Samuel Wesley was the son of Charles Wesley, the hymn-writer and nephew of John wesley, the founder of Methodism. Charles, his brother, had a prodigious musical talent and was a strong influence on Samuel.
    In 1778 the Wesley family moved from Bristol to London and settled in Marylebone. Here the two boys performed at a number of concerts. Charles at the age of twenty adopted the profession of music and built up a reputation and practice as a teacher.
    Samuel is particularly remembered for introducing the music of J.S.Bach to this country. He was also the father (by a second liaison) of Samuel Sebastian Wesley who made a significant contribution to English Church music and was organist at a number of cathedrals.
    In his early years, Samuel, while overshadowed by the talent of his brother, was nevertheless described as “an English Mozart” and attracted the attention of a number of the leading English composers, among them, William Boyce, the organist of the Chapel Royal.
    For a time, Samuel was interested in the music of the Roman Catholic Church but it has not been established that he became a convert. He did however write a number of Latin motets and Masses. Although he was the greatest English organist of his day, he never held a post at any cathedral or any position in the ecclesiastical establishment or in Academia. He pursued a career as a freelance musician as organist, composer and conductor, and also built up a reputation as a lecturer – in the early 19th century the public lecture was a comparatively new form of entertainment.
    He wrote a good deal of music in all genres (apart from opera). Much of this was never published, but his music for organ is remembered and still played.

Wesley the Mason

Charles Wesley Snr died in 1788 and on December 17th of that year Samuel was initiated into the Lodge of Antiquity. His age was stated as 23 and his occupation as “Gentleman”. He became a frequent visitor to other lodges and composed glees for masonic use.
    In 1813 His Royal Highness The Duke of Sussex, the Grand Master, created a new masonic office – that of Grand Organist, on the occasion of the union of the Premier and Antient Grand Lodges. For this, a special anthem was composed by Wesley to the words:

Behold how good a thing it is And now becoming well, For brethren, such as masons are, In Unity to dwell. Oh! ’tis like ointment on the head Or dew on Sion’s Hill. For then the Lord of hosts hath said Peace shall be with you still.

I am sure the quality of Wesley’s music must have far exceeded that of the words!
    Samuel was not happy with his position as Grand Organist, for he wrote to Rev. Lucius Coghlan, Grand Chaplain of the Moderns, complaining that “the expenses of the office had left him twelve guineas out of pocket” and that he thought he was wasting his time as Grand Organist. Coghlan’s answer reminded him that he had received “an honour for which many other gentlemen have been anxiously looking for upwards of thirty years… ..you have also obtained it to the extreme mortification and utter disappointment of another, for whom it was actually intended and who would have been happy to accept it on any terms. If you still think that your time has been thrown away I cannot have any objection to your Resignation.”
    It is possible that the disappointed person to which Coghlan referred may have been Sir George Smart (1776-1867), a much older man and one whom the establishment might have considered more suitable than Samuel. In 1818, after Wesley’s resignation from the office through ill health, Smart became the second Grand Organist. Wesley would go on to play the organ for the Royal Somerset House and Inverness Lodge No 4 (1829-1837), of which lodge Wesley had been an honorary member since 1808.
    Samuel had strong views on the relations between organists and clergy: “Frequently the vicar or rector of a parish (who so far from being either a judge or lover of music) considers it only as an expensive noise and assumes supreme authority over the arrangement of the organist and exacts from him passive obedience and non-resistance.” Such attitudes are by no means uncommon today and will strike a chord with some of my fellow church musicians!
    In later years, ill health and depression affected his work and income. Sadly, he did not receive the proper recognition which he deserved and he died on 11 October 1837.

The author, HOWARD STEPHENS, would like to express his appreciation for the help received from the staff at the Library at Freemasons’ Hall, and for permission from the Methodist Publishing House to quote from the book Samuel Wesley, Musician by James T Lightwood.