Huntingdon, SELINA, COUNTES OF

Huntingdon, SELINA, COUNTES OF, was the second of three daughters and co-heiresses of Washington Shirley, second Earl Ferrers, and was born August 24, 1707. She married the Earl of Huntingdon in 1728, and became a widow in 1746. Adopting the principles of the Calvinistic Methodists, the founder of which sect was the famous George Whitefield, she made that eminent preacher one of her chaplains, and assumed a leadership among his followers, who came to be known as 'The Countess of Huntingdon's Connection.' Her labours at home increased with her years. For the education of ministers she established and maintained a college at Trevecca, in Brecknockshire (removed in 1792 to Cheshunt, Herts); and built, or became possessed of, numerous chapels in different parts of the country, the principal one being at Bath. She died June 17, 1791. By her will, dated January 11, 1790, she created a trust, bequeathing her chapels, then sixty-four in number, to the care of four persons. Most of them have become, in doctrine and practice, almost identical with the Congregational churches.