HUNTINGDON, SELINA HASTINGS, countess of. — Foundress of a Protestant sect, born at Stanton Harold in Leicestershire (England) on 24 August 1707, died in London on 17 June 1791. Having married Teophilo Hastings, earl of H., in 1728, in 1738 she became interested in the nascent Methodist movement. Widowed in 1746 and having lost all her children, she devoted herself entirely to the said movement.
Her house and her chapel on Parket Street in London
became a centre of Methodist propaganda, including among the English nobility, such as Lord Bolingbroke, Lord Chesterfield, Orazio Walpole, etc. Possessing ample financial means, she erected many chapels in various places, and founded the Seminary of Trevecca, transferred after her death to Cheshunt, for the training of Methodist ministers. G. Whitefield, the companion of G. Wesley, was her chaplain; and when the split occurred between these two leaders of Methodism, Whitefield inclining towards Calvinist doctrines, contrary to what Wesley desired and taught, the countess adhered to the party of her chaplain. Upon his death, in 1777, she effectively became the head or superintendent of the new sect, called «The countess of H.'s Connexion». She sought always to remain united with the Anglican Church, whose liturgy she retained, but interpreted the 36 Articles in a Calvinist sense. Only reluctantly did she separate from the official Church in 1779, because of difficulties that arose on the part of the Anglican hierarchy concerning the appointment of chaplains to the «Connexion». At her death there existed 64 groups and chapels belonging to the new sect. After her death, the congregational system was gradually adopted, so that this sect is perhaps the only one to combine the congregational system, Calvinist doctrine, and Anglican liturgy.