Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/675

Rh author of the best and most masculine religious book extant in the English tongue (the Bible excepted) called The whole Duty of Man, will serve instead of a heap of instances, to shew how great regards this family have formerly paid to the church and kingly government.'

To the foregoing we might add the testimony of Mr. Thomas Caulton, vicar of Worksop, in Nottinghamshire, who, on his death-bed, declared in the presence of several worthy persons, that Mrs. Eyre, daughter of lady Pakington, told him who was the author of The whole Duty of Man; at the same time pulling out of a private drawer a manuscript tied together and stiched in octavo, which she declared was the original written by lady Pakington her mother.

Upon the whole, it is presumed, that lady Pakington's title to this performance is by far the clearest of all those to whom it has been ascribed; but whether it is absolutely ascertained, must be left to the judgement of the candid and impartial.

Full of years and good works, she died 1679, and was interred in the church of Hampton Lovett, in Worcestershire; where is a small memorial of her, inscribed at the bottom of the monument erected for the late Sir John Pakingcon, as follows:

In the same church lyes Sir John Pakington, knt. and bart. and his lady, grandfather and grandmother to the said Sir John; the first tryed for his life, and spent the greatest part of his fortune in adhering to king Charles I.; and the latter justly reputed the authoress of The whole Duty of Man, who was exemplary for her great piety and goodness. .

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