Note 85 — Chapter IX

Afterwards Lady Stonhouse, the only child and heir of Thomas Ekins, Esq., of Chester-on-the-Water, in Northamptonshire, a justice of the peace, and a most religious man. His funeral sermon was preached at Wellingborough, by Dr. Doddridge, and afterwards transcribed from the Doctor’s short hand copy, in long hand, by a son of Dr. Johnstone, a worthy physician at Worcester; the text is Heb. xi. 26. “Her father (says Dr. Stonhouse) was a Christian of the first magnitude, who left Dr. Doddridge sole guardian to his child. The Doctor died before I married her, which I did not do till after she was of age, and in full possession of her property. Dr. Doddridge’s account of her estate and expenses was so very just, that he really did not do himself justice. In consideration of which, we made his widow a handsome present, as a satisfaction for his undercharges.” Lady Stonhouse died at the Hot Wells, Bristol, December 10, 1778, aged fifty-five. A plain but elegant monument was erected to her memory in the Wells chapel, with an epitaph written by Mrs. Hannah More. She left two sons, John, in the civil service of the East India Company at Bengal, father of the present Bart., Sir John Brooke Stonhouse; Timothy, in holy orders, Vicar of Sunningwell, county of Berks, who took the surname and arms of Vigor, and married Miss Huntingford, niece of the Bishop of Hereford; and a daughter, Clarissa, wife of Henry Tripp Vigor, Esq. The first wife of Sir James Stonhouse was Anne Neale, as already stated, one of the maids of honour to Caroline, Queen of George II., by whom he had issue Sir Thomas Stonhouse, the thirteenth Baronet, who died unmarried, and Sarah, who married her cousin, George Vansittart, Esq., of Bisham Abbey, M.P. for the county of Berks in several Parliaments, by whom she had three sons and three daughters. Mr. Vansittart was uncle to the present Lord Bexley. The Rev. Sir James Stonhouse survived Lady Stonhouse but a few years. He died December 8, 1792, aged eighty, and was buried in the Wells chapel, in the same grave with his beloved wife.