The Life of Richard Steele (Volume 1) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1889. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... III. MARRIAGE WITH MARY SCURLOCK. 1 707-1 708. *1T. 35-36. In the summer of 1707 Steele was courting Miss, or Mrs. Scurlock--to use the term given in those days to all grown-up ladies1--who was, as we have seen, a friend of his former wife. Miss Mary Scurlock was sole heiress to Jonathan Scurlock, of Carmarthenshire, who died in 1682. Jonathan Scurlock was descended from an ancient and honourable Irish family, and after studying at Trinity College, Cambridge, turned his attention to the law, and became a justice of the peace, an alderman, and, in 1678, sheriff for the borough of Carmarthen. Miss Scurlock's mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Scurlock, was still living at Carmarthen. The estate was worth 400 a year, but as there was a demand of 1400 upon it,2 the net amount derived from it would be be about 330 a year. The following inscription to Jonathan Scurlock is on a tablet high on the chancel wall in St. Peter's Church, Carmarthen:8-- 1 " Let no woman after the known age of twenty-one presume to admit of her being called Miss, unless she can fairly prove she is not out of her sampler " (C. Lillie's Original and Genuine Letters sent to the Tatler and Spectator, 1725, i. 224). "Being arrived at sixteen, I have left the boarding-school, and now having assumed the title of Madam instead of Miss, am come home" (lb. ii. 156). 2 See page 190. * "On a pane of black marble, in letters of gold" (An Account of the Progress of his Grace Henry the first Duke of Beaufort through Wales, 1684. By T. Dineley. Edited by C. Baker. Privately printed, 1864.) See, too, Spurrell's Carmarthen and Us Neighbourhood, 2nd edition, 1879, pp. 19c-- 1. Nichols (Kpist. Corr. of Sir Ii. Steele, 1809, p. 505) gave a translation of this inscription which is incomplete and inaccurate a...