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Daniel Soul to Eli Soul
London October 17 1790
Dear Brother
I hope you will forgive me for not writing sooner after my return. I thought to have seen you at Greenford yesterday. But the morning looked so unfavourable, also my wife does not like me to be so long from home till she is put to bed. I arrived safe on Wednesday. Last Sunday was so wet as I purposed to set off then. Then I should if I could have got inside the coach have enjoyed the company of that good man of God Mr Joss. He had just come to Rodborough to stop 6 weeks, but was obliged to set off after preaching in the morning to preach a funeral sermon at Tabernacle. However he has got leave from the managers to go again, and he sets off this evening.
My dear brother, I am ashamed of myself when I consider upon progress of religion in the country. There they seem to enjoy the life and power of religion. There seems more of a growth in grace there than among London professors, though we seem to have the advantage with respect to the means of grace. O that I and that you may grow more therein.
I have paid for your flocks, have got your serge and your seal, and two letters. We will talk more about it between our two selves. I remain with all friends respects and more,
D Soul
John & Mary Soul to Eli Soul
Mr Eli Soul at the Revd Dr Glasses, Greenford, Middx.
Ebley 8 October 1791
My Dear Son
I have but just time to write a few lines to you, so pray excuse me for the present. We received the hamper safe & sound, for which I return you many thanks, and as you desired me to let you know how matters stood between us, I shall send you the particulars
£ s d
the 1st is 2 pair of shoes 15 - 0
2nd caps 1 - 8
3rd shirts 1 - 0 - 0
4th bed case 16 - 8
5th 27 lb of flocks 13 - 6
6th 1 pair of shoes 7 - 0
-------------
£ 3 - 13 - 10
sum sent 4 - 4 - 0
laid out 3 - 13 - 10
-------------
remain 0 - 10 - 2
The flocks for the coachman will not come before this day 3 weeks, which with the papering which they will be packt up in will come to £1 12s which your brother hath paid. As for the blue cloth that I was to get for you, I believe you are right about it, but I'll endeavour to get you some and send before Christmas if I can.
Now may the Lord give you faith in his Dear Self to honour and glorify by venturing upon him for pardon & peace, and every thing that a poor sinner stands in need of, and may the Dear Lord Jesus increase that Divine breathing in your soul that you may be like Holy David never be satisfied until you awake up after his likeness. Be much in prayer and looking up to God with expectation and he will never fail you, for he is always more ready to hear than we are to pray and to give more than we ask. Therefore have confidence in God, tho at the same time have no confidence in the flesh and in any thing you do, and yet do every thing as if you was to be saved by it. May the Lord help us to persevere to the end, and sanctify every disappointment to us for Jesus's sake amen
I hope these few lines will find you well as it leaves us at present, blessed be God for it, and for every mercy amen. At one time I did hope to have seen all my children together once more here below, but however all is for the best, tho we can't always see it so. May you and I and all the family meet at last above, there to spend a blest eternity together is the sincere prayer of you loving and affectionate father & mother
J & M Soul.
Daniel Soul to Eli Soul
Mr Soul
Rev Dr Glasse's
Greenford near Southall
Middlesex
Dear Brother Jany 9 1792
I have this day received a letter from Emma wrote on Tuesday night while sitting up with our Dear Parent. The account was too true that he was dangerously ill. However, blessed be God, he is now better and pronounced out of danger. His illness commenced on Sunday week last with cold shivering which was succeeded by an inflammatory fever which settled on his lungs attended by a violent pain on his side. But I am happy to hear his fever has been rebuked and that a violent cough he had is much better, though he is very weak and low. which is no wonder. As for the course of last week, they thought he could not live. This my sister says was told him when (see the effects of faith in a dying hour) he was all resignation and could say with St Paul none of these things move me, for he was founded on the rock Christ. She adda a prayer that she may be prepared to look death in the face with equal composure, which petition that God may answer to each one of us my heart says amen. Thisd is the time that a notion of religion only will be of no use. O that I may be helped tp examine myself daily whether the root of these matters be in me. Mr Rud attended Father from his first illness. He bled him six times and did all he could till he found him grow worse. Then he thought proper to have the advice of Dr Thornton of Stroud. whose joint endeavours the Lord has been pleased to bless. Father once more gives his love to us and promises to write as soon as he is able. Emma would have wrote to you but she is out at Mr Rud's at a 70 spindle machine so has but little time at home. This added to the great distress of mind she alleges as the reason she did not write and indeed if it were not for my anxiety I should consider it a very good cause. I conclude you ever loving
and affectionate brother DS
Daniel Soul to Eli Soul
Mr Soul, Rev Dr Glasses, No 33 Gerrard Street, Soho,
Feb 20 1793
Dear Brother
Death has again paid me a visit and taken with him my son John. He had been rather worse than usual about a fortnight, we suppose with his teeth and old complaint together. And on Monday morning, without those violent agonies my other poor John was in, sweetly fell asleep. I cannot say I feel so much sensibility of affliction at parting with him as I did in parting with my first, because he (at 16 months old tomorrow) could neither speak nor use his feet or hardly his hands, and had he lived, there was to me no prospect of his ever walking or working. So God has graciously taken him out of this world of care sin and sorrow and has I hope translated him into the Kingdom of his Dear Son to be an inheritor with the saints in light------
Dear Brother, by reading your last I perceive Satan is never at a Lop. He has temptations and doubts for every believer under every circumstance. Because you have been restrained from that excess of riot I ran into, you are in doubt of the safety of your state and the certainty of your call, but don't you see Satan's cloven foot in it? God's ways are unsearchable and not as our ways, and is it to be supposed we shall fully understand them until that day when all the chosen seed shall meet around the Throne &c. Then we shall see why the wicked are now exalted and the righteous groaning out their life under the weight of daily sins, doubts, temptations, and for the most part poverty and great trials in temporals. God could I doubt not, when he takes away the love of sin, at once take out the root of it from our hearts, was it not that he sees it best for us, and most conducive to his glory it should remain. We should not so clearly see his hand, nor have so many deliverances to place to his account, nor would the end of our journey be so often desired, nor perhaps the rest that remains be so sweet. But my dear Br, in answer to your question whether God finally rejects any to whom he has given a desire to seek his face, a love to prayer and praying people, a loathing wordly practices and ungodly companions, and a desire for holiness, I answer to me it seems impossible, the man who has these has the witness in himself that he is born of God. It is the effect of divine power &, as the magicians said by Moses's miracle, it is the finger of God. None but him can do it. The world wishes not, and Satan cannot any further than outside shew, which I fear is too much the case with me. I have heard it remarked as an observation of Mr Whitfield's that though many Christians who had before conversion lived moral lives were often in doubts of being right. Yet he said others were in greater danger of sitting down with reformation and to think it was regeneration. This will apply to you and to me, and may God give us right understanding in all things is the prayer of your loving brother
Danl Soul.
I hear Dr Glass is to preach at Bishopsgate 17th March. I hope it is true and that I shall see you here that day. Could you enquire how much cerseymere[?] would make a coat. Faced with the same for me.
Daniel Soul to Eli Soul
Mr Soul, Rev Dr Glasses, No 33 Gerrard Street, Soho,
March 6 1793
Dear Brother
I hope this will find you well, as I am glad to hear yours left you, and as through mercy this leaves me in body. But my Dear Brother, I find another trial to wade through. God has for some time past been very gracious in filling my hand with work, and now he sees fit to withhold his hand. I have been out of employ near three weeks myself. I have now got a little, but out of 3 other looms have but one employed. So that if the way did not lay through much tribulation I should give all up. But then my soul says to whom should I go. However, I will tell you I find it much easier to trust in the providence of God when things go smoothly on than when otherwise. The reason, I presume, is this, we walk, if we can, more by sight than by faith, so that God sees fit sometimes to remove even temporal prospects and objects from our sight, to lead and teach us to walk by faith, and to keep us in the sphere of life he has most wisely appointed for us. I confess to you that my ambition did begin to lead or entice me to covet something I thought would be more profitable than my present employment. But him who knows our thoughts, and what is best for us, seems to have but withdrawn his hand about 3 months, and I find myself near £10 poorer. This will I hope operate as a check to my ambitious discontent. May it make me more intent and earnest for that City to come, since here I find no continuing one. I assure you I had need cry to the strong for strength to subdue my corruptions, those hidden evils of my heart which among other things too often lead me to try to serve God and mammon, which Jesus says I cannot do.
I thank you for your information respecting going into Glostershire and think if your inclinations lead you to go to shearing you have a comfortable chance, if there is such a thing, but the plan does not meet my full consent. I wish you something easier labour and to see you oftener than I could then.
I believe your watch is done. I remain yours affectionately, D. Soul
John & Mary Soul to Eli & Elizabeth Soul.
Ebley, Nov 2 1793
Mr Eli Soul at Mr Danl Soul, in Austin Street Nr 10, behind Shoreditch Church, London
My Dear Son & Daughter
I congratulate you on your happy union with each other. May the Lord unite you both not only to each other but to himself with the covenant bonds of the gospel by his spirit thru Christ Jesus, the head of the church. Then when the union is dissolved with each other , which death will do, you will be taken up to your Head, the Bridegroom above, where you shall live and reign with him for ever, even so amen.
I thank you for the present you sent me as a token of your love and affection towards us all, indeed. I want to know how it is with your brother [Daniel]. Whether he has any business yet. My love to him, and please to tell him that as he has set out for the Celestial City he must expect tribulations by the way. Tell him to beg the Lord that it may work patience and patience, experience and experience, hope, hope that maketh not ashamed, and may the love of God be shed abroad in his and in yours and in mine and in all our hearts by the Holy Ghost, amen.
My love to his wife and to my grandson and to cousin John and his wife and to all friends. Emmi & Kezia & your brother & sister Webb's love to you and your dear wife & to their brother Daniel and his wife and to all friends, and please to accept the same from your affectionate father and mother J. and M, Soul
PS All things are again upon an amicable footing and very friendly in the two families about Emmi & John, & I am very well satisfied.
John & Mary Soul to Eli & Elizabeth Soul.
Mr Eli Soul, Long Alley No 43, Moorfields, London,
Ebley, March 8 1794,
Dear Son & Daughter
This night I have sent you by Tanner's waggon a flitch of very nice bacon.
40 pounds at 6 1/2d per pound
£ S D
1:1:4
(Only 4d towards carriage.) If it answers your end, please to give me orders and I'll send you another.
Moly Mathews is come home. She did not go to town and by what I can learn Moly Sineger is not coming down again. She behaved so to her uncle that he might have given up house keeping if she hadn't left him. By what I learn she is like what St Paul says some professers are, like sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. So you see you be deceived in others, may the Lord prevent us from being deceived about our own eternal state, examining as the apostle saith your own selves whether you be in the faith & life all diligence to make your calling & election sure, for it is not all gold that glittereth. Some are counterfeit. My dear son, let nothing satisfy you but the renewing regenerating work of the Spirit God which may witness with your spirit that you are born of God. May the Lord Jesus Christ who loved poor sinners shed abroad his love in your heart & mine and all near and dear to us, by the holy Ghost. Even so amen.
I have directed the bacon to your house only. If you don't have any more bacon, I'll take the first opportunity to send the residue of the money for the tea. The congou pleased very well, but the bohea is not trading.
Your Mother is much the same with her complaint. Your Aunt Temple is a good deal better than when wrote to your brother this week. Kezia is at Bath with her gd mother. All the others' love to you both, and please to accept the same from your affectionate father,
J & M Soul.
Daniel Soul to Eli Soul
Jany 29 1795
Dear Brother
I have just rec'd your kind letter, and return you my grateful thanks for the trouble you have taken for me. I should rejoice to have an opportunity in some measure to return your kindness. I should have come to see you before you leave town but am rather busy all this and next week; the week after I expect to be at play. Your watch is in hand & I hope you will have it by Lady Day. But is not you plan of leaving us at that time altered? I assure you I wish your time was come to leave your present manner of employment, but I do not wish you to settle in Glostershire. I thought to be so inquisitive, when I last saw you. as to ask your intentions, but had not opportunity, nor you time. May you be directed by the Infallible guide in this very important affair you now have in hand. You loving Br D. Soul
I look for you every evening to come and spend a few minutes.
Emma Soul to Eli & Elizabeth Soul.
Febry 11 1798
Dear brother & sister
I think its out of my turn but as Mr Portlock is coming to town I take the opportunity of sending a line to you to let you know we are all well, as I hope this will find you.
Dear brother will you be so kind to buy me a braid as near the colour of the pattern as you can but not brighter. I should like a tolerable good one. I will leave you to be judge of the price. I have sent half a guinea and what you have over please buy some little trifle for little Bec[ki]e with my kind love to her and little Samy. Mr Portlock has been, so I send it by my neighbours. You may send that if you please to be left at my aunt Temple's. Please to seal it up as they may not know what it is.
With my kind love to you both, hoping to see you this summer down here, to brother D, to cousin John, from you ever loving sister
Emma Soul
John & Mary Soul to Eli & Elizabeth Soul.
Mr Eli Soul, Long Alley No 43, Moorfields, London,
Ebley, March 23 1798
Dear Son & Daughter
I am almost ashamed to write to you after so long silence. One reason was that I have waited for to send by Mr Porlock but I have missed of the time when when he hath set out for 3 times. But now I have an opportunity to send by Mr Thomas and to let you know that my affection is not abated towards you in the least but I trust I have you in mind at a throne of grace continually that the Lord may bless you in temporals and spirituals that you may grow in grace and in the knowledge and love of the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope that the life and power of religion is kept up in your soul. I have as to my own experience to lament the darkness of my mind and deadness of my affections and borrowings of my soul. But then what must such a poor sinner do? Why go to Jesus the friend of sinners, he that can heal all manner of diseases. Aye and he's as willing as he is able, for he says whosoever cometh unto me , I will in no wise cast out. So may the lord help us at all times and in all places to look to him who is the helper of the helpless amen & amen
I should be exceeding glad to hear from you by the bearer how you go on in the ways of God and likewise in the world, and how your brother Daniel goes on. Tho I send letters to him, he will not write to me. May the Lord bring him back again to himself. Then all animosity and shyness will be done away. How is Betsy and how does she grow? And how is my other grandchild? Please to give my love to all enquiring friends and tell them we are all in good health, and I hope these few lines will find uou the same. Your brother and sister Webb and E(mma) & Kez(ia) give their kind love to you, and please to accept the same from you affectionate father and mother
J and M Soul
Christiana Webb to Eli & Elizabeth Soul.
Aug 2 1799
Dear Brother & Sister
I take this opportunity of scribbling over a few lines unto you, as having an opportunity of sending it by Mr Nichols, hoping it will find you all in good health as blessed be God it leaves us all at present. But dear Brother we want the upper spring blessings, that you mention in your letter to me, in more abundance bestowed upon us. For we are in an ensnaring world and our own wicked hearts, that is prone to all thats evil and backward to all thats good, O that the lord would change our wicked hearts and conform them unto his own image and bring us into the bond of the covenant, as our dear father used to pray continually. O that his prayers may be answered upon every branch of this family, and then I shall be in the number. I think, dear brother, we have lost a great blessing in losing such a parent that prayed daily and hourly for us. O that the lord would teach me how to pray and bring me into his fold, that I only may not be missing at the great day of judgement, that our dear father may be enabled to say here am I and the children thou hast given to me, amen, so be it.
Dear brother, if the wind had not proved contrary, as you said in your letter to my sister Emmi, I should have been very glad to have seen you this summer. We are very comfortably situated up in our old place. I think it seems pleasanter than it used to be. I hope next summer, if please god, to have the happiness of your company. I saw my sister Emmi yesterday, and she seemed in good health. My mother desires her kind love to all of you and hopes you are all well. Her health was very bad all last winter but when the weather was warmer she got a little the better of it. She is in pretty good health now and likes the place very well. I thank you for your letter to me. My husband desires his kind to you and all friends. My children sends their duty to you. The unworthy sister C.W.
Emma Soul to Eli & Elizabeth Soul.
Mr Eli Soul, at no 2 Long Alley, Moorfields, London,
August 3 1799
Dear Brother and Sister
I thank you for your kind letter by Mr Nichols. I am very glad to hear you are well and, if please God, should be glad to see you once more here in the country, but if the wind proves contrary, we must just wait. However if I live till next summer, I hope to come and see you if you don't come down here.
Dear brother, I thank you very kindly for you kind offer to come and live with you. If I knew how to get my bread in London, I would soon be there, though I am very comfortable at present, as Mr Nichols will tell you, as I have broke off all connections with one you know, ever since the death of our dear father, for which I am slighted by my relations, but I don't care for that now I don't live with them. May you and I, dear brother, be found at last numbered with the blessed with our dear parent who is sure to receive the answer to his prayer. How many times, nay it was his constant practice to pray that we all might be found at God's right hand at last. May I be among the happy number. If I am kept, what will it avail me if all the rest is there. I fear sometimes I shall be the only one left out.
Dear brother, I am happy to think I did not harken to my cousin John, but in mercy was prevented, yet I wish him well. Please to give my kind love to him when you see him, to brother Daniel if you see him, love to your children, to sister Betty and should be glad to see her again. Please to accept the same yourself. From your ever affectionate sister Emma Soul.
Eli Soul to Christiana Webb
London June 26 1807
My Dear Sister
I have not wrote nor heard from you a great while, but you have nevertheless been the subject of my thoughts oftentimes & I doubt not but we have been of yours also, & I hope we have had a share in your prayers at the throne of grace. What a blessed privilege it is that you & me can often meet there before your God & my God, who is the God of our parents who carried them & supported them through the wilderness, & blessed be his name. We according to the course of nature are more than half way on our journey & perhaps very near our journey's end, but my Dear Sister look forward with a joyful solemnity & picture to our view the moment when we shall have done with these perishing things of time & sense , & bid a solemn farewell to our near & dear relatives, and may God of his infinite mercy grant that we may when that awful moment come, like Jacob of old, call our children & charge them & bless them & encourage them, to love fear and serve the God of Israel, & then gather up our feet into the bed & give up the ghost. What a beautiful picture of dying is that given of him. May God of his infinite mercy grant that our later end may be like his. I should also pray that my life & yours & all near and dear to us may be also the lives & have the experiences of God's dear children while here below. I can truly take up David's words & say "one day in thy courts is better than a thousand elsewhere". & I should rather have the meanest life with Christ as my friend than have the most exalted situation & be destitute of an interest in him. I trust that this is my Dear Sister's sentiments also. Then let us pray that we may live nearer to him day by day. Then my Dear Sister we shall live more to his Glory. We daily need his strength to suport us to keep us from falling & how much do we need his forgiving love who are hourly transgessing against his mercy & grace. When I look back on all the way I have been, through his goodness & mercy, brought, I stand amazed. What a life of mercy have I experienced & yet how have I slighted his kindness & sinned against so good & gracious a God. Yeah the scriptures say there is hope in Israel. Concerning this thing, may God grant my hope may not be the hope of a hypocrite but the blessed experience of his children, & may the lord prepare us by his divine grace & grant unto us the blessed influence of his holy spirit to guide & bring us unto that blessed place prepared for his people through the merits of Jesus Christ our dear Redeemer amen.
PS Pardon my scribble while upon guard to fill up an hour to some profit I hope to you & to me. We are all tolerably well, thanks be to God, & hope that this will find you also well & happy. Our love to you all from your ever affectionate brother Eli Soul.
Eli Soul to Elizabeth Soul
To Mrs. Soul, No 49 Little Cheapside, Moorfields, London,
Mr Dear Becy
By the blessing of God I arrived safe at Stroud five minutes before 12 o'clock very much tired with sitting so long on the coach, & my sister had not rec'd the letter which Eli put in. So I walked gently down by the side of the river & from there to Sister Merrett's who I found at home. She desires her kind love to you & the children. I hope you will also accept my love to you & give my love to all my children. But my Dear ... there is the same God in London as here & here as in London, & he never faileth or forsaketh any that pray unto him & put their trust in him. May you my dear experience his goodness & mercy not only in temporal things which will soon decay & be gone but in spiritals which will last for ever & ever, which is I trust is my daily prayer for you that this may be your happy position here & in eternity. I hope you will not trouble about me but take care of your self & the children.
I shall if please God set off again at 3 o'clock on Thursday next from Stroud. Then I shall see you again on Friday morning about 10 o'clock.
PS Please to give my respects to all my friends that enquire after me. Farewell till I see you. Yours affectionately, E. Soul.
Cains Cross, October 6 1810, Glostershire.
Will of Eli Soul
Know all men by these presents that I do give and bequeath to my beloved wife the whole and all of my personal property to be at her disposal after my decease, save & except my watch which I give to my eldest son Eli.
signed this 23rd day of Jany 1823 Eli Soul senr
Joseph Soul's account of the death of his sister Hannah
6 Dec 1827
My dear sister Mrs [Hannah] Prichard was taken in labor at 9 o'clock in the morning & not delivered until the following evening, Friday the 7th inst, when a boy was brought forth. She had a most severe and painful delivery, and was very bad in consequence.
Tuesday 11th
Much worse. Additional medical assistance was called in (ie Dr Conquest) at two the following morning, was sent for on Wednesday (same day) at eight in the morning supposing her to be a dying. Returned home at eleven. Started again and arrived at Clifton Street about five with my dear friend A[nn] S[immonds] in company. Finding my dear sister getting gradually worse, the propriety of our remaining there was suggested by my dear friend. Accordingly I returned to Tavistock Square & Bloomsbury with the afflicting intelligence and returned back again at ten o'clock. During the night was in the direst distress expecting my dear sister to take her departure for an eternal world but her time was not yet come & to the astonishment of all she ate a small piece of buttered toast & drank 2 cups of tea, after which she became composed and went off into a doze, in which I left her to proceed home again. Soon after eight o'clock Thursday evening, I again arrived at Clifton Street, found my dear sister perfectly sensible but exceedingly altered for the worse as it regards her malady. On my entering & approaching her bedside, she recognized me & told me she was perfectly happy in her mind & should soon be better (in allusion no doubt to a future state). I could plainly perceive the alteration depicted on her countenance. Her visage appeared longer & her eyes, when she opened them, gleamed with a lovely & brilliant lustre. Her hands were like lumps of cold wet clay. Her breath was shortening & excepting now & then she became unconcerned respecting all around her. At her request, I read a psalm, the 107 I chose, but her weakness would not permit her to make any remarks upon its cheering & beautiful contents. At the conclusion she was exhausted & for a few moments she became composed, soon after which she requested her dear partner to go & have his supper as he always wished it on nine o'clock & told him to be sure & have his pipe. He had his supper & came to her bedside again when she asked him if he had his pipe, & on his reply in the negative, she desired him to go directly & have it. And not being certain respecting it she asked me if "Prichard had had his pipe", & on my answering that he was then smoking it she was apparently satisfied. A few minutes after which, the nurse, & a kind friend who had come to sit up with her with me, were standing at her bedside. She desired me to proceed to the other side of the bed that I might assist her if it were necessary while her pillows were adjusted. Their placing them not to her liking, she burst into tears & said she was sorry to be so troublesome but she could not help it. She was afraid she should tire them out, but being told that it was a pleasure to do what was wanted for her, she turned herself & lay on her side without any assistance whatever. After this for a great length of time sometimes whining & drawing her breath very hard, & now & then fetching a deep sigh. There she lay several hours, each gasp seeming to be her last. She appeared perfectly sensible but totally lost to the powers of utterance. After an elapse of some time, we fancied we again heard her lisping somewhat & which sound was like "Prichard", & on asking her if it was so she answered faintly "yes", & from that time her power of utterance departed from her, & she spake no more! Thus she continued frequently sobbing & sighing until 20 minutes past 7 o'clock on Friday morning the 14 December when her immortal spirit took its flight & left her flesh in sleep. A short time before her departure, she opened her eyes & cast a glance at those around & on her mother, addressing her & placing her hand in hers "of cold & deathly clay" she clasped it eagerly, at the same time giving her a most affectionate look which spoke an "unutterable sensibility" & told that the power of her mental faculties had not yet left her, that she yet retained a part.
Her sufferings were dreadful in the extreme, yet she murmured not! She would sometimes ask "what is it o'clock?" & on being answered would exclaim "what! no more yet, how slow the time goes". Thus she continued until the when she lost all pain not even the slightest. Finding that such was the case she said that she was certain that she was mortified and should not long remain here. On her medical attendant visiting her, she told him the same, which he said was not the case, but she said it was of no use attempting to deceive her, she was certain of it, & was going as fast as possible.
She was perfectly resigned. Indeed for months prior to her accouchment she expressed her fears that she should never get over it. & that it would terminate her mortal career, which thoughts I endeavoured to eradicate from her mind, as well as did others to whom she communicated them, but all to no purpose. They were planted there by omnipotence & who could set them aside? The decree had gone forth & who could annul it? Indeed on the Wednesday night fortnight prior to her accouchment, a dream imposed the like fear upon my mind, which nothing could stifle, & I felt quite confident that the event would transpire as was revealed. I thought I entered her bed chamber & saw a coffin very wide, & on looking within saw the corpse of my dear sister laying nearly on one side, & an infant, a fine boy, lying on her left arm. I left the room & in the adjoining apartment I saw the emblems of death & sundry persons habited as mourners. Following on in my vision, I saw the corpse on its road for interment & myself following as mourner. There the vision left me. I knew not where it was going. I awoke with feeling better imagined than described. At this awful moment for me, the anguish of my feeling was great. I endeavoured to ascertain the time but all was darkness. Thus I lay for some time till sleep once more took possession of me. I arose at my accustomed time but it was a gloomy morning to me. As soon as business would permit, I despatched the lad to inquire how it was, & he came back with the intelligence that my dear sister "was poorly". From this time on, my anxiety seemed to increase, & my awful dream was continually in my thoughts, the event proved the truth of which in every aspect with the exception of the infant. The first time I saw her, the resemblance exactly corresponded with her features as displayed in the coffin, & the appearance of the child the same. The mourners were placed in the same position in the parlour, & the corpse went the same way as seen in my vision.
Notes
Hannah Prichard was buried in Bunhill Fields, 15 December 1827, aged 29, from Clifton Street.
John Prichard was baptized in St Leonard's Shoreditch, 14 January 1828, born 7 December 1827, son of John Prichard and Hannah (deceased), of Clifton Street.
Christiana Webb to Joseph Soul
Mr Soul at Mess Jones & Sons, 4 Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London
Stroud January 19 1829
My Dear Nephew
I received your kind letter with great pleasure and satisfaction to my mind to hear from one related to my dear departed brother whose memory will be ever dear to me while on earth and with whom, I cannot give up hope, though it is very faint at times, of spending a blessed and happy eternity with in an upper and better world.
My dear nephew, I am sorry to hear of the death of your dear sister. I had never heard of her marriage. It was 3 years last September that I heard from you last, and I confess with regret it was my fault in not answering you. I sympathise with your feelings on her account and hope with you that she felt what she expressed. May we be also ready when the summons shall be sent for us. Death is snatching away one on our right hand and another on our left and we are spared. On the last sabbath but one in the year that is just passed, there was a funeral sermon preached for 2 at Rodborough Tabernacle, and an aged member of our church there was there in the morning and in the evening he was at the prayer meeting, and just after it was finished he was seized by the hand of death, and expired in the ministers arms. Sudden death, I doubt not but it was sudden glory. It is loud calls to us to be on our watch for we know not a day or an hour when the son of man cometh. Life is uncertain, death is certain, but if we have an interest in the precious death of the dear Redeemer, we need not fear death. It has lost its sting. I want to be fully assured that he died for me. It is a personal thing. It is not enough that he died, but the question is did he suffer for me. Lord help us to put ourselves upon self examination to know how matters stand between god and our souls. May we be able to say Christ is mine and I am his amen.
My dear nephew, it rejoices my heart to hear that you are panting after that holy spirit that animated the breast and heart of your dear father. May he descend in his sacred influences into your soul and enable you to give up yourself to him and him alone, and may you tread in the steps of your dear parent and follow his as far as he followed Christ. Your remark on his letters are true. They did breath heaven. It has warmed and animated my very soul, when I read them over not long since. And I am sorry I did not answer and have kept up a correspondence with one whom I hope was endeavouring to follow his example. I remember one letter he wrote. He was lamenting that he had to travel alone, by himself, not one going with him. If he was here now how it would rejoice his heart to see one of his sons enquiring the way to Zion, with his face forward. But we would not wish him back again in this poor sinful world. He like St Paul has fought the fight and finished the faith, and I have not the least doubt but that he has received the crown which the Lord the righteous judge had laid up for him against the day and if we come to the Lord Jesus Christ with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, renouncing all dependence upon anything that we can do to merit life and salvation, empty of self and relying alone upon what Christ has done and suffered and the full atonement which he made upon the cross for all that came unto him venturing their souls upon his finished salvation. If we come to him in that character he has promised he will never cast out such, and if so we one day shall join him in that happy and glorious realms of bliss never to grieve more, and join my dear parents and all the blood bought throng, in singing praises to him that has loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. To him be glory for ever and ever amen. My dear nephew, take courage, press forward through every difficulty, be much in prayer, and in the means of grace, and may the holy spirit apply his precious word and promises to your soul for without his influence nothing can profit. May he bless you in soul and body in time and eternity for charity's sake amen.
My Sister Merrett desires her love to you to your mother and all the family. Sister Cox sends her love to you and your mother and all the family, and would be glad to know how she gets on. I have not seen Mr Knight since I received your letter. Mr Trigg lives in the same neighbourhood that he did when my dear brother was down in the country. I think he was a friend of his. He has been married I think about 2 years. He keeps his school now. I should have been very agreeably surprised had you come last autumn. We should all have been very glad to have seen you. My family was not very large at first, but I assure you it is increased to a large circle now. I have 17 grandchildren, the eldest near 18 years, and the youngest 12 days. My eldest daughter Sarah and her husband lives near me, keeps a grocers shop, and has plenty of room to accommodate you if you could be spared to come down and see us at spring. We should all be very happy to see you. My eldest son John lives at that delightful spot where my dear brother your father drew his first infant breath. He has 6 children. My other daughter Mary lives a little higher up. She has 7 children, and my other son William lives near his sister Mary. He has 1 child and that is with me. He has been married twice. His first wife died when the child was about 1 year and half old. I was with them. The child took me as his mother and always calls me mother, and so when the second marriage took place I removed and the child has lived with me ever since, and is my only companion. He is 8 years old and a fine boy.
So my dear nephew I have given you a short history of my family. I think in reading it you will be almost tired. Can you give me any intelligence whether your cousin Thomas Soul is living, and where he is. All my family and myself desires our love to you and your dear mother and all your family, and if we should never see each other on earth, may we be prepared to meet at the right hand of the Judge at the last day, and to hear that blessed Sentence come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world. That this may be our happy lot and portion is the fervent prayer of your affectionate aunt
C. Webb.
Link
National Archives correspondence of Joseph Soul.
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