Noel, Gerard

To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 23 April [1816]

We have lately had to mourn the loss of several dear friends. ,^* eldest Grandaughter of my dear ^* has left Six Motherless children; producing the last was the immediate cause [unclear] of her Son. She was a Saint indeed! I never knew a more exemplary creature. Her trials had been great , on whom she doated, has long been in an alarming state of low spirits, and seems now perfectly torpid, except when any plan of benevolence awakens him. Gerard Noel, went down to preach his Sister’s funeral Sermon; at his return he found two of his children dead and his wife delirious!^* These things shew that the peculiar Servants of the Lord are not exempt from the common calamities of life, and that health and prosperity are no certain marks of God’s favour. [six lines of deletions]