As a HUSBAND and a FATHER, Mr. Mortimer was a pattern of conjugal tenderness and of parental kindness: there was a remarkable suavity in his manners, which greatly endeared him to his family, and indeed to all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance. If ever he said or wrote an unkind word, he was the first to discover and acknowledge it, and to make the most ample apology. His humility was so great that it might have been suspected of disingenuousness, if those who knew him the most intimately were not well assured of his Christian simplicity and sincerity. His youngest daughter, writing to me, says, in reference to this subject:—
“He kindly made me the companion of his drives before he began to visit his people regularly, and he frequently talked to me more as if I were his friend than his daughter; for he would speak of his religious feelings, and even of his faults. He once said that he had no wish to conceal his sins and failings here; for that they would all be revealed before the assembled multitudes of men and angels at the day of judgment. I frequently felt deeply humbled by the thought that I was so unworthy of the feelings my beloved father entertained towards me: but I was fully aware that it was his _own disposition_ to cause him to feel as he did towards me.”
My amiable young friend and god-daughter also writes, in reference to his kindness to servants:—
“My dear father was the kindest and most considerate of MASTERS. He was always anxious to promote the comfort and happiness of his servants, and very careful not to wound their feelings, or to give them unnecessary trouble or annoyance. He often expressed his pleasure at seeing them seated by the fire at their needlework, or enjoying the society of their relatives and friends, and would tell them that he wished them to be as comfortable as he was himself. Nor was he less mindful of their spiritual welfare, and took pains to instruct them in the great duties of religion.”
For the foregoing particulars, illustrative of my friend’s character as a Christian pastor, and in his domestic relations, with the exception of a part of the article on the character of his preaching, attributed in a note, to another friend, I am entirely indebted to his youngest daughter, Miss Phebe Mortimer: nothing is due to myself except for the arrangement of the materials with which I have been so kindly and so well furnished.