Death of Mary Moffat

From this point onwards the Editor of the memoir is largely indebted to his youngest sister, who accompanied her parents to England, and remained with them through all the later years, and the rest of the story will be told for the most part in her words.

On the way down to the coast we were entertained at Graaff Reinett by Mrs. Murray, sen., and by Mr, and Mrs. Charles Murray. The journey was long and tedious, owing to the wetness of the season. The Sunday’s River was flooded, and we had to wait five days on its banks, during which time Mr. Kitchingman and his daughter overtook and encamped with us until we were able to cross. By Sunday (we crossed on the Monday) fifteen waggons had congregated, principally Dutch farmers carrying their wool to the coast. Our father held a Sechwana service for the sake of our servants, and we were somewhat amused to find that during the singing of the hymns the farmers had congregated behind the tent listening, quite charmed with singing such as they were unaccustomed to hear. We happened to have two or three of our best singers with us. Mr. Kitchingman also conducted a service in Dutch for the farmers. This Mr. Kitchingman was a son of Moffat’s old colleague, and was also a missionary. He, too, has now passed to his rest. We reached Bethelsdorp in time for our father to proceed to Port Elizabeth, and to take a part in the meetings of the Evangelical Union, especially the united communion service, in which brethren of every nationality took a part. It was an appropriate farewell to his work in South Africa. We remained at Bethelsdorp with Mrs. Merrington several days, and then went on to the Bay.

Mr. Macintosh came out with a cart and horses to take our mother on ahead of the waggons. “No,” she said, “I will stick to my waggon as long as I can,” preferring not to quit it till she reached Port Elizabeth. We stayed ten days there, during which Mr. Edwards was indefatigable in his kindness, and so was Mr, Macintosh. We sailed in the Roman for Cape Town. Our six Bechwana servants came on board with us (one excepted, who was afraid to venture on the sea), and when they rowed off again in a small boat for the shore we felt the cable was cut, and that we had really left Bechwanaland. A sore moment! We had a very stormy passage to Cape Town, taking four days instead of two. On arriving we found that a public farewell breakfast had been arranged, and this took place next morning. We remained a fortnight in Cape Town, bidding farewell to our many old friends, and then sailed in the Norseman for England. Both parents bore the voyage extremely well — indeed, as regards sea-sickness, better than any of the passengers. We were six weeks on the voyage, owing to an accident to the engines, which kept us under sail for a week while repairs were being made.

We arrived at Plymouth on Sunday evening, the twenty-fourth of July. Mr. John Snow was there to meet us, and went on With us to Southampton, where we landed next day, exactly four months after leaving Kuruman. Here we found Helen — who now saw her parents after a separation of twenty-seven years. It was a memorable meeting. Mr. J. Kemp Welch was also at Southampton to represent the Directors of the London Missionary Society.

We took up our abode in Canonbury for a few weeks. A public breakfast of welcome was given at Cannon Street Hotel. Our father was much better in health after the journey and voyage, but still far from strong. It was the first communion Sabbath after our arrival in England, that at Mr. Binney’s wish — most heartily reciprocated by our parents — we went to the Weigh House and partook of the Lord’s Supper there. Of course we went very soon to Knockholt, later to Brighton, and then our father was much pressed by Sir Roderick Murchison to go to the meeting of the British Association at Liverpool. He arranged to do so on his way to Scotland, calling also at Manchester to see our oldest friends the Sheldons, and Mrs. Woodward. At Liverpool he was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Crossfield. Thence he went to Scotland, calling on the way at Newcastle to see the Bruces. In Edinburgh he found still many old friends, and some relations; and was entertained by Mr. Stone, Miss Peek, and the Cullens. Thence he went to Glasgow to visit his grandchildren the Livingstones. During his absence in Scotland our mother was at Buckhurst Hill, at the house of Mr. Alexander Eraser, who had kindly placed it at our disposal during the tempora*-^ absence of his family.

On our father’s return from the north we went in October to Brixton, where we spent the winter at the house of Mr. Henry Vavasseur, he letting us make it our home for six months, until we should settle upon a permanent residence. This was a par- •ticularly acceptable arrangement to our mother, who shrank from entering at once upon housekeeping in England, little thinking that this was to be the last halting-place in her long earthly pilgrimage. Before Christmas both parents paid visits to old friends, to Miss Eisdell at Epsom, to Mr. Davison at Canonbury, Miss Fletcher at Peckham, and Mr. and ]Irs. James Spicer at Woodford, all friends who had been faithful to their children or grandchildren in England while they were still in Africa. During the few months she was at Brixton our mother found great pleasure in the ministry and friendship of the Rev. D. Herschell. On the twenty-first of December our father received a birthday gift of one thousand pounds. The initiative had been taken by Miss Peek, whose name is associated with so many good works, and her action had been heartily responded to; and it was one of the last events crowning many acts of kindness received which so brightened the close of our mother’s life. Christmas was spent at Knockholt, with the family circle there. On the return to Brixton our mother took cold; and after a few days’ illness passed away. On the Monday morning she had seemed by no means worse, very bent on getting up and coming downstairs, and with some difficulty we kept her in bed till afternoon; but she talked very ramblingly all the morning, which made me uneasy. I wrote a joint letter to John and Bessie, and she knew all about it and sent messages. Poor mamma! how active her mind was to the very last. She talked about everybody. She imagined she was talking to John. She said, “Where is he gone? I was speaking to John.” The doctor pronounced her no worse, and said that on the morrow she might get up earlier; as she was so bent upon it, it would make her feel as if she were recovering. She got up that afternoon and spent about three hours, as happy and quiet a time as she had had all through. Then about half-past seven she wearied, and went to bed; but her breathing became much oppressed, and nothing would relieve it. It appeared to be becoming easier, and we hoped she would get some sleep — which she was longing for, having had none all day and but little the night before. Then her cough, which had been very troublesome, became so helpless that I felt alarmed, and we watched her anxiously. Oh! so sudden it seemed at last that the cough quite ceased.

She drew a few long, deep breaths, and was gone! Not one word of farewell! for never had I known her so little alarmed at indisposition. Never even in her clearest moments did she utter a word to us to intimate that she thought she was going; but at the same time she was at heart conscious of the probability, for while I was in her room on Monday evening I heard her praying, clearly and distinctly, that if it was God’s will to take her she might be willing to go, and that papa might have strength given him to bear her leaving, and that his way might be made plain. It was a beautiful prayer; I would fain have remembered every word. Poor dear mamma! how little we all thought it, as we enjoyed our merry Christmas at Knockholt. For her verily it is all joy; for us, and above all comparison for papa, how sad! We have been loaded with kindness — above all from Mr. Fraser, and Mr. Henry Vavasseur. Mr. Spicer also has been most kind.

[Robert Moffat wrote to his old friend and fellow-labourer, Roger Edwards, of Port Elizabeth, as follows:

“The black border has, I presume, already told its tale, that I am in affliction. Yes, it is even so; for the wife of my youth, the partaker of my joys and sorrows for more than half a century, has been taken from me. She is gone to the many mansions to which she has been daily looking forward with the full assurance of faith for more than sixty years. She never knew what it was to have a single doubt or fear as to her eternal happiness. The winter was too severe for her. She caught cold, but knew not how. It excited no particular alarm for some time, till it assumed the form of bronchitis. The day before she died she walked about the bedroom, anxious to come down to the parlour. The last words she spoke, about an hour before she expired, were begging me to go to bed, as Jeanie’s presence would suffice. As she said she could not sleep till I should go, I only hid myself for a few minutes. She did fall asleep, but it was the sleep of death. Her mind, for three or four days previously, occasionally wandered, but it was always in the right direction: the Redeemer’s reign among the heathen, the printing of the Scriptures, Kuruman and the Bechwanas. How lonely I feel! and but for Jeanie it would be much more so. I long unusually to hear from you, and how your family and all the Bay friends are. My dear brother, old friends are leaving us for a better, a happier world, and we naturally feel our hearts cleaving closer to those who yet remain. How are dear Mrs. E. and your children, and how is your own health? We are both looking forward to our heavenly home.”

Reference has already been made to her wide-spreading synv pathy. The ties of kindred were by her esteemed worthy of religious cultivation. Besides this, she gave systematic recognition to the claims which arose out of brotherhood in Christian work.

This did not attenuate the strength of her sense of duty in her own home. She watched over her husband’s health and comfort with a care which only grew more constant in the course of fifty years. She used to say, that although not able to take a prominent part in direct missionary work, it was her satisiaction to provide for the temporal wants of a servant of Christ who was doing this work; and she felt — what was true — that he never would have been the missionary he was but for her care of him. Even when life was numbered by hours, and on the very shore of the dark river, she would not rest until assured that his wants were being attended to. Her children thank God lor such a mother.]

At first we feared much for our father, who had been so dependent upon her. His first exclamation on finding her really gone was, “For fifty-three years I have had her to pray for me.” We remained at Barrington Road till May, 1871. Our father turned from all thoughts of a settled home, feeling as if no place could be home now that our mother was gone: so we took apartments in the Brixton Road, and these were our headquarters till the winter. In April we paid a short visit to Miss Eisdell, at Epsom, our father preaching on the Sunday. In May he attended the London meetings. In June we went down to Manchester for the missionary meetings there. He addressed a Sunday-school gathering in the Free Trade Hall on Sunday, June the eleventh. Dr. Turner, of Samoa, and Richard Fletcher, son of a previous minister of Grosvenor Street, also took a part. He went through the whole series of missionary services at Manchester and Liverpool; and had the satisfaction of again meeting old friends such as the Sheldons and Mrs. Woodward. Then he passed to Nottingham, where he met Dr. Mullens, and the first collections were made for the proposed Institute at the Kuruman; Mrs. Rogers, widow of Professor Henry Rogers, and daughter of Samuel Fletcher, of Manchester, having made the first donation. From Nottingham he returned to Manchester, and so on to Warrington. There we stayed with Mr. and Mrs. Walter Ashton, and we also spent an evening with Dr. Mackie, whose adopted daughter was baptized by our father. One day was spent in visiting High Leigh with Dr. Mackie and Mr. Rylands. He of course found there many alterations, but plenty to remind him of his early life there: particularly the room or cottage in which he had lived, the church, and many of the trees. After visiting some other places endeared by old associations, we returned south and spent a month at Knockholt. During this month he went to Wimborne for the Bible Society, and was entertained by the Hon. and Rev.

Carr Glynn. He always looked back with great pleasure to this visit. We returned to Brixton, and remained there till the middle of September. He was not very well, and made a stay at Brighton with Mr. Unwin till recruited, and then set out for the west, partly on missionary duty and partly to visit old friends. It was on this occasion that a thousand pounds were raised in Bristol for the Institute in Bechwanaland. In the middle of October he again paid Lancashire a visit to attend missionary meetings, and visited the Reyners and Cheethams of Ashton and Staleybridge. He visited the old house at Dukinfield from which our mother went forth to Africa in 181 9, now called “Plantation Farm.” He also went to Fairfield, the Moravian school at which our mother was educated. The matron remembered her, having been a little girl at the school when our mother was an elder one. The building was the same, but the surroundings changed. From this time onwards, till near the end of the year, he was engaged in deputation services, which resulted more especially in the raising of large sums for the Institute.

[For many years it had been plain to those engaged in the Bechwana Mission that a necessary step in advance would be the planting of a seminary, and the training of a native ministry. More than once attempts had been made in this direction, but no permanent success had been achieved. In a meeting of missionaries at Kuruman a short time before Moffat’s departure, the attention of the Directors at home had been formally drawn to the subject, and their aid had been requested. Nothing was done, but the subject was much on Moffat’s mind. On the occasion of a visit to Nottingham, in which the late Dr. Mullens took a part, reference was made to the need of special funds for this object; and the Nottingham people took it up with great spirit, subscribing at once, in addition to their ordinary annual contributions to the general purposes of the Society, a sum of two hundred pounds. This was the signal for a general movement, and with wonderful energy and cheerfulness the churches throughout the country took this way of doing honour to the old missionary, by whose name it was proposed to call the Institute that was to be founded. Some thousands of pounds were readily raised.

It was not his privilege to see this money applied as his judgment and experience would have advised. With his departure from the Kuruman new men had come to the front in Bechwanaland, and with them came in new plans, more theoretical than practical But his unswerving loyalty to the Society — a loyalty which had carried him for fifty years through the friction and the

2S6 INTERVIEW WITH THE QUEEN.

trials incident in the official working of even a Christian organization — bore this test also.]

In the middle of December we left our Brixton domicile, and went to spend the winter at Ventnor. During the whole of the year 187 1 he had been revising proof-sheets of the Old Testament in Sechwana, and he devoted himself more entirely to this work at Ventnor. We remained there till the beginning of April, 1872. We went thence to Gosport, where he addressed meetings, and stayed with Mr. Jellie in Dr. Bogue’s old house, the same in which our mother sojourned when, as Mary Smith, she was waiting to sail for Africa. Here he heard that the Queen was to cross from Osborne the next morning, and expressed a wish to get a sight of her, never having had that privilege. Through the kindness of an officer, a member of Mr. Jellie’s church, he got a good standing-place, and not only saw her, but, to his surprise and pleasure, was by her Majesty’s own desire introduced.

Whilst at Ventnor he had received from the Senate of Edinburgh University the offer of a degree, which, after consultation with friends, he agreed to accept; and after a visit to Brighton, to meet his son and family just arrived home from Africa, he proceeded to Edinburgh, where he was duly capped D.D. Returning from Edinburgh, where he had been the guest of the Rev. G. D. Cullen, he entered on an extended course of deputation work for the Society. The notes of the year point to places all over the north of England. He had the happiness of seeing other friends whose attachment had been lifelong, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Greaves, of Sh;tffield.

Our father had started from London tired, and his exertions ever since made him almost come to a halt at Kendal. However, having promised to go to Scotland, he pushed on, and gradually gained strength. Whilst in Scotland we visited Inverkeithing and Ormiston, both places full of interest. He spent the Sunday at Ormiston, and preached in the old parish kirk, in the graveyard of which his grandparents were buried. In the evening he gave an address at Winton Castle, the residence of Lady Ruthven, with whom he was staying. In the gardens of Ormiston Hall, the cottage still stands in which his mother was born. He could find only very distant connections in Ormiston, and the cottage in which he was born was not standing. However, he much enjoyed the visit. Thence he went to Melrose, and spent several days with Adam Black, then in his ninetieth year. It was a pleasant time. Mr. Black was hale and hearty, and Mrs. Black so cheerful and kind a hostess, although quite blind. Dr. Lindsay Alexander was also a guest, and added not a little to the

ORMISTON, THE BIRTHPLACE OK ROBERT MOKFAT. SHOWING THE
MONUMENT ERECTED TO HIS MEMORY.

enjoyment of the party. The weather was exceptionally beautiful, and besides fully exploring Melrose Abbey which Mr. Black’s grounds adjoined, he greatly enjoyed visiting Dryburgh Abbey and Abbotsford. He then went to the west, more especially to see the Livingstones. The visit was much clouded by the serious illness of Dr. Livingstone’s son Thomas, an illness from which he never fully recovered.

Our father left Hamilton for Stirling, and met with a slight railway accident, the only one in all his travels. He was, however, none the worse, beyond the momentary shock, and was able to assist a fellow-passenger to walk the little distance that remained. Leaving Scotland, he spent six weeks in Yorkshire and Lancashire, holding four or five meetings every week, and enjoying the hospitality of many friends old and new. His stay at Crow’s Nest, the residence of Sir Titus Salt, was especially interesting; the last two days of it Dr. and Mrs. Binney, Dr. and Mrs. Raleigh, and Mr. Samuel Morley being also guests. He returned to London tired, but wonderfully vigorous considering all that he had done.