Selina, Countess of, was the daughter of Washington Shirley, Earl of Ferrers, and was born in 1707. At the age of twenty-one she was married to Theophilus Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon, a man of distinguished piety and religious zeal. With him she lived a happy and useful life till his death, which took place very suddenly in 1746. Of the numerous family which she bore her husband, four died in the bloom of youth. It was about this time that the religious revival set on foot by Wesley, and taken up by Whitfield, had begun to influence English society. Until about the year 1748 the revivalists had acted in unity, but after that date the tenets of Whitfield becoming daily more Calvinistic, and those of Wesley more Arminian, they separated, and Whitfield became private chaplain to the Countess of Huntingdon. By his advice she assumed a sort of leadership of the Calvinistic Methodists of England, or as they came to be called from her "the Countess of Huntingdon's connexion." As her means were large and her personal expenses very small she was able to devote large sums of money to the maintenance and propagation of her views. She built chapels, and engaged preachers to officiate in them, and established a college at Trevecca, in South Wales, for the education of Calvinistic preachers. After her death, which took place, June 17, 1791, the college was removed by her trustees from Trevecca to Cheshunt in Herts, where it now is. The number of chapels mentioned in the census of 1851 as belonging to the Countess of Huntingdon's connexion was 109, accommodating 38,727 hearers. Although the name of "connexion" is still in use amongst this sect, there is no combined or federal form of church government. The congregational polity is practically adopted; and of late years several of the congregations have become, in name as well as virtually, congregational churches.

a municipal and parliamentary borough and market-town of England, and capital of Huntingdonshire, stands on the left bank of the Ouse, on the line of the Great Northern Railway, 58 miles N. of London. It is connected with the old borough of Godmanchester, on the right bank of the river, by a causeway with three bridges, the largest of which has six arches. The town consists of a long street with lanes branching off. Of 15 churches that were once in Huntingdon, there now remain only two, with three Dissenting chapels. There are two public schools, with a grammar and green-coat school. The commerce is inconsiderable; the chief articles of trade being wool and grain, and of manufacture, bricks and tiles. It is governed by a mayor, four aldermen, and a common council. Two members are returned to parliament by the united boroughs of Huntingdon and Godmanchester. It was here that Oliver Cromwell was born, April 25, 1599, and his grandfather's house, Hinchinbrook, is about a mile distant from the town. Pop. (1851) 3882.