HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT. 
XXXY 
whom he appointed as his • executor, was the following, 
addressed to Mr. I’Anson, a right trusty and well-beloved 
neighbor, in Newark:— 
My Dear Miles I’ Anson: The time has come, and I call upon you 
with the last words of a dying countryman to come and perform your 
promise. My last friend, do not fail me. 
"When you receive this I shall be lying dead in the cemetery. I 
could not be easy in New York, and I must not be buried in the Pot¬ 
ter’s Field or by charity. 
Have me dressed in the clothes which T have put in the carpet bag, 
with the little packet I have sewn to the shirt upon my heart, 
and the pin-cushion with u Herbert ” pricked upon it, under my head 
—a plain oaken coffin, with this inscription only: “Henry William 
Herbert—aged 51.” 
Let me be buried in your lot; send the coffin down by the steamer; 
no funeral and no pomp. I send a note to Mr. Shackleford; he will 
perform the service. 
I enclose a draft for ten pounds sterling on my sister, which will 
pay all expenses; I have written to her. Come the moment you re¬ 
ceive this, or you will be too late, and they will thrust me into some hole 
away from humanity. She has refused all reconciliation absolutely 
and forever, but she is not to blame, and it is my last request that no 
friend of mine will blame her or defend me, except to say what I solemn¬ 
ly swear with my dying breath, that I did not marry her for money— 
that I did not know when I married her, and do not know now, 
whether she has any money or how much—that I never had a word 
or dispute with her about money, and never said one unkind word 
until that Monday, when I threatened my life if she would not tell 
me who had accused me to her falsely. 
God forgive and God bless her! I forgive all men who have 
wronged me, and ask forgiveness of all whom I have wronged. Every 
shilling I owe in America will be paid from the lease of the house 
and the books I leave behind me, ready to be published. 
Give my best parting love to all my friends, think of me sometimes 
as a most miserable man, yet your true friend, 
Henry Wm. Herbert, Stevens House. 
May 15,1858. 
VOL. I. 
3 
