From the foregoing synopsis of Mr. Peyton's letter it is evident, if he did not say so, that, in his opinion, love of variety and change, a desire to subvert the existing state of things, indicated both weakness and ignorance; that it is not the strong-minded and right thinking who desire to cut loose from the past, its traditions and customs and its endearing associations, but the stupid, whose wild and dangerous projects carried out, would, however, unconsciously to themselves, give us poverty in lieu of prosperity, licence instead of liberty.
MRS. ANNE PEYTON.
her removal to augusta county.
During the year of 1829, Mrs. Anne Peyton, the widow of John R. Peyton, the hero boy of '76, and mother of John H. Peyton, broke up her establishment at Stony Hill and removed to Staunton. Some years before, namely on February 1st 1826, her son, Rowze Peyton, was married to a second wife, Eliza Murray, daughter of John B. Murray, a citizen of New York City, but a native of England. His Northern bride did not find plantation life congenial to her tastes and induced her husband to leave Virginia. After a brief sojourn in New York City, Mr. and Mrs. Peyton removed to Geneva, N. Y., where they long lived and both died, leaving a large and interesting family, now connected by marriage with many of the leading families of the Empire State—such as the Sewards, the Cuttings, Spensers, deZengs, Wilmerdings, Rathburns and others.
The venerable and respected mother of John H. Peyton was affectionately invited by her son and his wife, as soon as they heard of her intention to leave Stony Hill, to make her home at Montgomery Hall, which she decided to do. Mr. Peyton had built immediately, for her exclusive use, a comfortable brick residence in the grounds of and near the mansion. Here she took up her residence in the summer of 1829, and in that snug abode, she spent in singular ease and tranquility the rest of her life. At this time Mrs. J. R. Peyton was of large and striking person, dignified and graceful in manners. She was over 70 years of age, dressed in black, with a high-crowned white muslin cap and frill, a cap in the style of what is now known as the Martha Washington cap, and she looked at first sight eminently neat, precise and stately. She was in fine physical preservation and her mind and memory unimpaired. She was very accessible and companionable, she liked to see her friends and to chat, and her conversation was always full of thought and poetry. Her acquaintance with and knowledge of the leading Southerners of the pre and Revolutionary era was extensive, and she possessed a large fund of information on social, literary, and political topics. This and her anecdotes, racy and amusing, caused her society to be courted by such men as Gen. Baldwin, Daniel Sheffey, and Chapman Johnson. Her parlor was the center of attraction and the rallying point of the family. Her grandchildren especially gathered round her chair, and listened with infantile delight, to her graphic accounts of the war, of the officers and soldiers, of their hair-breadth escapes, of the battles, &c., and at that early day became familiar with the names of the Washingtons, Masons, Conways, Fitzhughs, Lees, Scotts, Marshalls, Moncures, Daniels, Greenes, and other prominent people of the Northern Neck, and all more or less connected with the bloody drama of the war.
At the premature death of her husband, when only 45 years of age, she was left with the heavy responsibility of a large and helpless family, and an extensive plantation and many slaves. Had she possessed less character and spirit, less force and ability, she must have been prostrated. The disaster, however, seemed to call forth her strength, and gave such firmness and elevation to her character, that her friends and neighbors were filled with admiration and delight. This excellent woman, who had been during the prosperous period of her husband's life, all weakness and dependence, now displayed heroic qualities, showed herself equal to the trying position in which she was placed, displaying a mental force and firmness truly astonishing,—every difficulty was overcome, every obstacle put aside. She entered on her new career soberly and seriously, devoted herself to the education of her children and the management of their property. The children were taught to think justly of themselves and kindly of others. She aimed to store their minds with useful information and to form their moral and religious characters—thus giving them correct, practical ideas and good habits. Religion was the basis of her teachings and her children went into the world with just notions of human life, prepared if prosperity smiled upon them, to receive it with humble gratitude, and if calamity supervened to endure it with dignified patience. A kind Providence prolonged her life to see them a joy and a comfort to herself, and an honor to Virginia. She governed and directed the affairs of her estate with such skill and discretion that Old Stony Hill[3] put on a new face, showed successful husbandry and yielded abundant crops—so much so, that the casual observer even could not fail to see that both white and black there enjoyed prosperity and content. Greatly attached to this old family seat, where she had lived a half century, nothing but the marriage of her six children and their departure for new homes of their own, could have torn her from it. But when her only remaining son, Rowze, who had married a New York lady, mentioned his purpose of leaving Virginia and settling in New York, she quickly made up her mind to accept the invitation of her favorite son, John Howe, and to end her days at Montgomery Hall.
Mrs. Anne Peyton was a woman of worth, thoroughly honest, sincere and straightforward, with a fund of practical common sense. Her conversational powers were of no ordinary kind. A sincere, devout and humble Christian, a good wife, devoted mother, kind and sympathetic friend, she was in all respects a remarkable person. While it does not come within our scope to here enter at length into her life and character, it is right and due to her memory, that reference should be made to her exalted piety. So domestic, unobtrusive, and retired was her plantation life, that her name is little more than an echo in the age in which she lived, and might scarcely be even that, if it had not been kept somewhat in mind by the fame of her distinguished son. A considerable part of her time, after she fixed her residence at Montgomery Hall, was spent in the seclusion of her apartments, and much of every day was given to meditation and prayer. She left behind many voluminous manuscript books, in which she had copied the Psalms, the Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, and many striking passages from other parts of Holy Writ, and containing many prayers, (original and quoted,) and ejaculations, suited to various occasions. These were of the following character, which will give an idea of the whole: "Supply, Oh Lord, the wants of a heart which knows not even how to lay them open before thee, which does not so much as think of doing it, and which too often shuts out the light and consolation of which it stands in need." And—
"These, O Jesus, are the things I ask. Intercede for me, that I may be truly sensible of the diseases that I labor under, and thankfully embrace the means which thy goodness has ordained for my recovery. Grant that the end of all my actions and designs may be the glory of God. Enable me to resist all the sinful appetites of my carnal nature. Grant that I may hunger and thirst after righteousness" &c., &c.
These MS. books contained also evidence that she prayed often, fervently and importunately, and that like Anna, she served God with fastings and prayers night and day. Luke ch. 2, v 37. She was never, however, "rash with her mouth," heeding. Eccl., ch. 5, v 2. On the contrary, her words were few and innocent of those vain repetitions against which our Saviour warns us in Matthew, ch. 6, v 7.