The History of Thomas Ellwood Written By HimselfEllwood, Thomas
History
The History of Thomas Ellwood Written By Himself
Ellwood, Thomas
Ellwood, Thomas, 1639-1713; Quakers -- Biography
When Guli had finished the business she went upon, we returned home, and
I delivered her safe to her glad mother. From that time forward I
continued my visits to my best beloved Friend until we married, which was
on the 28th day of the eighth month, called October, in the year 1669.
We took each other in a select meeting of the ancient and grave Friends
of that country, holden in a Friend’s house, where in those times not
only the monthly meeting for business but the public meeting for worship
was sometimes kept. A very solemn meeting it was, and in a weighty frame
of spirit we were, in which we sensibly felt the Lord with us, and
joining us; the sense whereof remained with us all our lifetime, and was
of good service and very comfortable to us on all occasions.
My next care after marriage was to secure my wife what moneys she had,
and with herself bestowed upon me; for I held it would be an abominable
crime in me, and savour of the highest ingratitude, if I, though but
through negligence, should leave room for my father, in case I should be
taken away suddenly, to break in upon her estate, and deprive her of any
part of that which had been and ought to be her own. Wherefore with the
first opportunity—as I remember, the very next day, and before I knew
particularly what she had—I made my will, and thereby secured to her
whatever I was possessed of as well all that which she brought, either in
moneys or in goods, as that little which I had before I married her;
which indeed was but little, yet more by all that little than I had ever
given her ground to expect with me.
She had indeed been advised by some of her relations to secure before
marriage some part at least of what she had, to be at her own disposal;
which, though perhaps not wholly free from some tincture of self-interest
in the proposer, was not in itself the worst of counsel. But the
worthiness of her mind, and the sense of the ground on which she received
me, would not suffer her to entertain any suspicion of me; and this laid
on me the greater obligation, in point of gratitude as well as of
justice, to regard and secure her; which I did.
I had not been long married before I was solicited by my dear friends
Isaac and Mary Penington, and her daughter Guli, to take a journey into
Kent and Sussex to account with their tenants and overlook their estates
in those counties, which before I was married I had had the care of; and
accordingly the journey I undertook, though in the depth of winter.
My travels into those parts were the more irksome to me from the
solitariness I underwent, and want of suitable society. For my business
lying among the tenants, who were a rustic sort of people of various
persuasions and humours, but not Friends, I had little opportunity of
conversing with Friends, though I contrived to be with them as much as I
could, especially on the first day of the week.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account