| Title: | Stewart, Frances to Rev. Robert Taylor, 1847 |
|---|---|
| ID | 4746 |
| Collection | Revisiting Our Forest Home, The immigrant letters of Frances Stewart [J. L. Aoki] |
| File | stewart/28 |
| Year | 1847 |
| Sender | Stewart, Frances |
| Sender Gender | female |
| Sender Occupation | housewife |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Douro Township, Newcsatle District, Upper Canada |
| Destination | Peterborough, Ontario, Canada |
| Recipient | Rev. Robert Taylor |
| Recipient Gender | male |
| Relationship | friends |
| Source | |
| Archive | |
| Doc. No. | |
| Date | |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | |
| Log | unknown |
| Word Count | 906 |
| Genre | decease |
| Note | |
| Transcript | 1847: September 2020 To Reverend Robert J.C. Taylor, Peterborough, Ontario My dear Mr. Taylor I am so desirous & impatient to remove from your mind an impression which has caused me much sorrow & weighed on my mind so heavily that I can no longer defer writing you a few lines of explanation in hopes of proving to you that you were misinformed on some points & I am deeply grieved to-find you could allowed your mind self to be so much thus influenced misled by a report or misrepresentation. On your last visit to my lamented husband on the Friday evening your agitated manner & some expressions you made use of about "intruding" puzzled us all & grieved & vexed the dear invalid deeply. He could not understand how the visit of a clergyman at such a time or at any time could be considered an intrusion but he was too weak then to seek an explanation & you made your visit in so hurried a manner there was no time for it. A few days after your note to me confirmed me in the most painful certainty that you considered you had been slighted by us & some other clergyman preferred and summoned to attend the death bed of our venerable & beloved friend. Dear Mr. Taylor, do believe me this was not the case. On the contrary it was always the nearest wish of his heart to consider & to find you, our Spiritual pastor, advisor and friend, and his, in truth, greatest & constant source of regret was that you never came to visited us in this character. On the Sunday afternoon when you came here along with Mr. Ferguson you saw how very ill he was. He was then under the influence of fever, restless & uneasy in body & confused in mind. Still to his latest hour here below his most earnest & first concern was for the Salvation of his immortal Soul & the Souls of all Mankind. His earnest desire & prayer to God was indeed that all might be saved & his anxiety sincere & fervent prayers were also most particularly offered for you my valued friend as our clergyman & as a minister of the Gospel of Christ our Saviour. You said in your note to me that another clergyman had notice of his illness or had offered assistance and you hinted that advice & assistance had been sought for from some other clergyman. This was nnt the case. You were the first who heard of his illness & came to his bedside & he felt happy at seeing you & he & all of us would have been grateful if you could have come more frequently & given him the comforts of Prayer, Scripture reading or Serious conversation which he constantly & urgently cried for during the two or three last days of his life. Mr. Rogers was not in Peterboro till a few days before his death. When Anne Reid called in & asked her uncle if he would like to see him he answered, "Oh yes!' — surely." He always had a sincere regard for Mr. Rogers as a Christian minister & friend & enjoyed his society & conversation most particularly as it generally turned upon serious subjects which for the last year interested him more than any other. Mr. Rogers did come on Thursday I think but the dear subject of this letter was so restless & ill that he could not benefit much by his visit. These are times when the heart seems open to receive the only true & solid consolation that can be given & naturally withdrawn as much as possible from the trifling vexations of life & believe me my ever dear friend that it never occurred to us that you could feel hurt at any of us for receiving a visit so kindly paid & so kindly meant & at such a time. You were well acquainted with the universal benevolence of his heart & his wish to promote union & unity amongst Christians of all denominations. He admired Mr. Rogers as a Christian & for this reason he bespoke a pew in addition lately made to the Scotch Church but he never intended to leave our own church where he found its devotions as he said, those of the Catholic Christian Church of England. I think he said this to you about the last time he spoke distinctly to you just as you left his bedside. He called it out loud. Forgive me my dear Mr. Taylor if I have encroached too far on your time or attention but it was a subject too near my heart to be touched upon lightly. I regret to hear that you are suffering so much from hurting your leg & that your family are like my own, still afflicted with this tedious & obstinate fever. We have now four invalids though none of them are very. seriously ill & I hope all in both houses may soon be quite well. I shall be sincerely happy to see you or my dear Mrs. Taylor whenever you can come up but I know how difficult it is for either her or you to leave home. With every feeling of sincere regard & affection for you & dear Mrs. Taylor & your family, Believe me dear Mr. Taylor Ever Gratefully Yours E Stewart |
