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
But such as were thus either engaged for themselves or desirous to make
themselves advocates for others, could not, I observed, but look upon me
with an eye of jealousy and fear, that I would improve the opportunities
I had by frequent and familiar conversation with her, to my own
advantage, in working myself into her good opinion and favour, to the
ruin of their pretences.
According therefore to the several kinds and degrees of their fears of
me, they suggested to her parents their ill surmises against me.
Some stuck not to question the sincerity of my intentions in coming at
first among the Quakers, urging with a why may it not be so, that the
desire and hopes of obtaining by that means so fair a fortune might be
the prime and chief inducement to me to thrust myself amongst that
people? But this surmise could find no place with those worthy friends
of mine, her father-in-law and her mother, who, besides the clear sense
and sound judgment they had in themselves, knew very well upon what terms
I came among them, how strait and hard the passage was to me, how
contrary to all worldly interest, which lay fair another way, how much I
had suffered from my father for it, and how regardless I had been of
attempting or seeking anything of that nature in these three or four
years that I had been amongst them.
Some others, measuring me by the propensity of their own inclinations,
concluded I would steal her, run away with her, and marry her; which they
thought I might be the more easily induced to do, from the advantageous
opportunities I frequently had of riding and walking abroad with her, by
night as well as by day, without any other company than her maid. For so
great indeed was the confidence that her mother had in me, that she
thought her daughter safe if I was with her, even from the plots and
designs that others had upon her; and so honourable were the thoughts she
entertained concerning me, as would not suffer her to admit a suspicion
that I could be capable of so much baseness as to betray the trust she
with so great freedom reposed in me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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