Selina Huntingdon, countess of, a patron of the English Calvinistic Methodists, born in 1707, died June 17,1791. She was the daughter of Washington Shirley, earl of Ferrers, and was married to Theophilus Hastings, earl of Huntingdon. The Hastings family early became interested in the Methodists, and through their influence and from severe family afflictions the countess was led to cherish a strong sympathy with the methods and principles of the evangelists, especially Whitefield. She was accustomed to frequent the Moravian societies in London; but at the withdrawal of Wesley she favored the Methodist party, and specially encouraged the leaders in the promotion of a lay ministry, which she considered an absolute necessity to the successful evangelization of the masses. Her house at Chelsea, near London, was the resort of fashionable and aristocratic persons, and after Whitefield was appointed her chaplain many of the wits and scholars of the age became his hearers. Her house was likewise the centre of a circle of women of noble rank, who were zealous in the cultivation of a high-toned piety in an irreligious age. Meanwhile the rapid success of Wesley, Whitefield, and their coadjutors had created a demand throughout the kingdom for chapels and meeting houses for the poor.

The countess undertook to supply this need, and promoted in every way the labors of the evangelists. She dispensed with her luxurious equipage, and even sold her jewels, to obtain the means for carrying out her plans. Halls and theatres were purchased in London, Bristol, and Dublin, and fitted up for chapels, and accommodations for the societies were provided in England, Ireland, and Wales. She interested many of the noble and wealthy in her plans, met them in frequent conference, and often accompanied the preachers on their missionary tours. By her advice England was divided into six districts, and a scheme perfected for supplying destitute districts with religious instruction. The pressing need for a larger number of ministers led her at length to found a theological seminary at Trevecca in Wales, where pious candidates for the ministry, irrespective of sectarian character, were provided with board, tuition, and other aid, at the countess's expense. While strongly attached to the church of England, she was at length compelled to the avowal of dissent in order to protect the numerous chapels which she had founded from suppression or appropriation by the establishment.

Hitherto, by her strong practical sense and moral power, she had virtually controlled and directed the movements of Calvinistic Methodism. After the " Lady Huntingdon Connection " had taken their position among dissenters, the countess attempted to devise a plan for a closer and more organic union among the various societies. Its provisions were very similar to Wesley's model. In these attempts, however, she met with very little sympathy from her preachers, and after her death the chapels that she had founded became mostly Independent. At her decease she left £5,000 for charitable purposes, and the rest of her fortune for the support of 64 chapels which she had built.