Hearne History - Page 800

[Continued from page 799]

of March 16, 1909, and on the 19th was her funeral in Northampton, amid remarkable demonstrations of public sorrow, participated in by the mayor and wife (who had both been members of her Sunday School class) and every civil and religions organization in the city, and was buried in the cemetery there. Of her family, besides those already named in the history, are Mr. Geoffrey Hearne (Nottingham), nephew; Mr. Herbert Sharwood (Doddington), nephew, Mr. Frank Sharwood, (Rushden), nephew; Mrs. Duffield and Miss Alice Sharwood (Derby), nieces; Miss Margaret Hearne, niece; Miss Sharwood, niece; Miss Pattie Sharwood, Thebabbin, Northampton, niece, who is a missionary to South Africa, and Miss Lisbeth Sharwood, Northampton, niece.

In the council chamber at Northampton on the night of November 6, 1907, was a large and most influential gathering representing all the churches, parties and classes. The occasion was the presentation to Miss Marianne Farningham Hearne of a testimonial prompted by a Northampton committee, but to which a national character was given by the contributions received from all over Europe and some from America and other parts of the world, amounting to between two and three thousand dollars, given by several hundred contributors in sums of from one dollar to one hundred and more. In a personal letter to me at that time she expressed her great happiness in receiving this spontaneous offering, which she said would enable her to live comfortably to the end of life, which it did. It was my good fortune to visit Northampton, in the summer of 1909, and look in the vacant home of this dear good woman, and enter the College Street Baptist Chapel and sit in her pew, and stand by the little table, where she stood and so long tanght that wonderful Sunday School class of two hundred young ladies.

Near Northampton I saw "Sulgrave" Washington Manor House, the ancestral home of George Washington, which because of financial losses the family were compelled to give up, and remove to "Washington House," Little Brington, Northants, in the same locality.

An ancestor of George Washington, Laurence Washington, held the office of mayor of Northampton twice in the sixteenth century, and another ancestor of his is buried within six

[Continued on page 801]


Notes:

Thanks to Henry Hearn for providing an image of this page.
Thanks to Ida Olroyd for indexing this page.


Copyright (c) 1999, 2007 Brian Cragun.