Sunday, June 14, 2015

Sunday's Obituary: Williammina M. Thornton

Daily National Intelligencer (Washington, DC)
29 October 1823

Died, at Dumfries, in Virginia, on Friday the 24th instant, Mrs. WILLIAMMINA M., consort of Dr. JAMES B. C. THORNTON, resident of that place.  The circumstances of the death of this truly amiable young lady, being only eighteen years of age, and having been but three months married, have excited an unusual sympathy among a very numerous acquaintance.  She has left a fond fathe rand many relatives and friends to deplore her loss; but who, to feel so severely the pangs of separation, as her affectionate and disconsolate husband? Under this afflicting dispensation of Providence, it will be a gratification to her friends to know that, more than twelve months since, she professed to have experienced a change of heart; and those who know her in private life, knew that she lived in the constant discharge of her religious duties, with a feverency of devotion that could alone have arisen from a heart influenced by the spirit of the most High.

Of manners gentle, and of form complete,
Fair without art, good without deceit,
Each grace, each virtue ripening into bloom,
Could  not avert the inevitable doom;
Death saw the flower when the stroke was given,
Too sweet for earth, and planted it in heaven.

Alexandria, 27th October, 1823


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