Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon Biography

Selina, Countess of Huntingdon (24 August 1707 – 17 June 1791) was an English religious leader who played a prominent part in the religious revival of the 18th century and the Methodist movement in England and Wales, and has left an affiliated group of churches (Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion) in England and in Sierra Leone in Africa. She played a major role in financing and guiding early Methodism. Selina was the first female principal of a men's college in Wales (Trefeca College, for the education of Methodist ministers). She financed the building of 64 chapels in England and Wales, wrote often to George Whitfield and John Wesley, and funded mission work in colonial America. She is best remembered for her adversarial relationships with other Methodists who objected to a woman having power.