These obituaries for his sisters-in-law appeared in The Baptist Magazine for January, 1849
RECENT DEATHS.
MRS. C. PRICE AND MRS. A. CONWAY.
These truly pious and excellent females, born in the town of Abergavenny, were two sisters, daughters of the late Mr. John and Mrs. Elizabeth Harris of Govilon, near the said town. Mrs. Price was the wife of the Rev. Joseph Price, some years ago pastor of the baptist church at Alcester; now of the baptist church at Middleton Cheney, Northamptonshire. Mrs. Conway was the relict of the late Mr. John Conway, tin-plate manufacturer, Pontrhydyrhyn, in the county of Monmouth.
Mrs. Price was the elder sister, and she finished her course on the second day of last May; and Mrs. Conway, the younger, terminated her pilgrimage below on the ninth day of March immediately preceding. They were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not far sundered. On the paternal side they were descended from a long line of ancestors in this county, of staunch nonconforming principles, and of the baptist denomination; persons, in their day, that ranked amongst the more influential and respectable connected with their religious persuasion. Their great-grandfather, Mr. John Harry, was minister of the baptist church at Blaunagwent in Monmouthshire, a very old interest. He died in 1737, aged 63. Their grandfather, Mr. Morgan Harry, the son of John Harry, was also a minister at the Blauna, and died in 1746. He was the father of Mr. John Harris of Govilon, and of a posthumous son named Morgan after his father, which son was called to the work of the ministry, studied at the Bristol academy, and became assistant pastor at Llanwenarth, where he honourably ended his days, both as a Christian and a minister about sixty years since. The elder brother, Mr. John Harris, who changed the family name from Harry to Harris, was a man of great worth, both as a citizen and a follower of the Saviour. He was a member and a deacon of the baptist church in Frogmore Street chapel, Abergavenny, from nearly its commencement to the close of his valuable life in 1819, aged 75 yean. Mrs. Harris also, whose praise was in all the churches, and who had been a member of the church at Llanwenarth from her early youth, transferred her communion to the church at Abergavenny, in fellowship with which she happily died in 1835. Her father, the venerable Mr. Caleb Harries,for so spelled he his name, was an assistant preacher, and the highly respectable and revered pastor of the baptist church at Llanwenarth, for about half a century. He died in 1792, aged 77 years.
So paternally and maternally were the two sistcrs, the subjects of this imperfect and inadequate sketch, descended, and in their day and generation they proved themselves worthy of their parents and progenitors.
Some four or five and forty years ago, the sisters opened a ladies' school at Bristol, when Mrs. Price, then Miss Catharine Harris, was baptized at Broadmead, and became a member of the Broadmead church, at that time under the pastorate of the eminent Dr. Hyland. But in 1809 or 1810, they left Bristol, returned to Abergavenny, their native town, and conducted their seminary there. Miss C. Harris, soon after this change of locality, was dismissed from the Broadmead to the Abergavenny church, with which she continued in full fellowship till her marriage, and consequent removal to Alcester. During that interval her career was one of exemplary piety and usefulness. Every way she could, she was prompt to serve and advance the cause of the Redeemer, then in its infant state. The recollection of her lovely countenance, affable mien, superior understanding, holy life, energetic zeal, and sisterly condescension to her inferiors, is still deeply infixed in the minds of the comparatively small number of her once delighted associates that now survive, to cherish sweetly, and with freshness, the remembrance of her distinguished Christian virtues. Nor did she decline or decay in the vigour, value, and lustre of her character and religious profession, as she accomplished her pilgrimage and went down the declivity of life; but her path being that of the emphatically just, it shone more and more unto the perfect day. Her domestic bereavements she pungently felt, yet meekly and patiently endured, knowing that He whose prerogative it was to give, had likewise an undisputed right to take away. Besides, her own personal afflictions for some years prior to her lamented decease were numerous and severe. But she knew whom she had believed, and was fully persuaded that he was able to keep that which she had committed unto him against that day. She felt perfectly satisfied, that however mysterious and inscrutable many of his ways may appear, they were not only righteous, but also kindly designed and wisely ordered. When her flesh was wasted away, and the voice of the heavenly Bridegroom summoned her to go
forth to meet him, she, having her lamp trimmed and her light burning, readily obeyed the call, in perfect peace resigned her spirit into his hands, and thus softly languished into life. But having for the last four and thirty years resided at so great a distance from this neighbourhood, and visiting the place only occasionally, the writer considers himself very incompetent to do justice to her worth.
Mrs. Conway, on the contrary, having been three and thirty years a member of the church over which, from its commencement in April, 1807, he has presided, comes more directly and extensively within the range and sphere of his observation. She, and her excellent partner in life, with seven others, were baptized by him, and received into the church, March 19th, 1815. In August, 1821, Mr. Conway, whose health had for some time been precarious, was rather suddenly called away, leaving seven fatherless children, the eldest about ten years of age, and the youngest a little infant, to the charge of his deeply distressed widow. But she was a woman that, on various grounds, rose much above mediocrity. Her strength of mind and abilities were of a high order, her education liberal and paramount, and her mental culture, which had been her pursuit from the early morning of life, placed her far in advance of the greater portion of her sex. Charitable and expanded in her religious views, yet strictly evangelical, she was prepared to make every allowance for obliquities incidental to the perverse influence of popular opinion, educational prejudice, and human infirmity. Nevertheless, she was not this, that, anything, or everything, which now, alas! seems pretty much to become the fashion amongst those even that are loud and clamorous in their profession of dissenting principles. Their easier aping of conformity in habiliments, architecture, and forms of worship, had no charm in her estimation. Her vast reading had familiarized her with history, both secular and ecclesiastical; and she was a fervid admirer of the illustrious founders of dissent, the puritans and nonconformists, who bravely purchased the precious pearl of British freedom, civil and religious, at the expense of all things terrestrial, dear to mortals, yes, of life itself, and whom nothing, either formidable or seductive, could intimidate or tempt to merge their distinctive sentiments and practice into that semi-conformity and nonconformity, which at present place multitudes of our contemporaries, baptists and independents, in the anomalous position of those of whom it is thus recorded: "Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people. Ephraim is a cake not turned. Strangers have devoured his strength; yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him."
Mrs. Conway was too decided and elevated in her religious and nonconforming principles, to sympathize and symbolize with this unnatural blending, compromise, and degeneracy. Uniform and consistent in principle, profession, and practice, she, as she believed, spoke. In other words, principle was the basis and reason of practice; and practice was the fruit, illustration, and evidence of principle. As willing to give as to take, she duly appreciated the conscientious scruples of those that differed from her in creed, rituals, and observances. But she felt it a commanding duty to be consistent with her own avowed profession.
The following remarks concerning her valuable character and life, presented by the writer to a large assembly in her funeral sermon, may not be incongruously but befittingly, introduced in this place. Having glanced at the world's fallacious estimate of character, dignity, and worth, and adverted to nature's bountiful gifts in her case, together with her improvement of those bestowments, and her superior literary acquirements, he added, "These, my friends, were not the only - no, not the chief accomplishments of Mrs. Conway. She was a genuine, a thinking, a zealous, a working, a useful, and a hallowed Christian. Not such in name only, not such by education only but such in deed and in truth. Deep and energetic were her cherished feelings of interest in the advancement of the cause of Christ at home and abroad. When, many years since, the ladies of England adopted measures to raise the character, and meliorate the state, of the oppressed and degraded females of India, by means of female education, she soon joined their ranks, and participated in the toils of their noble enterprize. Beneath her auspices, and through her exertions, a Monmouthshire School for female education was originated and was opened in Bengal, and as long as her health and strength admitted, our excellent friend was its untiring advocate and zealous promoter in her native county. Her pen, her influence, and her personal endeavours, were all made subservient to the praiseworthy object.
Singular to observe, this very day three and thirty years, 1 had the privilege to baptize and receive into the church, my highly valued sister, with her alike valued husband; and though residing at the distance of twelve miles from Abergavenny, she continued her membership with us, and generally on ordinance days we enjoyed her truly delighting fellowship.
Just twenty-one years after she joined us, she became a permanent resident of our neighbourhood; and the last twelve years of her life, and of her sojourn with us, were years of much usefulness, and to numbers, of great enjoyment. In her departure, her surviving relatives have indeed lost a friend »nd a counsellor, the church in this place a pillar, the poor a benefactress, our British
school, missionary cause, and other interests, a cheerful supporter. But you need not be told the virtues and excellencies of the deceased. You have witnessed them, you have read them in her holy and devoted life.
She went down to the grave under circumstances of dire bodily sufferings. Once in her conflict with the harbingers of death, she said to the writer, 'I want more faith.' Yet her faith and hope firmly grasped the Rock of ages. And having fought a good fight, finished her course, and kept the faith, whilst her happy spirit has joined the spirits of just men made perfect, her body rests on the soft pillows of the sepulchre, till the Lord her Redeemer descends in the clouds, and bids her come away. O that with her, we may be found on his right hand in the day of doom!"
Thus the two loving and pious sisters, Mrs. Price and Mrs. Conway, ran the Christian race, and reached the goal. "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!"
Micah Thomas. Abergavenny, Dec. 8, 1848.
