Elizabeth, evidently named for her little sister, was born in 1791,
and lived to a good old age. She passed away in 1871. She was never
married, and occasionally accompanied her father on his religious
visits. She was known in the neighborhood, in her later years at least,
as "Aunt Elizabeth," and is the best-remembered of any of the children
of Elias Hicks. As the Friends remember her she was a spare woman,
never weighing over ninety pounds.
The youngest child of the family, Sarah, was born in 1793. She married
Robert Seaman, her kinsman, and died in 1835. Robert, her husband, died
in 1860.
It will be seen that the home at Jericho was a house acquainted with
grief. Of the ten children, Martha, David, Elias and little Elizabeth
made up the juvenile members of the household, up to the time of the
death of the latter. Phebe came the same year, while Abigail was born
three years later, so that there were at least four or five children
always gathered around the family board. Before the passing away
of Elias and David, the family had been increased by the birth of
Jonathan, making the children living at one time six. After the death
of the three older boys, and the birth of Elizabeth and Sarah, until
the death of John in 1805, living children were still six in number.
The five daughters, Martha, Phebe, Abigail, Elizabeth and Sarah all
outlived their parents.
Elias Hicks was undoubtedly a most affectionate father, as the
letters to his wife and children show. How much this was diluted by
the apparent sternness of his religious concerns is a matter for the
imagination to determine. What were the amusements of this large family
is an interesting question in this "age of the child," with its surfeit
of toys and games. What were the tasks of the girls it is not so hard
to answer. Of course they worked "samplers," pieced quilts, learned to
spin and knit, and possibly to weave, and to prepare the wool or flax
for the loom. If we read between the lines in the description of their
father, we can easily infer that the physically afflicted sons were
nevertheless not without the joys of boyhood.
At all events, if it was an afflicted family, it was also a united
one. It was a home where the parents were reverenced by the children,
and where there was a feeling of love, and a sense of loyalty. This
feeling is still characteristic of the descendants of Elias Hicks. It
is a sample of the persistence of the qualities of a strong man, in the
generations that come after him.
Of the four daughters of Elias Hicks who were married, but two had
children, so that the lineal descendants of the celebrated Jericho
preacher are either descendants of Martha Hicks, wife of Valentine,
or of Sarah Hicks Seaman. These two branches of the family are quite
numerous.[50]
[50] The descendants referred to will be given in their proper place in
the Appendix.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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