Memoirs of Maria Fox

Front matter

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CHAPTER I. Page

1793 — 1809. Parentage — Address to her children ^Biographical notice of her parents — Death of her brother — Her own and sister's education ^Decease of her mother, .... 9

Chapter II

1809 — 1819. Reminiscences of her character by contemporaries — Letters and memoranda — Essay on mental cultivation — Death of her father — Letters referring to this event — Botanical and other pursuits, . . . . . . . .26

Chapter III

1820 — 1826. Removal to Southampton — Letters — First appearance as a minister— House of Refuge — Letters and memoranda — Visit to Channel Islands — Illness — Letters and memoranda — Poetry — Letters, . . . . . . . .44

Chapter IV

1826. Journey on the Continent — Rotterdam — Amsterdam — Zeist — Deventer — Bentheim — Ippenbiihren — Osnabriick — Herford — Pyrmont — Minden — Rehme — Eidinghausen — Hille — Hanover — Celle — Hamburgh — Passage to England — Landing at South wold — Journey home, ....... 66

Chapter V

1826. Illness of a near relation — House of Refuge — Quarterly Meeting — W. and R. Byrd — Awful catastrophe — Races — Monthly Meeting — Offer of marriage — Letters — Death of her cousin — Quarterly Meeting — Visit to the Isle of Wight — Monthly Meeting— Liberated for religious engagement — Irish society — H. M.'s visits to work-

VI CONTENTS.

Page

house — Letters — Bible meeting — Leaves home for neighbourhood of London — Staines — Uxbridge — Brentford — Visit to families of Gracechurch-street Meeting — Return home — Quarterly Meeting —Illness, . . . . . . . .100

Chapter VI

1827. Continued illness — Prospect of religious service — Recovery — Presentation of marriage — Visit to Alton Monthly Meeting — Quarterly Meeting — Memoranda — Marriage, . . . 136

Chapter VII

1827. 1828. Sketch of her character — Bognor — Southampton — Uffculm — Wellington — Prospect of Religious service — Journey into Yorkshire — Religious engagements there — Return Home — Memoranda, . . . . . . . .153

Chapter VIII

1828, 1829. Birth of a son — Memoranda — Residence on the Devonshire coast — Visit to families of her own Monthly Meeting — Interment of P. H. Gurney — Quarterly Meeting — S. F.'s absence on

the continent — Yearly Meeting — Quarterly Meeting, . . 173

Chapter IX

1830—1833. Reflections— Visits to the poor— Establishment of Provident Society — W. and M. Smith — Birth of a son — Memoranda — Quarterly Meeting — Religious visit to Devon and Cornwall — Death of her sister-in-law — Religious service in Bristol — Reflections on birth-day — Illness and death of her husband's mother. . 199

Chapter X

1833 — 1835. Character as a mother — Birth of a son— Her sister's health declines — Death of her aunt, M. H. — Religious engagements — Lameness — Illness in family — Stay at Ilfracombe — Religious engagement in Lancashire and Yorkshire — Her sister's increased illness and decease, ..... 228

CHAPTER XL

1835—1837. Residence at Bath — Illness — Journey in Devon and Cornwall — Dawlish — Letters and Memoranda — Quarterly Meeting — Total abstinence — Epidemic — Visit to London — Suffolk — Yearly Meeting — Brighton — Return home, .... 253

CONTENTS. Vll

Chapter XII

Prospect of removing to London — Religious engagement in Somerset and Devon — Departure from Wellington — Settlement at Peckham — Negro apprenticeship — Memoranda and letters— Removal to Tottenham, . . . • . .282

Chapter XIII

1838, 1839. Settlement at Tottenham — Yearly Meeting — Journey in Kent — D. Wheeler— Interment at Reading — Religious engagements in Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire — Return Home — Memoranda — Quarterly Meeting's committee — Religious service in Beds and Herts Yearly Meeting — Journey to Wellington — Letters, ......... 304

Chapter XIV

1839, 1840. Religious engagements in London and Middlesex Quarterly Meeting — Decease of her aunt, E. Hoyland — Clerkenwell prison — Meetings in Tottenham and its neighbourhood — Interment of C. Wheeler — Religious engagements continued — Return of certificate, . . . . . . . 331

CHAPTER XIX. Page

1843. Religious engagement in Scotland and North of England — Danger at sea — General meeting at Aberdeen — Newcastle — Shields — Sunderland — Carlisle — Kendal — Lancashire — Return home — Change of residence — Illness of E. Robson — Last memorandum, ........ 429

Chapter XX

1843, 1844. Illness — Decease — Letters illustrative of character — Testimony of Tottenham Monthly Meeting, . . . 442

MEMOIES OF MARIA FOX.

Chapter I

1793 — 1809. Parentage — Address to her children — Biographical notice of her parents — Death of her brother — Her own and sister's education — Decease of her mother.

Maria Fox, the subject of this Memoir, was born at Wellingborough, in Northamptonshire, on the 30th of the Third Month, 1793. Her parents, Benjamin and Tabitha Middleton, were highly esteemed members of the Society of Friends, the former occupying, for many years, the station of elder, the latter that of a minister.

The following sketch from the pen of their daughter, supersedes the necessity of any other description. In this simple narration, will be found much practical instruction, and in the delineation here presented to our view of the characters of this estimable couple, is furnished a beautiful illustration of the reality, the power and efficacy of true religion.

This sweet tribute to the memory of her departed parents, cannot fail to derive additional interest from the touching address to her own beloved children, by which it is prefaced. It will be seen that the writer gives also a brief outline of the mode pursued in her own and her sister's early education, and the reader will only regret that the narrative terminates so abruptly. 2

My dear Children,

Your mother's parents were removed from this world long before you were born; but their memory is precious, and their pious example, in the various duties of their station, is often brought sweetly to my remembrance; so that I think it will be interesting as well as instructive for you to possess such particulars respecting them, as I may be able clearly to remember.

My dear father and mother lived in habits of close and confidential intimacy with their children ; we enjoyed their conversation, and listened with delight, when they related to us any circumstances of their past life that were likely to interest us, or to furnish lessons of instruction to our minds. My dear father would often engage our attention in this way. In the winter evenings, when we formed a happy circle round the fire, 1 sat in a little chair beside his knees, and used to listen with avidity to his recitals; some of the minute circumstances of which, are fixed more firmly in my memory, than many subsequent impressions.

Those are sweet and favoured hours, when children enjoy the society of their parents in the mutual interchange of affection and confidence; and I love to retrace such seasons, and to dwell on the remembrance of those excellencies which adorned the Christian character of these beloved parents. Of them, it might almost be said, in the words applied by Luke to Zacharias and Elizabeth, (and I have heard the text quoted by one who knew them intimately, in attempting to describe their character) that they walked "in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." Their conduct and conversation eminently adorned the doctrine of God our Saviour. They esteemed his service their noblest employment, and counted nothing too dear to part with for his sake. They were rich in works of faith and labours of Love, but, in true humility of heart, held themselves ever as unprofitable servants, and rested their hope of salvation on the glorious promises of the gospel of Christ. Their hearts were enlarged in his love, so that it was their delight, according to the ability he had given them, to "do good unto all men, especially unto them who" were "of the household of faith;" but that spirit of universal benevolence, which led them to feel for the wants and the sorrows of their fellow-creatures without distinction, did not withdraw them from the fulfilment of those more private duties which they owed to their family.

Of the manner in which they discharged their trust as parents, 1 can only say, that it is the prayer of my heart, that we may be enabled, by the power of divine grace, so to care for you, our precious children, so to walk before you, in humility and the fear of God, so to bear you upon our hearts before the throne of grace, and when we shall be taken from you, to leave upon your minds such an impression, as they have left upon the minds of their children, of the beauty as well as excellency of vital religion.

You have had pious ancestors on both sides; may it be your fervent prayer to become followers of them, as they followed Christ; patiently, humbly, meekly, to tread that path of self-denial in which they were content to walk, looking, through faith in a crucified Saviour, towards the crown of life laid up at the end of the race for them who love his appearing !

So prays your affectionate Mother,

M. F.

Wellington, 1S35.

Benjamin Middleton the elder, was a native of Highflatts in Yorkshire, but his family came originally from the village of Hope, near Castleton, in the Peak of Derbyshire. He removed from Highflatts, probably about the year 1730, and established himself at Wellingborough in the business of a woollen-draper. He began the world with few advantages besides the possession of an active, energetic mind and industrious habits. In the year 1737, he married Hannah Brooksbank, also a native of Highflatts or its neighbourhood. They had three children, Hannah, Mary, and Benjamin, the subject of the following narrative.

Benjamin Middleton (our dear father,) was born at Wellingborough in the county of Northampton, I believe on the 17th of Second Month, 1746, 0. S,, two days after the decisive defeat of the Scotch rebels, as they were termed, at the battle of Culloden. It was a time of genera! excitement, and the day of my dear father's birth, was a day of great agitation and alarm throughout the northern and midland counties, from the prevalence of a rumour that victory had been on the side of the Scotch, and that their troops were rapidly advancing towards the capital. So fully was this report believed, and so great was the confusion and dismay it produced, that the day was long spoken of in popular language, under the epithet of "Running Saturday."

Of my dear father's early childhood, much is not known; but he appears to have been of a sweet and tender spirit, and seriously inclined when very young, though a child of great natural vivacity, and, it seems, not wanting in spirit when circumstances called it forth. I have heard him say, that one of his earliest recollections was of a contested election for the county, which took place when he was about three years old, and that hearing a man in the street vociferate the name of one of the candidates, he immediately shouted the other, and threw an apple he held in his hand at the man who showed himself on the side contrary to that which was espoused by his father ; a proof that children imbibe, at a very early age, the spirit and temper of those with whom they are nearly associated. He received the rudiments of education from a schoolmaster at Wellingborough, who, though principally selftaught, had acquired considerable knowledge of mathematics and the science of astronomy. From this native genius, he probably imbibed a fondness for arithmetical calculations, and a taste for geography and astronomy, which were conspicuous through life.

About this time John Hirst of Sheffield, a distant relation, was occasionally a guest at their house. The accounts he gave of the various manufactures carried on at Sheffield, awakened in the mind of my dear father an earnest desire to visit this extraordinary place, and made him willingly accede to the proposal of his father that he should be apprenticed to J. H. It was a very great trial to the feelings of his affectionate mother to part with him at the age of twelve years, especially as he was sent this journey of about, one hundred miles with the packhorses; a mode at that time generally used for the conveyance of goods, and of which travellers frequently availed themselves. It was in the winter season; for I have heard him speak of traversing the forest near Nottingham in the snow, and being often obliged to walk to keep himself warm.

The business carried on by John Hirst and his partners, was the manufacture of plated stirrups and bridle-bits, and my dear father was taught to work in the various processes of it. In the early part of his apprenticeship, he met with many trials from his situation as the youngest among a number of men and boys, whose conversation and habits were very uncongenial to him: some of them, with the insensibility which marks a low or depraved mind, considered it a matter of amusement to inflict suffering on his acute feelings. These trials had perhaps the effect of deepening those religious impressions which had been carefullycherished by his mother. He was very fond of reading, and devoted most of his leisure hours to the improvement of his mind, and with this view he attended an evening school kept by a Friend. He was diligent in the perusal of the Holy Scriptures and other religious books, and early felt the value of opportunities for private meditation and secret waiting upon the Lord. He was privileged with free access to the houses of some valuable friends at Sheffield, amongst whom were William and Mary Fairbank. They treated him with affectionate kindness, and he cherished for them a strong and permanent friendship; always speaking with grateful sensibility of their religious care for him during this interesting period of his life.

During the time of his apprenticeship he had the small-pox so severely, that his life was despaired of by his attendants. At this juncture, his father, who had been sent for, arrived. He had just read a publication which recommended a mode of treatment directly opposite to that which had long been pursued in this disorder; and being a man of considerable resolution and firmness of character, he urged the immediate adoption of a course which appeared to him most rational. The medical men were very averse to his proposal; but, seeing the critical situation of his son, he resolved on the change, and proceeded immediately to admit air into the heated apartment, sitting down himself by the bed-side to watch the effect. He soon had the satisfaction of observing favourable indications, and the event fully answered his hopes.

The uniform stability of my dear father's conduct, his fidelity and diligence in business during the term of his apprenticeship, had so far gained him the confidence and esteem of his masters, that at the termination of it they concluded to offer him a share in the concern. This appeared, at the time, a very advantageous proposal to a young man who had little expectation of advancement in the world, but by his own care and exertion. His mind, however, which had long been secretly bending under the transforming power of divine grace, was deeply sensible of the importance of a step which was likely to have an influence on his whole future life; and as he earnestly desired to follow, in humility of heart, the teachings of a Saviour who pleased not himself, he could not venture on accepting this offer, without taking time for serious deliberation and asking counsel of the Lord.

Whilst thus carefully endeavouring to ascertain the course pointed out for him by best wisdom, different views of the subject presented themselves. On one hand, there was the inducement held out of a comfortable establishment in a businesss with which he was well acquainted, and of settlement in a place where he enjoyed many social and religious privileges; on the other, his mind, strongly alive to the claims of filial duty and domestic affection, turned with tender interest to the situation of his parents. His father, from the pressure of increasing infirmities, was become less capable of conducting the business at home, and his mother naturally looked to her only son as the stay of her declining years. Under these circumstances, it appeared right to hold himself so far at liberty as to be able, whenever it should become necessary, fully to devote himself to their comfort and assistance. He therefore declined to accept a share in the business at Sheffield, but continued, for several years longer, to be employed in it. With this determination his mind was well satisfied, and, in the unfolding of subsequent events, he found cause to look back upon it as a providential leading.

In the year 1769, his eldest sister Hannah died. My father went home on this occasion, to attend the interment, and to visit his bereaved parents. He returned to Sheffield, and continued his former employment until his twenty-fourth year; when, his mother feeling the want of his assistance to carry on the business, for which her husband was still more disqualified, he resigned his situation, took leave of his many kind friends at Sheffield, by whom he was highly esteemed, and returned to the parental roof. In the document issued by Balby Monthly Meeting, recommending him to that of Wellingborough, it is certified that his conduct, so far as it was known to his friends, was sober, unblamable, and consistent with our Christian profession.

Here I may mention a little incident which occurred in one of his journeys from Sheffield to Wellingborough, and which, though trivial in itself, he often adverted to with interest and pleasure. Riding on horseback near the town of Market Harborough, he overtook an elderly man, whose appearance was that of a shepherd or labouring husbandman. There was something in the honest simplicity of his countenance, which so arrested my father's attention, that he slackened his pace, in order to let the stranger again come up with him, and when he did so, was somewhat surprised at his accosting him in the language peculiar to our Society. A conversation followed, in which my father was so interested, that he prevailed on his companion to stay at the next town and take some refreshment with him. It appeared that this aged friend was going to London from one of the dales of Yorkshire, where he lived on a small farm of five pounds per annum. The product of this farm maintained himself and a sister who kept his house, whilst another sister, who boarded with him, paid him sixteen pence per week for her maintenance. They manufactured their own wool for clothing, and lived chiefly on milk and vegetables. Having been this year unusually successful with his flock of twenty-eight sheep, he was anxious to attend the Yearly Meeting. He said that some of his friends at Kendal had been solicitous about his undertaking so long a journey on foot, with his slender means; and they had kindly furnished him with the names of several friends who would accommodate him with a meal or lodging, but that, in general, he did not feel freedom to avail himself of this; he had, mostly, sought refreshment at small inns, and though in some of these he had not been very well received, he seemed to be cheerfully pursuing his journey. The contentment and independence of this worthy man, in his very humble circumstances, made a lasting impression on the mind of my father, who, several years afterwards, ascertained him to be an esteemed minister in our Society; his name, John Arker. It appeared that he died shortly after his return home from this journey.

When my dear father was settled at Wellingborough, though he found comfort in the performance of his relative duties and in the company of his mother and sister, to whom he was tenderly attached, he met with great trials from various causes. At Sheffield, he had enjoyed many social and religious privileges; but in the small meeting of which he was now become a member, there were few, if any, with whom he could associate with satisfaction. In 1773, he was deprived by death of his valuable mother. He felt this loss acutely; and, to advanced life, cherished her memory with an affection truly filial. His aged father and his sister Mary still remained with him ; and he continued to carry on the business, or such parts of it as did not produce uneasiness in his mind. The furnishing of funerals, a very profitable branch of it, carried on by his father, he was best satisfied to decline, as inconsistent with the simplicity professed by Friends; and, in general, he directed his attention chiefly to the sale of useful, substantial articles, rather ihan of such as are merely showy and ornamental. But, though his income was by this means circumscribed, he had a prospect of moderate success, from his diligence and exertion, when a circumstance occurred, which threatened to involve him in serious difficulty. The owner of the house in which he resided, was a man of property, and having brought up one of his sons to the business of a draper, he gave his tenant notice to quit the premises, within a very short period. At that juncture, there was no situation to be procured in the town, eligible for business. The only house that could be obtained, was in a poor street, out of the way of the market, and altogether unfavourable for the establishment of a shop. His neighbours considered it a hopeless undertaking, especially as he would have a moneyed competitor in the young man who was to succeed him. The house to which my dear father removed was in a ruinous condition, and needed great repairs to make it at all tenantable. His sister wept at the idea of leaving their comfortable home for this uninviting place, where they became settled about the year 1774. For a considerable time, the business declined ; the young man who had entered on the former shop, using every means in his power to secure the customers. During this time of trial and discouragement, my father was favoured to maintain a reliance on that good Hand which had hitherto cared for him, and to persevere in a course of conscientious integrity, abstaining from all attempts to injure his opponent, which he considered incompatible with the Christian rule. After some time the young man failed from imprudent attempts to extend his business, when my father's customers gradually returned, so that at the end of a few years he had the prospect of making a competent livelihood, and was able to improve his house and roomy premises, until it became a truly comfortable and convenient home.

In the year 1775, his affectionate feelings met with another severe trial in the death of his sister Mary, about the thirty-third year of her age; and in the year 1777, his father was also removed by death. He was now left alone, having no near relative remaining, and few, if any, friends in his neighbourhood to whom he could open his feelings with intimate freedom. But in this time of deep proving of faith, when it pleased the Lord to exercise him with great afflictions, and to lead him in a solitary way, his eye was steadily fixed on that Almighty Helper whom he had found to he a God keeping covenant; and in his holy fear, he was favoured to experience preservation ; so that from the testimony of those who knew him at this period, it may be said, that in his humble walking and his circumspect life and conversation, he was an example to the believers, and became gradually qualified to be more extensively useful to others.

The state of religion in the meetings around him, was lamentably low. There was great slackness of discipline, and moral disorders had crept in; whilst amongst those who lamented it, there were few who had the courage or zeal to stand forward for the maintenance of good order. The mind of my dear father was deeply affected ; and great was the exercise and burden of his spirit on account of the backsliding state of the church. He felt that he was young and inexperienced, whilst some of those who were active in the affairs of the Society, had long been looked up to, and were advanced in years; though it is to be feared they had lost much of their best strength, by suffering a temporizing spirit to becloud their judgment and weaken their resolution. But as he sought after the qualifying influences of the divine Spirit, and desired, in deep humility of heart, to learn of that blessed Saviour who declared himself to be meek and lowly, he was favoured not only to find seasons of refreshment to his weary and sorrowful soul, but was also enabled to put on strength in the name of the Lord, and to support with firmness and dignity, what he apprehended to be the cause of truth and righteousness.

It was probably about this period, but the date is not exactly known, that my father experienced a preservation, of which he spoke in after life with a deep feeling of humble gratitude. On a fine morning in the Second Month, he walked to Kettering, seven miles, to attend the Monthly Meeting. Soon after he set out on his return home, snow began to fall, which increased to an almost blinding degree, the wind drifting it into his face. In a short time the ground was so thickly covered, that it became difficult to distinguish the road, which lay through an unenclosed district. He stopped at the door of a small public-house, about half-way, to seek shelter for the night; but finding there a company of noisy, riotous people, he determined to go forward in the hope of reaching home. After walking a considerable distance, he found he had deviated widely from the road, although no object was in view whereby he could ascertain his exact situation.

He had long looked in vain for any thing which might mark the road; and being one not much frequented, he might probably, in such a storrn, have perished unseen by any person. Overpowered by cold, and fatigued with traversing heaps of drifted snow, he despaired of retracing his steps, and was ready to give himself up to that benumbing torpor which seizes on the frame of persons so exposed, when, casting an anxious look over the extended space which spread itself around him, he perceived, at a considerable distance, a cart descending a hill. This welcome sight roused his sinking spirits ; and renewing his exertion, he at length succeeded in reaching it, and was conveyed home.

Whilst my dear father was left alone, as to kindred ties, in a situation replete with trials and difficulties, he enjoyed the privilege of intimate friendship with some highly estimable characters at a distance, particularly with Mary Brook of Leighton Buzzard, who was his cousin, and with Ruth Fallowes of Castle Donnington. With the former, he maintained a constant correspondence. She was a woman of strong mind and acute penetration; and her judicious counsel, on many occasions, was highly valued by her younger friend.

My father met with another trial in his temporal affairs, from the conduct of a young man who had served his apprenticeship with him, and had conducted himself during that time much to the satisfaction of his master. He was the son of a Friend living within the compass of Wellingborough Monthly Meeting, and his parents professed a particular friendship for my father. On the expiration of his term, however, they recommended him to open a shop in the same line of business at Wellingborough; but, with a show of consideration, intimated that it was not to be done without the approval of his late master. My father observed, that he held it as a principle of common justice, that every man had a right to seek an honest livelihood wherever he might think himself most likely to obtain it; and that, on this account, he had never made it a stipulation with his apprentices that they should not interfere with him in this respect; that, consequently, he could place no impediment in the young man's way, if they thought Wellingborough the most eligible place for him; at the same time, mentioning to them several other places where he considered there was a much fairer opening,than in a small town adequately supplied already with shops h} their line. The determination of the young man was, however, already taken, and the shop was opened. He was a person of good address, and, from his intimate knowledge of my father's business, and long acquaintance with his principal customers, with some of whom he had been endeavouring to ingratiate himself, he soon succeeded in establishing a business; and his success told, at the end of a year, in the diminished income of my father.

This was discouraging, especially at a time when he was looking towards a change in his situation, by marriage, but it was the habit of his pious and upright mind, to refer all outward circumstances to that providential care and guidance, which he had so remarkably experienced in his solitary course. He had a firm reliance on the gracious promise of our blessed Saviour, that to those who seek first his kingdom, and its righteousness, all things needful shall be added, and was enabled, in a more than ordinary manner, to commit his temporal concerns in faith, to the good hand of that God who clothes the lilies of the field, esteeming a little, with his blessing, better than all the treasures of a deceitful world. The young man soon became elated with his prosperity; and, having married a wife with some property, began to feel less inclined for daily attendance behind the counter. He now added the corn trade to his other business, and frequented the markets of the neighbouring towns: in this way, he gradually acquired a relish for unprofitable company, and was easily induced by travellers in business to spend his evenings with them, at their inns: the fatal habit of drinking followed, and his too much neglected business gradually forsook him. My father, who ever acted towards him the part of a true friend, did what lay in his power to awaken him to a sense of his danger, and of the duty he owed to his wife and young family, but without effect, and a few years saw him brought to beggary. His wife, for whom my dear parents felt much sympathy, and who was an object of their care and kindness, died, it was believed, of a broken heart.