Annotated by a Methodist Book Collector

John Whitehead.
The Life of the Rev. John Wesley. Volume 1 of 2.
London: Stephen Couchman, 1793. (05435)

The owner of this book, Thomas Marriott (1786–1852), was a devout London Methodist who became known as one of the first “collectors” of early Methodist publications, manuscripts, and memorabilia. Significant portions of his collections are at the John Rylands University Library in Manchester, England, and at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. At his death he left £10,000 to the Wesleyan Missionary Society and the remainder of his estate to the Worn-out Preachers’ Fund.

In Marriott’s heavily annotated copy of John Whitehead’s The Life of the Rev. John Wesley, many passages that are missing from Whitehead’s narrative, but which are known from original Methodist documents, have been supplied in the margins by the owner. At the bottom of page 287, for example, Marriott added a missing sentence from Charles Wesley’s journal, written five days before he attended the first Methodist Conference at the Foundery in London on June 25, 1744: “By losing my way, I found, at a wavering brother’s house, five stray sheep, whom I received back into the fold.”