Part of our reunion programme was to visit Wesley's Cottage at Trewint. The stone house belonged originally to Digory Isbell and Elizabeth (nee Burnard) who were married on 13th June 1739.
John Wesley made six visits in all to the Isbell cottage. During a visit there in July 1745 he rejoiced at how the work of God was increasing in that part of Cornwall, ‘among young and old, rich and poor, from Trewint quite to the sea-side.’ Two years later, late in July 1747, he was back in Trewint and preached from a favourite text; ‘Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem....’ ( Matt. 2:1). Fifteen years later, in September 1762, he made his last preaching visit to Trewint In the years between John Wesley’s visits and in the years after, many of his preachers came there to preach and rest in the ‘preachers rooms.’ Among them was good old John Nelson under whose preaching the Isbells’ hearts had been opened and his visit there was the beginning of this moving story. The cottage became a centre for the Methodist work in that part of Cornwall. Four years after Wesley’s last visit the Isbell home was visited with great sadness when Hannah, the daughter baptised by Wesley twenty four years earlier, died of small-pox, ‘witnessing to the last a good confession.’ Her father outlived her by another twenty-seven years, and died, strong in the faith of Jesus Christ and repeating words written by Charles Wesley:
Ah! why did I so late Thee know
Thee, lovelier than the sons of men?...
Nine years later Elizabeth followed Digory to glory, in her 87th year. A slab over their grave in Altarnun churchyard gives the dates of their decease and then adds: ‘They were the first who entertained the Methodist Preachers in this County, and Lived and died in that connection, but Strictly adhered to the duties of the Established Church. Reader, may thy end be like theirs.’ Although not strictly accurate for Charles Wesley had been entertained at St Ives two months before Nelson and Downes arrived in Trewint, nevertheless the Isbell cottage has been part of Methodist history in Cornwall since both the Wesley brothers crossed the river Tamar for the first time in 1743.
Today the cottage and its surroundings stand much as Nelson an
Wesley Cottage is situated at Trewint near Launceston in Cornwall. It is where John Wesley, the founder of Methodism preached and rested.
In Cornwall, UK, the busy A30 road carries visitors from Launceston to Bodmin and beyond. Near Five Lanes is the hamlet of Trewint with a place all its own in the Wesley Story.
One Summer day in 1743, two of John Wesley's advance agents, John Nelson and John Downes, tired and hungry, asked for refreshment at a house with a stone porch, the home of Digory Isbell, a Journeyman Stonemason. In his absence his wife, Elizabeth, entertained the two strangers who insisted on paying and then knelt and prayed - "without a book!"
The story of these unusual visitors, with such unusual ways, was told to Digory on his return.
A year later John Wesley himself, wet and weary, was entertained in the Stonemason's house and left a rich blessing behind.
One evening Digory Isbell read in his Bible of the Shunamite woman who built a Prophet's Chamber for a man of God. This passage seemed to Digory to contain a direct divine command, and he immediately set about building an extension to his house, two rooms, one up and one down, which could be used by John Wesley and his preachers whenever they were in the district.
Trewint became a flourishing Methodist Society, but when other chapels were opened the Trewint rooms fell into disuse and eventually became a roofless ruin.
In 1950 the Isbell house and the Wesley rooms were suitably restored and opened to the public. Annual Wesley Day Celebrations are held in May each year.
The rooms are also believed to be the smallest Methodist preaching place in the world.
The A30 road symbolises the stress and strain of modern life. Digory Isbell's house at Trewint calls the soul to prayer and peace. For those who will linger and listen there, voices will speak of the riches of yesterday providing a thrill for today and a challenge for tomorrow.
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