William Wilson left behind him a widow and two daughters, to whom he was a true husband and a tender father, instructing his children “to keep in the fear of the Lord, and to walk in the way of truth, which he walked in himself;” often saying to them, “it would be the best portion that they could enjoy.” His last illness was short. Having recently returned from a long journey, wherein his body was much spent and weak, he said, “I have not served the Lord unfruitfully; I have no trouble upon me; and I am very sensible that all is well with me.” Again he said, “He was content, whatsoever way the Lord pleased; he felt as a dove, harmless; and as a lamb, innocent.” A few hours before he died, at which time he walked several times over the room, he said, as he had often before, “My peace far exceeds my pain;” and standing upon his feet before two Friends, he said, “O that every one would mind the Lord, that they might keep life.” He then sat down and drew breath no more. He died at his own house at Langdale, the 10th of the 5th month, 1682. Footnote 6: We cannot be surprised at the hard language sometimes used by the early Friends in protesting against the unchristian conduct of their persecutors. The rapacity of their enemies in the early periods of the Society carried their plunder to so great an excess, as not only to involve many in total ruin, but subjected them to long and cruel imprisonments, which, in many cases of particular hardship, terminated in death. It has already been stated that at one time there were 4,500 Quakers in prison in England and Wales at one time. In 1662, twenty died in different prisons in London, and seven more after their liberation, from ill treatment. In 1664, twenty-five died, and in 1665, fifty-two more. The number which perished in this way, throughout the whole kingdom, amounted to 369. But for fuller particulars of the cruelties practised against the early Quakers, the reader is referred to the two closely printed folio volumes, entitled _Besse’s Sufferings_. Footnote 7: The word Sirrah must not be confounded with Sir. It was no doubt made use of strictly in the sense of the only meaning Walker gives to it in his _Dictionary_, viz., “A compellation of reproach and insult.” Footnote 8: Of Thomas Robertson not much is known, but he appears to have been a faithful labourer in his day. Ambrose Rigge, in the _Account of his Life_, states. “A fellow-labourer was prepared for me, which was Thomas Robertson of Westmorland; who was made willing to leave his dear wife and tender babes, to go with me into the Lord’s harvest.” In _Letters, &c., of Early Friends_, p. 226, is a letter from Thomas Robertson to Margaret Fell, under date 1655. Footnote 9: