Book Two

Description (Coming soon)

Provenance

Owned by Thornton’s great, great grandson, Thomas Comber of Creech St Michael, Somerset (1800); Rev. Henry George Wandesford Comber, MA, Rector of Oswaldkirk (1875). Given to DCL by A.G. Hickson (1969) and identified by Cordelia Beattie (2019).

Dating

Book 2 covers material no later than the first year of her widowhood (1668-9) but internal evidence points to a later dating of c.1685-95. There is a reference to her brother Christopher’s grandchildren (he had two by c.1685) on page 105, which gives our earliest date. Thornton also notes that most of the people who spread rumours about her in 1668 were now dead which was most likely the case by 1695 (page 292). It is referenced in Book 3 (pages 82, 99, 132), which indicates it was written first and therefore finished by c.1695.

Contents (using Thornton's titles)

Job 10:20
St Matthew 6:33
Meditations in My Widowed Condition
A Prayer for Myself for Support and Comfort
An Introduction to this Book of the Remarkable Providences and Passages of My Life since My Widowed Condition, since September the 17th, 1668
An Account of Deliverances from Death and Mercies Received since My Dear Husband's Death Begot Myself and Three Dear Children, September 17th, 1668
Upon the Several Accidents Happened after Mr Thornton's Death and of the Administration (and Before)
A Discourse upon the Preservation and Discovery of My Dear and Honoured Father's Last Will and Testament in the Rebellion of Ireland from the Year 1640 until the Year 1658
Of the Providence to Me in Finding the Copy of My Honoured Father's 'Book of Advice' to His Son, George Wandesford
Of the Manner How My Honoured Father's Last Will and Testament was Found After the Loss of It for Many Years
Prayers and Meditations and Thanksgivings upon the Miraculous Preservation of My Dear and Honoured Father's Book of Advice to His Son, George; as also, upon the Deliverance of His Last Will and Testament from Destruction and of its being Produced again in Mercy, by which Means the Family was Preserved from Ruin in the Year 1656
Prayers, Meditations and Thanksgivings to God for his Infinite Mercies and Deliverances showed to Me, since I was Born until I came into my Widow Estate, September 17th in the Year 1668, with an Account of His Blessings
Prayers and Meditations and Thanksgivings upon the Change of My Condition from a Virgin Estate, since I came in to a Married Estate of Life, which was Full of Trouble, Sorrow and Changes in both My Body and Fortune, Since December 15th, 1651
Upon My Great Deliverances and Mercies received of My First Child and the Sicknesses which followed (Nine Months, Beginning August 6, 1652 lasted until May 12th, 1653)
Upon the Birth of My Second Child and Daughter, Alice Thornton, born at Hipswell on the 3rd Day of January in the Year, 1654
Meditations upon the Birth of My Third Child, Elizabeth Thornton, born the 14 of February 1655
Meditations on the Birth of My Fourth Child, Katherine Thornton, born at Hipswell, June 12th, 1656. Baptised the 14th of June by Mr Syddall. Witness: My Dear Mother, My Niece Best and Mr Thornton
The Death of My Third Child, My Dear Betty, who died the 5th of September 1656
Upon My Desperate Fall I had at Hipswell, being with Child of My Fifth Child, September 14th, 1657
Meditations on My Deliverance of My First Son and after My Restoration from My Great Fall of Him. He being My Fifth Child, born at Hipswell, the 10th Day of December 1657
Upon the Cure of Bleeding of the Haemorrhoids I received at Scarborough August 1659
Meditations upon My Delivery of My Sixth Child, William Thornton, and of His Death, April 12th, 1660, at St Nicholas, My Aunt Norton's House (being My First Child after My Dear Mother's Decease, December 9th, 1659)
April 17, 1660. The Birth of William Thornton
Upon My Husband's and Family's Removal from St Nicholas to Oswaldkirk near Newton, June 1660, and My First Coming from My Own Friends and Country
Upon My Dear Nally's Deliverance from Death by Convulsions, May 29, 1660 at St Nicholas
Upon My Dear Kate's Deliverance from being Choked with a Pin at St Nicholas, May 17, 1660
Upon My Husband's and Family's Removal from St Nicholas to Oswaldkirk near Newton. These Accidents happened to Me and Mine following June 10th, 1660
Upon My Great and Dangerous Sickness at Oswaldkirk, February 13, 1661, Being on my Birthday
Upon My Dear Daughter's Preservation from a Wound in Her Belly, 1661
Upon a Lie made and Slander Raised on Myself and My Servant, Jane Flower, by Nan Robinson at Oswaldkirk this Year, 1661
A Deliverance from Fire at Oswaldkirk, 1661
Upon a Great Fright I had at Oswaldkirk, Being Big with Child Concerning a Bond, 1662
Upon Our Coming to live at Newton after the New House was Builded by Mr Thornton and Myself (It being on June the 10th, 1662)
My Dream, Nettleton
On the First Coming to Newton, of the Country's Kind Respects to Me (June, July 1662)
Upon Mr Thornton's Settlement of His Estate by Mr Covill before My Delivery of My Son, Robert Thornton, August 1662
My Cousin Covill's Letter to Me upon the Sending for Advice upon My Jointure Deed and Mr Legard's Paper Book, which ought to have Rectified those Faults, August 22, 1662
A Relation of the Passages happened before My Yielding to cut off the Settlement of Burn Park, Being Made before Marriage for the Provision of My Younger Children (May 6th, 1658)
A Prayer on the Making of Mr Covill's Deed, August 1662
An Account of Mortgages Charged upon Leysthorpe or some Part of that Land before Mr Covill's Settlement, which I did not know of until long after (about the year, 1668)
Upon My Deliverance of My Son, Robert Thornton, My Third Son and Seventh Child, Being the First Child Born at the New House at East Newton, Whose Birth was on Friday the 19th of September, 1662
Of My Desperate Sickness and Dangerous Condition I was visited withal, Beginning on Me August 16, 1666, and cleared of the Flux of Blood