Selina Hastings
Countess of Huntington
1707 – 1791 A.D.

Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, a patron of the English Methodists.

She was the daughter of the Earl of Ferrers, and was married to Theophilus Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon.

She became interested in the evangelization of the masses, and her house in Chelsea, near London, was the centre [sic] of a circle of women of noble rank, who were zealous in the cultivation of piety in an irreligious age.

When demand arose throughout the kingdom for chapels and meeting-houses for the poor, the countess undertook to supply this need. She dispensed with her luxurious equipage, sold her jewels to obtain the means for carrying out her plans. Halls and theatres were fitted up for chapels, and by her advice a scheme was perfected for supplying destitute districts throughout England with religious instruction.

She founded a theological seminary, and at her decease she left £5,000 for charitable purposes, and the rest of her fortune for the support of sixty-four chapels which she had built.

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Reference: Famous Women; An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women By Joseph Adelman. Copyright, 1926 by Ellis M. Lonow Company.