His next care was the disposition of his estate, and in this instance, as well as in every action of his life, he demonstrated himself to be a just and honest man.
After bequeathing several legacies, and providing for the children of his niece, as we have before observed, he carried his harmless oddities to the last action possible, and in that his mind shone with its wonted benignity. He directed his executors to convey his remains, by water, to Barking, accompanied by six journeymen pump and block-makers, as bearers; to each of whom he gave a new white leather apron and a guinea.
There is a proof of his munificence that ought not to be omitted; it was his custom, upon the birth of all his niece’s children, to present the mother with a gold coral, a pap-boat, and a purse of 50 guineas. I appeal to those of my fair country-women who are mothers, whether such a gallant present would not be very pleasing to them upon such occasions; and I cannot dismiss this account without observing, that the poor were daily fed at his door, and never craved other relief from him in vain.
Mr. Day was not one of those persons who left the grand account to be balanced at the hour of dissolution, or who have to trust only to a sick-bed repentance for the errors of their whole lives: he was a protestant, and a constant attendant upon divine worship at his parish church, and though he had no child of his own, he would always enforce the attendance of his nephews and nieces, their children, and of his servants.
Mr. Day was not without his aversions, which were generally well founded and immoveable, but he had few resentments.
In his dress and manners he was simplicity itself, and he was an amateur of music and dancing, the meetings of which he frequently attended; upon one of these occasions he was invited to a superior circle, where he was told it would be necessary to wear ruffles, and a pair of the finest point lace was presented to him; he viewed them with some degree of contempt, and said, “If it was the custom he must comply, but it should be in his own way,” and directed his house-keeper to get the lace dyed green, in which colour he wore them at that assembly, and upon all similar occasions.
Mr. Day retained his health until within a day or two of his death, and his faculties to the last. As he had lived, so he died—a devout christian, a sincere friend, a good master, and an honest man; he was just without austerity, liberal without profuseness, free without intemperance, and lively without excess; in fine, he lived merry and wise, and died universally revered and lamented on the 19th of October, 1767, in the 84th year of his age, and was buried agreeable to his Will, in his oak coffin, in the churchyard at Barking, in Essex, where the following epitaph may be seen:—
Here lieth interr’d the Body of Mr. Daniel Day, Block and Pump Maker, late of the Parish of St. John’s Wapping; who departed this Life October the 19th 1767, Aged 84 years.
Death, from this world, hath set me free
From all my pain and misery.
On the reverse side of the stone appears the following:—
As a respectful tribute to the memory of the Founder of Fairlop Fair, the Company of Block Makers caused this stone to be repaired A.D. 1829, under the direction of the following members:—Joseph Flowers, William James Grinyer, Thomas Hemingway, Abraham Kimm, William Row, and John Owen, Treasurer.