{"id":953,"date":"2011-01-14T22:59:02","date_gmt":"2011-01-14T22:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/?p=953"},"modified":"2025-07-02T12:57:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T11:57:39","slug":"john-dandos-letter-to-the-countess-of-huntingdon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/john-dandos-letter-to-the-countess-of-huntingdon","title":{"rendered":"John Dando&#8217;s Letter To The Countess of Huntingdon"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_960\" style=\"width: 133px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/countess-of-huntingdon-picture.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-960\" class=\"wp-image-960 size-thumbnail\" title=\"Signed picture of the Countess of Huntingdon at Rodborough Tabernacle\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/countess-of-huntingdon-picture-123x150.jpg\" alt=\"Signed picture of the Countess of Huntingdon at Rodborough Tabernacle\" width=\"123\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/countess-of-huntingdon-picture-123x150.jpg 123w, https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/countess-of-huntingdon-picture-632x768.jpg 632w, https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/countess-of-huntingdon-picture.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 123px) 100vw, 123px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-960\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Signed picture of the Countess of Huntingdon at Rodborough Tabernacle (click to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><a title=\"John Dando\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hibbitt.org.uk\/familytree\/fam1782.html\">John Dando<\/a><\/strong>, the elder, my 6 x great-grandfather, was involved in the Calvinistic Methodist movement during the 18th century Evangelical Revival. He was not only acquainted with, but offered hospitality to the famous preacher, George Whitefield, when he was staying in Dursley, Gloucestershire.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Whitefield became the Countess of Huntingdon&#8217;s personal chaplain and with his assistance the Countess founded the Countess of Huntingdon\u2019s Connexion, a Calvinistic movement within the Methodist Church.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Although John Dando was a hat maker, it was because of him that a group of Calvinistic Methodists moved from Stancombe to Dursley and established a Tabernacle (a type of Non-Conformist church), which was completed in about 1760.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In 1771, John wrote to Selina, The Countess of Huntingdon. The original letter is kept at The Countess of Huntingdon&#8217;s Archives, The Cheshunt Foundation, Westminster College, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0AA. F1 Series No. 141.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In 2008, <strong><a title=\"My Parents\u2019 Visit To Cambridge And Parts Of Essex\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/my-parents-visit-to-cambridge-and-parts-of-essex\">my parents went to Cambridge<\/a><\/strong> and viewed the letter. It&#8217;s not known whether John Dando ever met the Countess in person but he certainly knew Whitefield.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">[<strong>UPDATE:<\/strong> Harvey and I also visited Westminster College in 2015 and we too were able to view the letter. <a title=\"Read about our own visit here\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/visiting-westminster-college-cambridge\"><strong>Read about our own visit here<\/strong><\/a>.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Dando, the elder, my 6 x great-grandfather, was involved in the Calvinistic Methodist movement during the 18th century Evangelical Revival. He was not only acquainted with, but offered hospitality to the famous preacher, George Whitefield, when he was staying &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/john-dandos-letter-to-the-countess-of-huntingdon\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[22],"class_list":["post-953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ancestors-corner","category-famous-connections","tag-dando"],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2233,"href":"https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953\/revisions\/2233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hibbittbarnes.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}