annum. He was ejected in 1662 and gained his living as a doctor. ”

“ Hullo, John! what you got there? Wa'al, you air the stuff! Slips, blanket-shawl, petticut, stockin's—wa'al, you an' Polly ben puttin' your heads together, I guess. What's that? Whisky! Wa'al, scat my ——! I didn't s'pose wild hosses would have drawed it out o' Polly to let on the' was any in the house, much less to fetch it out. Jest the thing! Oh, yes ye are, Mis' Cullom—jest a mouthful with water," taking the glass from John, "jest a spoonful to git your blood a-goin', an' then Mr. [Pg 166] Lenox an' me 'll go into the front room while you make yourself comf'table." ”

“ I see you are still in the Careys' office, but from what you told me last summer I conclude that you are there because you have not found anything more satisfactory."
"That is the case, sir," John replied. "I can't be idle, but I don't see how I can keep on as I am going now, and I have been trying for months to find something by which I can earn a living. ”

“ He was thrice married, and by his last wife, Ann, daughter of Sir Richard Molyneux, of Sefton and Larbrick, and widow of Thomas Dalton, of Thurnham, had issue—John, Thomas, William, Ellen, and Mary. John Westby succeeded his father in 1591, and dying unmarried in 1604, was in his turn succeeded by his brother, Thomas Westby, who was twice married, and purchased the estate of Whitehall, where the children of his second union established themselves. ”

“ He rang the bell. "Have you heard my father this morning?" he said to Jeffrey, remembering for the first time that he himself had not.
"No, sir," said the man. "He most generally coughs a little in the morning, but I don't think I heard him this morning, sir."
"Go up and see why he doesn't come down," said John, and a moment later he followed the servant upstairs, to find him standing at the chamber door with a frightened face.
"He must be very sound asleep, sir," said Jeffrey. "He hasn't answered to my knockin' or callin', sir." John tried the door. ”

“ Gyp, Jerry, Tibby, even Graham, superintended Isobel's preparations for the dress rehearsal
HIGHACRES CHAPTER I KETTLE MOUNTAIN
If John Westley had not deliberately run away from his guide that August morning and lost himself on Kettle Mountain, he would never have found the Wishing-rock, nor the Witches' Glade, nor Miss Jerauld Travis.
Even a man whose hair has begun to grow a little gray over his ears can have moments of wildest rebellion against authority. ”

“ Possibly he is in the main contented with what he has done with his life. The point of view makes all the difference; yet, considering our two human predicaments, I, John H. Wesblock, would not be Sir John Duff if I could. This brings me to say that Sir John would not have assisted me, I feel certain, had not Daddy Edmund intervened. The world points to people with money as successful men, and money becomes boastful, and arrogates to itself powers of judgment it does not possess. ”

“ With 'leven folks on a small farm nuthin' c'd afford to be eat that c'd be sold, an' ev'rythin' that couldn't be sold had to be eat. Once in a [Pg 232] while the' 'd be pie of some kind, or gingerbread; but with 'leven to eat 'em I didn't ever git more 'n enough to set me hankerin'."
"I must say that I think I should have liked the canal better," remarked John as David paused. "You were, at any rate, more or less free—that is, comparatively, I should say."
"Yes, sir, I did," said David, "an' I never see the time, no matter how rough things was, that I wished I was back on Buxton Hill. ”

“ The offspring of his first wife, Perpetua, daughter of Edward Norris, of Speke, were—John, Thomas, Edward, William, Francis, Margaret, Perpetua, and Anne. John Westby, the heir, came into the Mowbreck estate and Burn Hall some time after 1622, but dying without issue in 1661, was succeeded by his nephew, Thomas, the eldest son of his fourth brother, Francis Westby, Thomas Westby, M.D., slain in the civil wars, and his two other brothers, Edward and William, having died childless. ”

“ Wesley issued the rules of the united societies in February 1743. Those who wished to enter the society must have “a desire to flee from the wrath to come, to be saved from their sins.” When admitted they were to give evidence of their desire for salvation “by doing no harm; by doing good of every possible sort; by attending upon all the means of grace.” It was expected that all who could do so would contribute the penny a week suggested in Bristol, and give a shilling at the renewal of their quarterly ticket. ”

“ It's like this," he continued; "Chet's a helpless kind of critter, fer all his braggin' an' talk, an' I ben feelin' kind o' wambly about turnin' him loose—though the Lord knows," he said with feeling, "'t I've had bother enough with him to kill a tree. But anyway I wrote to some folks I know up to Syrchester to git something fer him to do, an' I got a letter to send him along, an' mebbe they'd give him a show. See?"
"Yes, sir," said John, "and if you are willing to take the chances of my mistakes I will undertake to get on without him." ”

“ As a social reformer Wesley was far in advance of his time. He provided work for the deserving poor, supplied them with clothes and food in seasons of special distress. The profits on his cheap books enabled him to give away as much as £1400 a year. He established a lending stock to help struggling business men and did much to relieve debtors who had been thrown into prison. He opened dispensaries in London and Bristol and was keenly interested in medicine.
Wesley's supreme gift was his genius for organization. ”

“ J [enings] ) . His father, John Wesly (his own spelling) , Westley, or Wesley (1635?–1678) of New Inn Hall, Oxford (matriculated on 23 April 1651, B.A. on 23 Jan. 1654–5, M.A. on 4 July 1657) , was appointed to the vicarage of Winterborn-Whitchurch in May 1658; the report of his interview in 1661 with Gilbert Ironside the elder [q. v.] , his diocesan, shows him to have been an independent; he was imprisoned for not using the common prayer-book, ejected in 1662, and died at Preston, near Weymouth, in 1678. His engraved portrait is in the ‘Methodist Magazine’ (1840) . ”

“ Our lives were absolutely monotonous and uneventful. Nothing nice ever happened, except ice-cream on Sundays, and even that was regular. In all the eighteen years I was there I only had one adventure—when the woodshed burned. We had to get up in the night and dress so as to be ready in case the house should catch. But it didn't catch and we went back to bed.
Everybody likes a few surprises; it's a perfectly natural human craving. But I never had one until Mrs. Lippett called me to the office to tell me that Mr. John Smith was going to send me to college. ”

“ The large proportion of Wesley’s members had been gathered by the labours of himself and his helpers. They had been taught to observe the sacraments and naturally desired that provision should be made for their administration in their own chapels. Some felt that they could not go to the Lord’s Table where the clergyman was a worldly man; others went, but with much fear and doubt The Church party was influential and resolute to maintain closing relations with the Church of England. Their object was to prevent Methodism becoming independent. ”

“ Wesley’s writings did much to open the eyes of candid men to his motives and his methods. Besides the incomparable Journal, his Appeals to Men of Reason and Religion also produced an extraordinary effect in allaying prejudice and winning respect. He constantly sought to educate his own people. No man in the 18th century did so much to create a taste for good reading and to supply it with books at the lowest prices. Sir Leslie Stephen pays high praise to Wesley's writings, which went “straight to the mark without one superfluous flourish.” ”

“ None of the Westons had ever been remarkable for genius—a fact of which they were rather proud than otherwise. They had for several generations been content to be men of local importance in a secluded nook of rural England, which is not the kind of life that is conducive to original thought or enterprising action. They had chosen wives like themselves from among their neighbors, and it was perhaps in several respects not altogether fortunate for Clarence Weston that his mother had been ultra-conservative in her respect for traditions, since he had inherited one side of her nature. ”

“ John Clayton, afterwards chaplain of the Collegiate Church of Manchester, who remained a strong High Churchman; James Hervey, author of Meditations among the Tombs, SinA Thcron and Aspasio; Benjamin Ingham, who became the Yorkshire evangelist; and Thomas Broughton, afterwards secretary of the S.P .C .K ., were members of the Holy Club, and George Whitefield joined it on the eve of the Wesleys departure for Georgia. ”

“ WESTCOTE, THOMAS (fl. 1624–1636) , topographer, baptised at Shobrooke in Devonshire on 17 June 1567, was the third son of Philip Westcote of West Raddon in the parish of Shobrooke, by his wife Katharine, daughter of George Waltham of Brenton in the parish of Exminster, Devonshire. In his youth ‘he was a soldier, a traveller, and a courtier,’ but in middle age he ‘retired to a private country life,’ probably residing at West Raddon with his eldest brother, Robert. ”

“ They are forever glancing and whispering, bursting at times into wild peals of laughter which lack the authentic ring of gladness. They are a people of shadows blown by the harsh winds of destiny across the face of a land where they can find no permanent resting place. ”

“ Dear Judy:
Your letter is here. I have read it twice, and with amazement. Do I understand that Jervis has given you, for a Christmas present, the making over of the John Grier Home into a model institution, and that you have chosen me to disburse the money? Me—I, Sallie McBride, the head of an orphan asylum! My poor people, have you lost your senses, or have you become addicted to the use of opium, and is this the raving of two fevered imaginations? I am exactly as well fitted to take care of one hundred children as to become the curator of a zoo. ”

“ What do you think is my favourite book? Just now, I mean; I change every three days. Wuthering Heights. Emily Bronte was quite young when she wrote it, and had never been outside of Haworth churchyard. She had never known any men in her life; how COULD she imagine a man like Heathcliffe?
I couldn't do it, and I'm quite young and never outside the John Grier Asylum—I've had every chance in the world. Sometimes a dreadful fear comes over me that I'm not a genius. Will you be awfully disappointed, Daddy, if I don't turn out to be a great author? ”

“ Against this may be set John Wesley's statement in the preface of the Large Hymn-book, 1780: 'But a small part of these hymns is of my own composing'. Richard Watson, in the first edition of his Life of Wesley, actually attributed all the translations to Charles; and though he modified this in a later edition, he still held that there was internal evidence of Charles Wesley's manner. Miss Wesley, however, doubted whether (Jackson's Charles Wesley, ii. 456) her father knew German. ”

“ And when Elmer was about to slip out to the kitchen with her to make lemonade, Benham held him by demanding, "What do you think of John Wesley's doctrine of perfection?"
"Oh, it's absolutely sound and proven," admitted Elmer, wondering what the devil Mr. Wesley's doctrine of perfection might be. ”

“ Mrs. Lazarus was without her orange because she had to wear mittens now, and that made peeling the thing difficult. “I'm sure,” she said, in a voice like that of a very excited cricket, “that Mr. Westcott will feel better after he's had something to eat. I always do.”
This remark left conversation at a standstill. The rain drove against the panes, the mud rose ever higher against the walls, and dinner was announced. Mrs. Brockett made her remarks to each member of the company in turn as usual. To Peter she said:
“I hear that you have finished your book, Mr. Westcott. ”

“ Not that he was satisfied with himself or his surroundings; he did not like newspaper work, and he did not like Chicago very well. He was determined to get out of newspaper work at any rate, and while he could not yet clearly see a way of getting into the law, he had a calm assurance that he would do it, in the end. Weston sustained him in this hope by saying:
“A man can’t control circumstances; they control him; but sometimes he can dodge them, and, after all, every sincere prayer is answered.” ”