Sally Wesley, the Evangelical Bluestockings, and the Regulation of Enthusiasm

Chapter Six considers the networks surrounding Sally Wesley, John Wesley’s niece and Charles Wesley’s only daughter. Wesley was at the center of a network of latter day Bluestockings who produced and circulated material around the turn of the nineteenth century. Of particular interest to this diverse group was the nature and influence of evangelical feeling and enthusiasm on British life and letters. Analysis of Wesley’s network reveals members from all social and religious backgrounds debating and discussing the proper role of religious enthusiasm—arguing for the importance of a well-regulated enthusiasm to the creation and distribution of literary work. Specifically, it explores how other women in Wesley’s circle, particularly Mary Tighe, Elizabeth Hamilton, and Maria Spilsbury, addressed the issue of religious enthusiasm. Based on this evidence it considers the question of how religion and theology helped women like Sally Wesley structure and inform their artistic production in conversation with the shifting roles for women in Regency society and artistic movements like Romanticism.