Book of Remembrances

Description

Small autograph manuscript volume (H133mm x W96mm x D13mm) with the title ‘A Book of Remembrances of All the Remarkable Deliverances of Myself, Husband and Children, with their Births and Other Remarks as Concerning Myself and Family, Beginning from the Year 1625’ (page 1). It has a marbled paper cover, which is sewn into larger boards which were originally also covered in marbled paper; the larger boards have endpapers. There are multiple areas of sewing, some of which may have been added at later dates, perhaps including the final and penultimate entries where the pages are smaller than the rest of the manuscript (pages 195-200). The Book also includes a five page ‘index’ (pages 177-85) and extends to 200 pages in total (around 28,000-words). Page 186 is headed ‘Remember to Insert Some Remarks Forgotten in this First Book’, and subsequent pages are not indexed.

Provenance

Owned by Thomas Comber, of Newton-le-Willows (1875); Rev. Mr Edward F. Comber, Wrenbury, Cheshire (1936); Patrick Comber, Ludlow (2018); and given to Durham Cathedral Library (2019). A microfilm copy is held by Yale University Library.

Dating

Anselment notes that this Book cannot ‘be dated with any certainty’.^[1] Although it opens by recording Thornton’s date of birth (page 3) and the first entry is dated 1631 (page 11), the length and detail of the entries increase from 1659 and there is a reference to being called on to give testimony by Lord Danby in the backmatter, which occurred c.1673. Other annotations suggest that Thornton revised her entries. On this basis, we conjecture that the majority of this Book was composed between 1659-68.

Contents, using Thornton's Index

The Age of Alice Wandesford

The Dedication

Observables

Prayer

Preface

Her Weakness in the Measles

Her Having the Smallpox in Kent

Meditations on Psalm 147, 4th

Deliverance from Fire in London, 1632

Her Passage into Ireland, 1632

Deliverance from Fire in Dublin

A Second Meditation, about Twelve Years Old

Deliverance in a Storm at Sea, 1639

The Death of the Lord Deputy Wandesford

The Deliverance from the Irish Rebellion

Her Having the Smallpox at Chester

A Deliverance from a Sickness at Richmond

The Lady Danby Died, 1645

Mr Edmund Norton Died, 1648

King Charles the Blessed, 1648

Sir Edward Osborne Died

George Wandesford, Esquire, Died 1651

Mrs Mary Norton Married, 1651

Sir Christopher Wandesford Married, 1651

Alice Thornton Married, 1651

She Began Her First Sickness

Alice Thornton, the Daughter, Birth, 1653

Elizabeth Thornton's Birth, 1654

Mrs Elizabeth Gates Died, 1655

Mr Geoffrey Gates Died, 1655

Mr Richard Thornton Died, 1656

Katherine Thornton Birth, 1656

Elizabeth Thornton Died, 1656

My Deliverance from a Fall, 1657

The Birth of My First Son, 1657

The Death of the Lady Wandesford, 1659

William Thornton's Birth, 1660

His Death

Meditations

My Dangerous Sickness, 1661, when I was Preserved from the Temptation of Satan to Despair

My Prayers and Meditations thereupon on St Matthew 11: 27, 28, et cetera

The Recovery of My Health

Mr Thornton's Preservation and Mine

Considerations thereupon

Deliverance from Grief on Nettleton's Bailiffs Coming

A Deep Apprehension of My Change, being with Child of My Seventh

The Satisfaction of My Soul after the receiving the Holy Sacrament First at Newton by Dr Samways

A Satisfaction by the Settlement of Mr Covill for Leysthorpe

My Son Robert Thornton's Birth, September 19, 1662

A Most Dangerous Flux on Me after His Birth

Prayers and Meditations thereon

My Son Robert's Baptism

A Prayer and Thanksgiving for this Blessing

A Thanksgiving for Mr Thornton's Deliverance from a Flood of Waters in His Return from London

The Birth of Joyce Thornton and Her Baptism

A Prayer and Thanksgiving for this Deliverance

Mr Thornton's Dangerous Sickness at Stearsby and His Preservation from Death

With My Own Desperate, Weak Condition upon Grief for Him

Prayers and Confessions, with a Return of Thanks after Our Recoveries

Meditations upon My Joyce Her Sickness

Joyce Thornton Her Death

A Deliverance of My Daughter, Alice Thornton, from a Surfeit of Eating Turbot

A Great Deliverance from a Miscarriage

The Great Fire in London

Kate Thornton Fell Ill of the Smallpox

The Death of Mr John Wandesford

The Death of Mr William Norton

The Falling Ill of Robin Thornton into the Smallpox

A Meditation thereon

My Daughter, Alice, Her Falling into the Smallpox

With a Preservation from Choking in Her Sleep

John Denton Fell Ill of the Smallpox

My Daughter Kate was Preserved from Choking with a Pin and from a Desperate Fall

The Murder of My Nephew, Mr Thomas Danby

My Great Deliverance of My Ninth Child, 1668

Meditations thereupon

And Nally's Illness that Night

Christopher Thornton Baptised

His Death

Meditations thereon

My Weakness upon the Death of My Child

Upon Mr Thornton's Illness

My Sad Condition on the Occasion of a Slander

Observations thereon, with Prayers and Meditations

A Deliverance of My Son, Robert Thornton

Prayers for Him

My Second Relapse by Grief when My Aunt Norton was at Newton about the Malice of My Enemies, Unjustly

My Prayers and Meditations for Deliverance from these

A Description of Mr Thornton's Falling Ill at Malton and in how Weak a Condition I was when He Left Me

My Hopes of His Recovery from Dr Wittie's Encouragement

Of the Continuance of My Dear Husband's Weakness notwithstanding All Helps

The Death of My Dear and Honoured Husband

My Exceeding Sorrow and Weak Estate of Body and Spirit upon His Death

My Sad and Bitter Complaints, Meditations

Prayers and Petitions upon this Most Sad Dispensation

A Discourse of Mr Thornton's Comfortable Expressions to Mr Sinclair before His Last Illness

A Description of Mr Thornton's Last Sickness and Several Passages in the Same

Of His Burial

'Upon the Fears of Death', in Verse

'An Inducement to Love Heaven', in Verse

'A Farewell to the Pleasures of the World', in Verse

'My Soul's Wish for God'

A Widow's Prayer and Petitions to God

Notes

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1. Raymond A. Anselment, ‘Seventeenth-Century Manuscript Sources of Alice Thornton’s Life’, SEL 45, no. 1 (2005): 137, 154n10. ↩︎