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MRS. ESTHER BULKLEY.

On Friday, April 24, 1807, died at West Bromwich, in Staffordshire, in the 87th year of her age, Mrs. Esther Bulkley. This lady was grand-daughter, and the last survivor of the immediate descendants, of the Reverend Matthew Henry, "whose praise is in all "the churches." Mrs. Savage and Mrs. Hulton were, consequently, her great-aunts. Her greatgrandfather, the Rev. Philip Henry, was a man of exemplary piety, learning, and talents; and his rank and connexion in society were of the most respectable order. The family of the Henrys were scarcely more distinguished by their religious character, than by their engaging courteousness and urbanity of manners. In all these respects, and in whatever was appropriate to the female character, the deceased was the faithful and amiable representative of her ancestors.

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To delineate with even tolerable fidelity this excellent woman, would be to produce, in some degree, the effect of a personal acquaintance with her which, however slight, never failed of procuring for her the tribute of esteem. Her person was interesting; diminutive, delicate, and valetudinary, yet, indicative of charming vivacity. Her countenance exhibited a set of striking features, illuminated by intelligence and benevolence, yet full of dignity; grave, approaching to solemnity, but placid, cheerful, serene, and happy. Her manners, though not without a mixture of that punctilious precision which is thought to characterize those of her sex who are less connected than others by social and domestic affinities, (for she died unmarried,) were yet highly engaging. They were strikingly decorous, but animated and affectionate; timid, and tremblingly con

scientious, yet affable, and, to her near acquaintances, friendly and confidential.

The qualities of her mind were such as would naturally be sought for under this exterior. They were the produce of Divine cultivation, in a soil Divinely prepared and rendered favourable to their growth; the fruits which are brought forth a hundred-fold from good seed sown in good ground. Her early connexions were scarcely more propitious to genuine religion, than were the future circumstances and habits of her life, to its growth and improvement. Mrs. Bulkley was born in London, Nov. 16, 1720. Her father, Mr. Thomas Bulkley, a native of Lymington, in Hampshire, was a silkmercer in Ludgate Street. He died when she was very young. The conduct of her education, therefore, devolved upon her mother; and those who have observed the influence of the maternal character, and of maternal care, when assiduously employed in the formation of the youthful mind, will not be surprised that the child of the daughter of Matthew Henry should be successfully trained in the footsteps of her forefathers.

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In a brief record of the changes of her residence, which she calls "An account of her various wanderings during an abode of forty-five years in this "wilderness," it appears, that at the age of ten, when she was residing with her mother in the family of Sir John Hartopp, at Epsom, "Divine grace "directed the wanderer to take the first feeble and "too oft remitting steps towards Canaan :" these are her own words. At fifteen, having by the death of her mother become an orphan, she returned into her family, and went to reside with three aunts, the Miss Henrys, at Chester. Two of these ladies marrying, she removed from Chester to Wem, in Shropshire; and from thence, in 1748, to West Bromwich, where she passed nearly the whole of the remainder of her life. The paper just now mentioned concludes thus:

"October 30, 1770. Removed to Hill Top, (a part " of West Bromwich,) from whence I wait my last "remove." And thence, in fact, it was made, but not till a period which little entered into the Writer's contemplation. Her constitution was delicate, and her health so extremely precarious, as to afford reasonable ground for her constant expectation of her final change;-an expectation entertained with a calmness of mind which displayed, in a striking degree, the influence of evangelical religion. West Bromwich, she was still among her family connexions. Her two aunts had been married to two respectable gentlemen, brothers, of the name of Brett, who resided in this village; and there also those amiable women exchanged their earthly for an heavenly abode.

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The life of a single lady, spent in the retirement of a village, can offer but few incidents requiring particular notice; but the features of such a character as Mrs. Bulkley's, must create some degree of general interest. The sweetness of her manners, her vivacity, and her active beneficence, procured her the esteem of persons in all ranks. Her humility and diffidence were equalled only by her actual proficiency in the graces of the Christian temper and life. Her attachment to the ordinances of religion, and her diligent improvement of them, discovered the secret of her attainments. Devotion was her element: she had a lively zeal for public worship, and for the purity and prosperity of the ministry, and of the church universally. She was fond of reading. Her Bible was her companion, her friend, and her counsellor. Her grandfather's Exposition, and the manuscript notes of sermons, &c. which had been preserved in the family, were her constant perusal. Upon these, and the older writers on practical religion, she employed much of her time. Biography, and the history of eventful periods, interested her even at a very advanced period of her life. Her conversation was

interesting and instructive, and her epistolary communications remarkably so. The talent for writing which she possessed, rendered her correspondence easy and pleasant, to her latest years. The liveliness of her conceptions, and peculiar felicity of expression, imparted to her familiar letters an irresistible charm; whilst the warmth of her affection, her solicitude for the happiness of her friends, and her exalted piety, rendered them lessons of sound morality and religious instruction.

In adverting to herself, and her own experience and history, her predominating sentiments were those of gratitude to the Preserver of a life so long protracted beyond her utmost expectations; and so highly distinguished, as she considered it, by undeserved mercies. To a friend, who was in the habit of writing to her on every anniversary of her birth, she thus commences one of her answers, having then entered on her 86th year:-" So it pleases the "Almighty to permit me once more to take up my pen, in a thankful acknowledgment of the recep"tion of your favours of the 15th and 16th instant. "I am ashamed to think that the lengthening out of "so unprofitable a life as mine, should engage so "much of your attention: that it should occupy "much of my own with serious reflection, is right, "both in humiliation and thankfulness.

66

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"Still has my life new wonders seen

66 Repeated every year;

"Behold, my days that yet remain,

"I trust to that Almighty care?"

"I have abundant cause for daily and hourly thanksgiving, that these days of old age are not as yet attended with extreme pain or violent illness. "Under all my infirmities, it is a constant and stand"ing consolation to me, that my God knows my "frame,

"And does no heavy load impose
"Beyond the strength that he bestows:"

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"and, by Divine assistance, I endeavour, by faith, "to look beyond the present scene, and excite myself "to be a patient waiting servant; trusting, through "the hope the Gospel gives, that He who has "hitherto so mercifully guided me by his counsel, "will conduct me through death's gloomy shades, gilded by his presence, to that world where there is "fulness of joy."

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She suffered no sensible declension of her powers through several of her last years. For some months before her decease, the faculties of sight and hearing were impaired; but she remained the same lively, intelligent, and pleasant companion. Her departure was an easy and quiet transition from earth to heaven. Her mind was exceedingly calm at the first approach of the disorder. She said, "God is doing "his own work. Welcome the will of God!" She was buried at West Bromwich, on Wednesday, the 29th of April, 1807.

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