Anna_Maria_Thorntons_Life_of_William_Thornton (ca. 1828)

* When in the Highlands of Scotland (the first time I believe) by some mischance a Bill drawn on his Father-in-law was protested & among his papers was a parcel marked Letters of Horror, shewing his great sensitivity & delicate feeling for his credit & honor fearing it might be suspected that he had drawn without authority.

o= who not being of the Society of Friends, was the cause of his being read out of meeting - (See a letter to his worthy Cousin Dorcas Lillie on the Subject.). His wife being very young (only sixteen) he usd to say he had only stepped out of the fold to fetch in a stray lamb - & hoped to return with it ‘ere long.

The following extract from a letter written while in Tortola to a friend in Philadelphia will shew his feelings after he was married about a year -- & may be thought in some degree to contradict my previous opinions. -"I am now set down with a desire to please you, that I "may enjoy a satisfaction in this departed Scrawl the "mode of doing it will be if I judge of effects upon virtuous hearts "to give you an account of my Wife -- It will I am confident "be doubly acceptable, for you were one of her admirers, & you "have I know some interest in my happiness. -- You and I "were both acquainted with her talents & manners, but we "cou’d not read the depths of her understanding, nor the secrets "of her heart -- my dear friend -- you have tasted the cup of "felicity in the most sincere friendship, in a mutual en"-gagement of Interests & in a perfect harmony of opinion "& I have enjoyed the sweets of sacrificing to the enjoyment of "others -- much of this I have also felt -- but the ties of "the present. -- If any woman on Earth by the most inter"=esting tenderness to every feeling of a husband, by the most "kind, most attentive assiduities, by the most sincere

“attachment & delicate behavior, if a woman of the “greatest sensibility & of the most virtuous heart, claims “the unbounded affection & care of a husband, she has a “full claim to mine. To this I must add the happiness of “informing you that she is well, which to her friends who “heard of her dangerous trials here must be pleasing intelli= ”=gence”.— I do not insert from Vanity.*, I can say with truth that all my life my greatest ambition & desire was that he might act honorably & hold an elevated place in Society. — I believe that many Wives lose the influence that a virtuous & sensible woman ought to have over her husband by the sneers of the world (or rather their little circle in the world) who say a husband is henpecked if he is known to advise with & consult his wife on business — but who so, interested in a husband’s welfare & honor as a wife — his friend — his companion — Mrs. Thrake in an excellent letter to a gentleman just married expresses the same idea which I met with since writing the foregoing sentiment — “Listen not to those “Sages, who advise you always to scorn the counsel of a “woman, & if you comply with her requests pronounce

* it sooths my wounded heart to reflect on anything that expressed affection for me, & it is a pleasing melancholy to read some of his letters written during short absences for few married couples were less separated, during a cohabitation of so many years.

“you to be wife-ridden.”. If a husband was applauded & respected as much for being influenced by his Wife (if she possess common sense & prudence) as he is jeered at for it — there would be less unhapppiness & misfortune in married life. *

While in America he was engaged with a Company to build Steam Boats by Fitch's patent (See papers for all particulars) which failed in consequence of his not being supported by the Company or any monied Men, and leaving the Scheme he embarked for the W. Indies, in a fair way, as he thought, of Success, he found on his return, the Boat sold and the whole plan abandoned, and an end put to his sanguine expectations of honor and profit. A Gentleman who came from N. Orleans with a large Capital to embark in the business died in Phila. Boats were to have been built to navigate the Missisippi, then thought by many quite chimerical, but since put into successful operation by more fortunate projectors. This was both in a pecuniary and ambitious view, a great source (and justly so) of mortification and disappointment, and in his life he had more than falls to the lot of most Men, and it might be said of him