374 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l793 



and that if she would send the carriage back in two or three days, we 

 hoped to follow her to Norristown. While I was getting my daughter 

 ready and seeing her a few miles out of town, which was not until two 

 o'clock, on Sunday, my dear wife with her own hand, had written the 

 note which you must have in your possession, the contents of which, or 

 her apprehensions expressed in it, I can only guess. You know the 

 rest. My situation through the week following the Sunday evening, at 

 six o'clock, when in much agony by a sudden and unexpected turn, 

 after I had fondly written to all my distant family, and to my dear 

 brother that I believed her out of danger, she breathed her last, com- 

 posed and patient; her countenance appearing to brighten, as her pangs 

 and groans ceased, into the countenance of an angel. 



Decently as the time would permit, my mournful family assisted only 

 by a worthy and pious black, Richard Allen,* she was laid in her coffin. 

 I approached with my dear grandchild in my arms, as near as the black 

 man would allow, to take my last view. Silent, but more awful and 

 instructive than all the funeral pomps in the world, and short the dis- 

 tance we had to go, I followed her, accompanied only by the coffin- 

 maker, and by Richard Allen, and my own weeping and faithful black 

 boy, to the spot she had chosen, about eight o'clock in the evening to 

 deposit all of her that was mortal. 



Severe was the task that it remained for me, yesterday, to write to my 

 daughter and other children, and to good Mrs. Cadwalader, who loved 

 her aunt as her own parent. When these letters were finished, and an 

 express dispatched to my son, William, to take all prudent measures 

 possible to support his sister in her affliction. My messenger having 

 taken his course up the street, my anxious dutiful son came to my door 

 while I was visiting the grave to see if it had been properly covered in 

 the night. My black boy met my son at the door of my house, and 

 was obliged to answer his inquiry concerning his mother; that she was 



*This was an excellent and well-known negro in his day in Philadelphia. He was 

 born A. D. 1760, and was originally a slave of Chief Justice Chew, as afterwards of a 

 Mr. Stokely, in Delaware. He cut wood, and was a laborer in brickyards. During 

 the war of the Revolution he was an army teamster. By habits of economy and thrift 

 he accumulated some money with which he purchased his freedom. He then learned 

 the trade of shoemaking, and for many years carried on business on the south side of 

 Spruce street below Fifth. He had several journeymen and apprentices constantly in his 

 employ. He owned and managed at the same time a small farm in the Neck, below 

 the city, and accumulated a considerable amount of property by various occupations. 

 With all these he exercised the office of a preacher, preaching among the Methodist 

 negroes. Though education had not lent her hand in his behalf, he had a capacity 

 that few of his color exhibit, and had unbounded influence over the people of his de- 

 nomination. He was eminently a humane man. In common with Absalom Jones, 

 another colored person, he rendered invaluable services to the citizens during the prev- 

 alence of the yellow fever, in 1793. Jones was long a servant of Dr. Blackwell, and 

 was afterwards ordained by Hishop White a minister of the Episcopal Church. 



