24 cation those dayes afforded, and above all had such a generous virLue ioined with attractive sweetenesse, that she captivated the hearts of all that knew her: she was pious, libera ll , courteous, patient, kind above an ordinary degree, ingenuous to all things she would applle herself to, and notwithstanding she had had her education att court, was deli ghted in her own country habitation, and managed all her famely affaires better than auy of the h01nespun hus\vifes, that had been brought up to nothing elce: she·was a most affectionate wife, a grcate lover of her father's house, shewing that 'true honor to parents is the leading virtue, which seldome wants the concomitancy of all the res t of honor's traine. She was a wise and bountifull mistresse in her famely, a bl essing to her tenants and neighbourhood, and had an indulgen.t tendernesse to her infants ; hut death veil'd all her mortal glories in the 26th year of her age. The stories I have receiv'd of her have bene but scanty epitaphs of those things which were worthy a large chronicle, and a better recorder then I Cf\n be; I shall therefore draw· again the sable cur- . teine· before that image which I have ventur'd to looke at-a little, hut dare not undertake to discover to others. One that was present at her death told me tha t she had an admirable voyce, and skill to. manage it, and tha t she went away singing a psalme, which this maid apprehended she sung with w much more than usuall sweetenesse, as if her soule had bene already ascended into the coolestial quire. There is a story of her father and mother so memorable that though it be not alltogether pertinent to their grandchild's affaires, which I only intend, yet I ohall here putt it in, since the third ge~ neration, for whom I make this collection, is not alltogether unconcern'd in the greate grandf>lther. He (the great- grandfather) was not the· eldest sonne·of his father Sr. John Biron, but had an elder brother that had married a private gentleman's daughter in the -country, and so displeas'd his father in that match, that he intendecL
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