the several employments were to be given. And though his project has miscarried, it is reckoned the greatest piece of court skill that has been acted there many years. — I have heard nothing since morning, but that the attorney either has laid down, or will do it in a few days.
Mem. On Wednesday, between seven and eight, in the evening, May 10, 1710, I received a letter in my chamber at Laracor (Mr. Percival and John Beaumont being by) from Mrs. Fenton, dated May 9th, with one enclosed, sent from Mrs. Worrall at Leicester to Mrs. Fenton, giving an account, that my dear mother Mrs. Abigail Swift died that morning, Monday, April 24, 1710[1], about ten o'clock, after a long sickness, being ill all winter, and lame, and extremely ill a month or six weeks before her death. I have now lost my barrier between me and death; God grant I may live to be as well prepared for it, as I confidently believe her to have been! If the way to Heaven be through piety, truth, justice, and charity, she is there[2]. J. S.
- ↑ "1710, April 27, Abigail Swift, widow, aged 70 years, buried." Register of St. Martin's, Leicester.
- ↑ This memorandum is copied from one of the account books, which Dr. Swift always made up yearly, and on each page entered minutely all his receipts and expenses in every month, beginning his year from Nov. 1. He observed the same method all his life-
