The daily gazette., 1879-05-12
Mrs. whitaeld's sirvtr Coffee Pot.
Mrs. M. J. Nsvln In the New York OBJ
aarvaP

In the New York Observer of March
18th you have an article on "The Curios-
tiles of Courtship," In which the singu-
lar marriage of Whitfield Is mentioned,
but prudencly, no doubt, for his sake,
without giving the sequel of his unwise
step. Two years ago, perhaps, you pub
marriage. In his first effort in that d.
rection 1t seems he addressed letter to
| young lady, in which he sets before
her in most formidable array the respon-
sibilities which her possession as his
wife will entail-the sacrifices, the la
bo,s, the duties, the priyations; she
must be willing TO leave Kindred and
friends, and in foreign land bear cold
and heat and absence from him, and
must depend on God for her own and
her children's support. Tells her ''he
will make no great professions, as he is
free from that foolish passion that men
call love-" NC. But the lady seems not
to have felt herself called by the induce
ments, ,orequal to osherequirements,a and the
mater fell through. He afterwards felt
resigned, and expressed himself as want
ing wife "who was full of faith and the
Holy Ghost, and who was dead to every
thing but Christ, and was qualified to
| govern Children" Aftcrward, without
further notice of his courtship, he passed
over to Wales, and the next day
married, ''in the fear of God" a wild
| Ow.
Philip, in his lie of Whitfield, say
at was reported in England that the
marriage did not turn out happy one,
the lady proving thorn in his side,"
but attributes It to gossip, she being
prominent mark for slander, but at the
same time Gf l remember arignt) jntis
ma,es that the report had found counter
ance from quarter entitled to respect.
His remarks brought to my mind an in
cident in relation to her which was a
mater of family history.
| On the occasion of Whitfield's coming
to America, af,er his marriage, his wife
accompanied him. In his preaching tour
through a portion of Pennsylvania one
OF his siopping-places was at the house
of prominent Presby .erian clergyman,
Rev. Samuel Blair, of Foggs' Manor,
| Chester county, (see page 172 of Phil
| lips Life of Whitfeld). On arriving,
Mis-. Whitfield gave her hostess 10 UNDER
sand that she could not drink her coffee
unless It was boiled in silver cofiee-pot.
| Now it was hardly TO be supposed that
such an article of luxury was 10 be found
among The culinary utensils of country
| clergymans menage, anG Mrs. Blair ma
,urally supposed that she carried her cof-
,ee-pet with her but she did not, and
Mrs. Blair was in a dilemma what
should Sic do in the case? There chan
ceG to belong to her the heirloom of
"lang pedigree" in the form of covered
silver tankaid, which had descended
from English ancestors of the name OF
Townley, who during the prosecutions OF
the NoncOnformists in the sixteenth CEN
tury had passed over 10 Holland, had in
,ermarried with a Van Hook family
there, and were of the Hollanders who
had at an early day emigrated to the
New Netherlands. Mrs. Blair had in
he"ited this tankard fromp her father,
Lawrence Van Hook, Esq, and of course
it was highly priced but Mrs. w. was
her Suest and must have her coffee, so
the tankard was ,aken 10 make it. Those
were not The days of cooking stoves, aud
it had 10 be set on the health over a
wood fite, and long bore the marks of its
Office in the smoke burned on the coat of
arms engraved on it, and afterwards in
the family was jokingly called Mrs.
Whitfield's coffee-pot.
The grandfather of the writer, a cler-
gyman, marrying one of the daughters Of
DR.. Blair, the tankard came into his pos
session, and thus my familiarity with this
history. Wishing TO be thoroughly ac-
curate in telling it, once applied to my
aunt to know whether | was correct in
my recital of it. She confirmed it, and
said, "Mrs. W. was considered q very
silly and pretentious woman, and gave
Mr.. w. great deal of trouble with her
caprice," and related an instance which
took place in Philadelphia c,nfirmatory
of her weakness. Some ladies' who great
ly admired Mr.. w. were desirous Of max
ing some demonstration of their regard
by making him a present, and selected
for that purpose Sc: of very handsome
linen camDric pocket-handkerchiefs, at
that day very costly article. Two of the
ladies waited OH her to present them, and
remarked they were selected in the view
Of their use In the pulpit; but, with a
very very nonchalant manner, she an
swered-"She thought she would take
them for herself, they would answer for
her to tie up her head when she went to
bed,. instead of nightcap." Now these
sort of acts did not show the self-renun-
citation or deadness to the world that he
had looked for in wife, aud he must
have awakened 10 the consciousness that
he had made great mistake in his pre-
ciptancy.
Whitfield was a man OF ardent temper
ament, but we hear of no outbursts OF
gratitude that, as reward for his faith,
he had stumbled upon diamond-a
prize beyond rubies-in wife who, for
saking the vanities of the world and
throwing herself on the altar of duty, " as
one with him in all his works of charity Y
and love; not one such word he only
meekly says that "she is neither rich in
fortune nor beautiful in person, but be-
tieUes she is a true child of God and
would not hinder him in his work !" poor
man, how the thorn must be ranking
then. Did 1t not strike Mr.. Phillips as q
little singular that, in all Whitfield's vol
luminous correspondence aud with his AZ
dent nature and his protracted absence
from home, there were never any letters
addressed to his "dear yoke-fellow," call
ing on her to rejoice With him in the sue
cess of his labors. the prospects of his
dearly loved Bethesda, or appealing to
her sympathy in his hoars of fprostration
or sickness, and yearnings from home |;
there seems to have been entire silence