groundless fit of jealousy about one Molly Francis, and for some weeks, while accompanying Wesley on his journeys, was on and off with Bennet. Wesley, learning this, and assured by Grace that she loved him best, would neither give her up nor consent to an immediate marriage. On 7 Sept. he wrote to Bennet, claiming Grace as his own. He sent a copy of the letter to Charles Wesley, who at once interfered, calling in the aid of Whitefield, who seems to have acted against his own judgment, as expressed to Wesley. In their presence Mrs. Murray (though ‘at her request’ the Dublin contract with Wesley had been renewed before witnesses on 20 Sept.) was married to Bennet at St. Andrew's, Newcastle, on 3 Oct. 1749. Wesley met the pair at Leeds on 6 Oct.; he did not again see Mrs. Bennet till 1788, in company with Henry Moore (1751–1844) [q. v.], who was very favourably impressed by her (Addit. MS. 7119, with Wesley's autograph corrections; printed in Hook's Narrative of a Remarkable Transaction in the Early Life of John Wesley, 1848; 2nd edit., with Hunter's Review, 1862; C. Wesley, Journal, i. 225; Moore, ii. 171; Bennet, Memoirs of Mrs. Grace Bennet, 1803). Wesley's keen smart of disappointment was also embodied in verses, written on 8 Oct., and first printed by Moore (the copy in Addit. MS. 7119 has four additional stanzas).
He received sympathy from Vincent Perronet [q. v.], and it was Perronet who convinced him that he ought to marry. Having reached this conviction on 2 Feb. 1750–1, he lost no time in acting upon it. His choice was Mary Vazeille, a lady seven years his junior, originally a domestic servant, now the widow of Anthony Vazeille (d. 1747), a London merchant, with a fortune of 3,000l., in half of which she had only a life interest.
She had four children, the youngest (Noah) under five years old. Charles Wesley had made her acquaintance through Edward Perronet, and had been her guest; of the match he ‘never had the least suspicion’ (C. Wesley, Journal, ii. 78). On 9 Feb. a marriage settlement was executed, securing Mrs. Vazeille's property to her own exclusive use. On Sunday, 10 Feb., Wesley sprained his ankle, and ‘spent the remainder of the week’ under Mrs. Vazeille's roof in Threadneedle Street, ‘partly in writing a Hebrew grammar.’ By 4 March he was still unable to walk (he preached on his knees), but on 18 or 19 Feb. he was married to Mrs. Vazeille (it is said, by Charles Manning, vicar of Hayes, Middlesex), his brother Charles being ‘one of the last that heard of his unhappy marriage’ (ib. ii. 79). Moore speaks of Mrs. Wesley as ‘well qualified’ for her position; she agreed that her husband should relax none of his labours, and for four years usually accompanied him on his journeys, travelling with him on his second visit to Scotland in 1753. She was tart of temper, and Wesley's ways were trying. Conscious of purity of intent, he corresponded with his women helpers with a familiarity which his wife deeply resented. This has been set down to jealousy, but may be construed as reasonable distrust of women whom she knew much better than he. When Wesley made Sarah Ryan (1724–1768) his housekeeper at Kingswood, and confided to her (writing as her ‘affectionate brother’) his domestic sorrows, his wife, finding Mrs. Ryan presiding at the preachers' dining-table, referred to the fact of her having ‘three husbands living’ (of three different nationalities) in terms inelegant but exact. The serious breach began in September 1755, when Mrs. Wesley opened a packet of her husband's letters, sent for delivery not through her, but through Charles Perronet. That she used violence, dragging her husband by the hair, rests on Hampson's testimony (Hampson, ii. 127; Tyerman, ii. 110). Charles Wesley proved a most ineffective intermediary; Mrs. Wesley was zealous for her husband's position, and contrasted his labours with Charles's comparative ease (Watson, p. 260). Wesley's letters to her are full of excellent sense, but show a fatal failure of sympathy. In his will of 1768 he made her his residuary legatee. His well-known ‘non revocabo’ (23 Jan. 1771), when she left him for her married daughter at Newcastle, was not the end of their connection. In July 1772 she returned, took part in his mission work, and did not finally desert him till 1776. She is then accused of publishing garbled extracts from his letters to damage his character (Tyerman, iii. 233). The manuscript account of the Grace Murray episode (see above) came through her son Noah to Naphtaly Hart, who owned it in 1788, and bequeathed it (1829) to the British Museum. She died on 8 Oct. 1781, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Giles, Camberwell; her tombstone has disappeared, the widened roadway now passes over her grave. By her will (dated 4 Sept. 1779) she left Wesley a ‘mourning gold ring, in token that I die in love and friendship towards him.’ His last reference to her (in a letter of 25 July 1788) is not unkindly. The children of her married daughter are mentioned in his will as ‘my dear granddaughters.’
His marriage involved the resignation (1 June 1751) of his fellowship; from his society he never received more than 30l. a year and part of his
