Born: Au­gust 24, 1707, Ast­well House, Not­ting­ham­shire, Eng­land.

Died: June 17, 1791, Lon­don, Eng­land.

Buried: St. He­len’s Church, Ash­by-de-la-Zouch, Lei­ces­ter, Eng­land.

The Countess’ ti­tle comes from her 1728 mar­ri­age to The­o­phil­us Hast­ings, Ninth Earl of Hunt­ing­don.

At an early age, Se­li­na re­ceived ser­i­ous re­li­gious im­press­ions, which re­mained with her all her life. She was a mem­ber of the first Meth­od­ist So­ci­e­ty, in Fet­ter Lane, Lon­don, and the first Meth­od­ist Con­fer­ence was held at her house in 1744. Her sym­pa­thies, how­ev­er, were with the Cal­vin­ism of George White­field, and when the breach oc­curred be­tween White­field and the Wes­leys, she chose White­field.

She spent her mo­ney free­ly build­ing cha­pels, found­ing Tre­vec­ca Coll­ege, South Wales (now Ches­hunt), and sup­port­ing her preach­ers. For use in her cha­pels she com­piled A Se­lect Col­lect­ion of Hymns. There are al­so a few hymns at­trib­ut­ed to her own hand.

Hymns

  1. When Thou, My Righteous Judge Shall Come