Letter continuation: Mrs. Milliken's last words to her daughter Mollie
Book 1, Page 263 ·1850–1880
Transcription
and pressed it, and told her that she was willing to die — Mrs Northrop wished her to be Baptised by the Priest, she considered as it was his last wish but requested Auntie not to leave her while he was in the room — “for Mrs Milliken I do it only on his account I am unchanged and die in the faith of my forefathers & you must say so” — Mrs Northrop & the Priest all tried to get them out of the room but they were firm and never left her — Mrs. Northrop came out of the room with a triumphant face saying his wife had been baptised a Christian but Mr. Walker told him “no, on your account she told us she died a Protestant” — that night she asked if there was not the least hope of her nourish- ment was retained — but when told none — she said “it is God’s will I am willing.” Mr Walker did not allude to her Baptism but she took his hand & turned her wasted face to him & said “I say it is only right to Christian as he thought I could not go to Heaven unless Baptised but it is only to make him happy. I remain as ever a Protestant & dearest you will say so?” Mr Walker asked if she was not afraid, “not in the least I trust in the mercy of God for pardon.” Mr Walker said “entirely so, you grieve nothing? Yes I entirely am only grieved to leave my little children without a Mother were but if it is Gods will he will care for them.” She asked if she had a message for you — "Yes tell Mollie that I have thought of her continually since she left, & throughout my illness with intense affection, tell her that I thought of her in my dying moments, gave her my love. Oh Mollie dear Mollie would that I could repeat the words to you with my own lips & mingle thy tears
AI Notes
Continuation of the multi-page manuscript letter from pages 261–262. Written in brown ink in a more open hand than 262 (largely horizontal, not cross-hatched), making this page substantially more legible. The text is the deathbed scene of Mrs. Milliken: she tells Mrs. Northrop she is willing to die and consents to baptism by the Priest only on his account, declaring ‘I am unchanged and die in the faith of my forefathers and you must say so.’ Mrs. Northrop emerges from the room triumphant, but Mr. Walker corrects her — his wife died a Protestant. Mrs. Milliken, taking Mr. Walker’s hand and turning her wasted face to him, repeats ‘I remain as ever a Protestant.’ She affirms her trust in God’s mercy and grieves only to leave her little children without a Mother. Her dying messages are addressed by name to her daughter Mollie: ‘Yes tell Mollie that I have thought of her continually since she left … tell her that I thought of her in my dying moments, gave her my love. Oh Mollie dear Mollie would that I could repeat the words to you with my own lips & mingle thy tears’. There is a hole punch at the top center. Continuation of letter from pages 261–262; text breaks mid-sentence and continues on the next scan.
Letter continues on the next scan.
The deathbed-baptism contest narrated on this page — Mrs. Northrop pressing Catholic baptism on the dying woman in the priest’s last visit, the dying Mrs. Milliken submitting “only on his account” but declaring herself unchanged “in the faith of my forefathers” — is a vivid Charleston instance of the antebellum Protestant-Catholic confessional drama at the deathbed, the same scene played out in countless mid-nineteenth-century evangelical tracts.