Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/248

 242 William County, where he is so much beloved, that his parishioners have bestowed favors upon him, such as no previous minister had received from them. I have lately had the gratification of hearing from him that God has given him a son.

John, becoming weary of passing his time without any settled occupation, has been learning the trade of a watchmaker, from his cousin, Peter Forestier, with whom he always boarded when he went to London. His reputation was great for making repeating watches. I find, by a late letter from John, that he has begun to work on his own account, which I am pleased to hear, for it will make him independent, in case he should be deprived of the half-pay which he has hitherto received.

I have now, my dear children, given you a brief statement of the present condition of each one of you, and I hope that you will add your individual histories to this, for the benefit of those who come after you.

My memoirs draw near a close. Your poor mother had suffered much from rheumatism for three years before John and Francis left us; this painful disorder continued to increase upon her till she was no longer able to go to church, and her spirits became much depressed under this privation. Finally, her complaint turned to dropsy, and she was unable to leave her bed. On the twenty-ninth of January, 1721, her sufferings were ended by death.

A melancholy day it was that deprived me of my greatest earthly comfort and consolation! I was bowed to the very dust, but it made me think of my own latter end, and gave me a wholesome warning to prepare myself to join her.

During her illness, our dear daughter Elizabeth supplied the place of all her brothers and her sister, who had left her alone to comfort and sustain her aged parents; she took the