Person talk:Henrietta Leeds (1)

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She was the "eldest daughter of Serjeant Leeds, esquire, of Caxton, in Cambridgeshire, a lady about his own age, of considerable beauty, and great accomplishments, to whom he was united in marriage on the 25th April, 1758. She possessed a most amiable disposition, united to a highly cultivated mind: her education had been suitable to her father's rank. But though she moved in rather a gay circle, it was evident that, both in her dress and manners, she preferred neatness and elegance to splendour and show. She was eminently pious, and had evidently partaken largely of that noble spirit which formed so striking a feature in the character of [her husband, the prisoner reformer John] Howard, that personal gratifications of ever kind ought most cheerfully to be relinquished, when they in any way retard or diminish the means of our usefulness."

"But an event was now permitted to occur, which threw a dark cloud over the whole, and became to [her husband, John Howard] a source of sorrow the most poignant. Mrs. Howard's health, though it still continued delicate, was not more so than formerly: she had been married six years, without issue; but on Wednesday, the 27th March, 1765, she was safely delivered of a son. She continued so well till the following Sunday, that Howard, not then apprehending the slightest danger, went to church. No alteration had taken place at his return, but very shortly afterwards, she experienced a sudden spasmodic attack; and before professional advice could be had, she expired in Howard's arms, while in the act of taking from him some little refreshment." ^[1]