The following obituary appeared in the Baptist Magazine in 1829
MRS. SOPHIA THOMAS.
On the 21st day of April, 1829, and
in the 74th year of her age, died at Abergavenny, deeply and
deservedly regretted, Mrs. Sophia Thomas, wife of the Rev. Micah
Thomas, Baptist minister, and Tutor of the Academy in that town. This
excellent woman was a native of Herefordshire, and had been an
humble, unostentatious, and unblemished follower of the Redeemer
during a pilgrimage of forty-three years. She was originally a
valuable member of the church at Ryeford, near Ross, then under the
pastoral care of the Rev. J. Williams, late of Kingstanley,
Gloucestershire, by whom she was baptized; but in the commencement of
the year 1807, she and her husband removed to Abergavenny, he being
invited and having engaged to preside over the Institution then
formed and established there, and still continuing beneath his
direction and superintendence. Nor should it be concealed, but to her
lasting honour recorded, that the very useful seminary just averted
to, owes more to Mrs. Thomas's superior management and wise economy
than can easily be calculated. She was truly one of that
distinguished class, who fully exemplify the life and character of
the virtuous woman, so sublimely delineated by Solomon. Besides, in
her religious profession, lowliness of mind, genuine sincerity, sheer
integrity, and strong practical attachment to the house and
ordinances of God, were prominent features; whilst pompous show and
rain parade, and that Pharisaical attracting of human observation and
applause, which are the blemishes of numbers in the present day,
never deteriorated from her intrinsic worth. And as she prosecuted,
so she terminated her religious course; "quietly waiting for the
salvation of the Lord."
Her Bible, for
many years, had been her daily, intimate, and endeared companion; and
with peculiar interest did she peruse different publications,
especially the justly admired works of that extraordinary man, Andrew
Fuller. Though sometimes tears, indicative of doubt and apprehension,
nevertheless of honest piety - snuffed at indeed by the high-notioned
and presumptuous - suffused her cheeks, yet, with the illustrious
Carey, she could say, "My hope is in his mercy." Leaning on
this prop, the only one which even that pre-eminent saint and
missionary seems able and disposed to claim, she, notwithstanding her
previous fears, met the last enemy with enviable composure, and a
countenance unusually and delightfully placid. Thus when the moment
decreed by heaven arrived, she, amidst the sympathies of encompassing
relations, yielded up the ghost, and softly "languished into
life."
On the following Lord's day evening
her lamented death was improved by the Rev. David Phillips of
Caerleon, from Job. xix. 29. to a numerous audience.
An obscure website here appears to show that Sophia Wall (1755-1829) was born Sophia Pritchard and first married Levi Wall (1754-1800) in 1778. He died in 1800. The first marriage appears to have produced two girls, Mary and Ann.
An obscure website here appears to show that Sophia Wall (1755-1829) was born Sophia Pritchard and first married Levi Wall (1754-1800) in 1778. He died in 1800. The first marriage appears to have produced two girls, Mary and Ann.
