Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1850-06-18
PERSONAL SKETCHES.
NIltOn---Sha -Shakspearc---POpN.

NcllapT Oh InCSC gltit IIOCte .I'dS dHN
living representative. Shakespeare was
rhc first man of letters, Pope The second,
and Sir Walter Scou the third, who, in
Great Britain, ever realized large fortune
hv li,rra,ure-or in ChristenGom, if We
except Vollajre, and TWO dubious cases in
I'aIv.
Milton was thrice married. and left three
4 lighters, all by his first wife {Mary
Powell Anne, the eldest, married a
master builder. and died soon afterwards :;
Mary. the second. died in single state :;
and Dahorah, the yougest, married Abra-
ham Clarke, a weaver in Spitaiiields, by
whom she had seven sons and three dangh-
,.rS. The distress into which she fell In
consequence of this imprudent marriage.
exDeri>nced some late AMI partial relief
fr5m the lberalltv of Addison, and the
less splen id muniticcnce of Queen Caro-
line. OF her ten children two only left
offspring; Caleb, who, marrying in the
Easl Indies, had two sons, whose history
cannot now be traced; and Elizabeth
who married Thomas Foster, weaver,
bN whom SHe idu ulIeC Holi0 anu '""'
daugh1ers, who all died young and with
on, issue. In old age and in penurv.
Mrs. Foster was discovered iii a small
cbander's shop, and brought into public
notice by DR.. Birch and DIR. Newton. At
tcn,ion being thus awakened to the grand
dauChter of Milton, COmus was performed
for her benefit in 1850; and Johnson, as
soria,ed as he then was in the labors of
the Infamous Lauder, did not hesitate to
supply Ic occasional prologue. The
profi,- OF The night were only $50 ster-
linz: vtlthis was the greatest benciactlon
that the Paradise Lost ever procured the
authors descendants. Mrs. Foster died
on the glh of May, 1851, and with her ex-
nired the last descendant of the immortal
poet. Milton realized fifteen pounds only
for the copyright and extra sale OF Para
disc Lost.
Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway in
1892, in his nineteenth year. lie had
two daughters. Susanna married, on the
9th jane, 1907, DR.. John Hall, physl-
clan in Strat(ord. The doctor died in
November, 1885, aged 60-his wife died
at the age of siXty-slx, on July ii, l6fO:
They had one child, a daughter named
Elizabeth, born in 1908, married April
%. 1926, to Thomas Nashc, Esq. left
a widow in l647, and subsequently re-
married to Sir John Barnard but this
Lady Barnard, the sole granddaughter OF
the poet, had no children by either mar
riage. The second daughter, Judith, IN
February, l6l6, (about ten weeks before
her fathers death, married Thos. Quincy
of Sratlord, by whom she had three sons,
Shakespeare, Richard and Thomas. Ju-
dth was about thirty-one years old at the
time of her marriage; and living just 46
years afterwards, she died in February,
1862, at the age Of sevcnty-seven. Her
three sons died without issue; and thus.
in the direct lincal descent, II is certain
that no representative has survived OF this
transcendant poet, The most august amongst
created intelects.
Pope was born on the 2lst OF May,
lGSS, and died on the 30th of May, l744,
in the fifty-sevenlh year of his age, $50
quietly that his attenuaIlS coulu hol ulsui'
guish the exact moment Of his dissou-
non" He was at all times feeble in bod
ily health, and his death was hastened by
dropsy in the chest Pope was never
married.
Thus the three great poets Of the six
teenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centu-
ries have no living descendants at this pc
Rod.
The four or FIVE latter years of Shaks-
Peare's life, he passed in digni6ed ease.
in profound meditation, and in universal
respect, at his native town of Sranord.
Pope obtained, from the sale Of the IL
icd, .25,3l0, and from the Odyssey 43,,
685. He enjoyed for many years the
retreat of Twickcnham, where many OF
is later productions were written.