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.ÿþLeath, aged eighty-three, two days later, elicited a handsome tribute: Theywere Neighbours for 70 years and, I am told, never had an angry word to-gether. 87 What the recorder intended in his notation on the death of HenryHartwell Marable is unclear: He died Tuesday a little before Midnight; onWednesday the grave was dug at Nottoway Church; on Thursday the Corpswas put into the Grave.The Clerk at Nottoway Church (Ben Beard) read theFunl Service, (two only being present), and there was an end of the matter andof the man. 88By contrast, the death of the best and tenderest of husbands, Mary BlandLee told her brother, is so great an affliction to me, that I han t words to ex-press it. Nevertheless, she did find words: I know it is my duty as a christian,to bear patiently whatever happens to me, by the alotment of divine provi-dence, and I humbly beseech Almighty God, to grant me his grace, that I maybe enabled to submit patiently, to whatever trialls it may please him to layon me (who doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men), butthat I may bear them as a good christian, with courage and resolution, withcalmness and resignation, and that I may resign this life with joy and comfort,when it pleaseth God to remove me, and may have a well-grounded hope in hismercy through the merits and interseshun of our dear Saviour and mercifulRedeemer. 89Mary Bland Lee s resolutions were faithful to the Prayer Book rites forbaptism, marriage, and burial.The final prayer in Holy Baptism asked that he [the child] being dead unto sin, and living unto righteousness, and beingburied with Christ in his death, may crucifie the old man.And that ashe is made partaker of the death of thy Son, he may also be partaker of hisResurrection, so that finally with the residue of thy holy Church, he may bean inheritour of thy everlasting Kingdom. 90 Anglican marriage vows boundhusband and wife till death us do part. The burial service that for many,if not most, Virginians marked the final rite for the final passage, employedcollects, prayers, psalms, and scripture selections to place the reality of deathin the context of the faith and teachings of the church with its proclamationof resurrection and another life beyond death.While the Anglican burial service defined the eighteenth-century Virginiaway of death, funeral and burial practices in fact were various.Anecdotal evi-dence describes something of this variety.The Anglican service assumed achurch or churchyard setting.Instructions for the minister directed him tomeet the Corps (those bearing the coffin and others attending it) at the en-trance of the churchyard.He then led the procession either into the church.Rites of Passage 227
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