SOME

ACCOUNT

OF THE

LIFE OF MRS. CATHARINE TALBOT.

CATHARINE TALBOT was born in the month of May, 1720. She was the only child, and born five months after her father's decease, of Edward Talbot, second son to William, Bishop of Salisbury, and afterwards of Durham, and younger brother to Charles, first Lord Talbot. Her mother was daughter to the Rev. George Martyn, Prebendary of Lincoln.

It does not appear that Mr. Edward Talbot was brought up to any profession, unless he was either in the Church, or designed for it *; which an expression in the Bishop of London's life of Archbishop Secker rather seems to intimate. If however this was the case, he had certainly no considerable preferment; and dying so early, having only attained the age of twenty-nine years, and being a younger

*He was Archdeacon of Berks.

brother, he left his widow in a situation very inadequate to his rank in life. She had been married to him only a few months, and was left in a state of pregnancy. Happily for her the kind attentions of a dear and intimate friend were not wanting at that critical period. Catharine, sister to Mr. Benson, afterwards Bishop of Gloucester, who had been the companion of her early youth, and whose brother was upon an equally intimate footing with Mr. Talbot, was residing with her at the time of his death. She was her great support in that heavy affliction, and when her infant was born, who came into the world with a very weak and delicate constitution, it was supposed that she could not have been reared without the assistance of her care and tenderness.

These endearing circumstances naturally formed a still closer bond of intimacy between the two ladies; and they continued to live together, and to bestow all their joint attention upon the infant Catharine. But before she was five years of age, this establishment was broken up by the marriage of Miss Benson to Mr. Secker, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, but then Rector of the valuable living of Houghton-le-spring in Durham.

For this preferment however, and others still greater which followed it, Mr. Secker was indebted to the friendship of Mr. Edward Talbot, who on his

death-bed had recommended him to his father the bishop. Mr. Secker's grateful heart was never unmindful of this obligation, which naturally induced him to pay great attention to his benefactor's widow and child.

When therefore he married Miss Benson from her house, he immediately joined his wife in the request that Mrs. and Miss Talbot would from that time become a part of his family. The offer was accepted, and they never afterwards separated; and upon Mrs. Secker's death, which took place in the year 1748, they still continued with him, and took the management of his domestic concerns.

There is reason to suppose that Mr. Secker paid considerable attention to Miss Talbot's education; for when she and her mother went to reside with him, she was under five years of age; and as Mr. Secker had no children, he always treated her as his daughter, and took the same pride and pleasure in her dawning genius, as if she had in reality been such. From her mother it does not appear probable that she could acquire much either of literature or accomplishment; but to her she owed what was of much greater consequence, strictly religious and virtuous principles, so well grounded, and on a foundation so solid, that they were never afterwards shaken in any situation of life. For though Mrs. Talbot was not a woman of brilliant parts, and her

own education seems to have been rather neglected, yet was her mind strong, her judgment sound, her manners amiable, and her piety fervent as well as rational.

But besides her mother's instructions, Miss Talbot enjoyed the benefit of a constant intercourse with the eminent Divine with whom they lived; and his enlightened mind soon discovered the extent of her early genius, and was delighted to assist in its improvement. Hence, although she never studied the learned languages, unless perhaps a little Latin, she reaped all the advantages of Mr. Secker's deep and extensive learning, of his accurate knowledge of the Scriptures, and of his critical and unwearied research into the sciences and languages more immediately connected with that important study.

Yet though so much attention was bestowed on serious pursuits, the lighter and more ornamental parts of female education were not neglected. For the acquirement of these there was abundant opportunity in the different situations in which Mr. Secker's rapid progress in the Church placed him*. In 1727 he became a Prebendary of Durham, and for the two following years lived chiefly in that city. Not long after this, he was appointed King's Chap

Several of these particulars, both relating to Archbishop Secker and to Mrs. and Miss Talbot, are taken from the Bishop of London's Life of that Prelate.

lain; and in 1733 became Rector of the Parish of St. James in Piccadilly; which preferment he held for upwards of seventeen years, during which he always resided for at least half the year in his parsonage house. In 1734 he was promoted to the Bishoprick of Bristol; to that of Oxford in 1737; to the Deanery of St. Paul's in 1750; and to the Archbishoprick of Canterbury in 1758.

From the time therefore that Miss Talbot was seven years of age, she lived almost constantly in, or near, large cities; and was consequently enabled to acquire every useful branch of education, and all those elegant accomplishments which add so much grace to beauty and virtue. She learnt music, but without acquiring any considerable proficiency in it, or bestowing upon it much time; but she was extremely fond of Church music, and when Dr. Secker was Dean of St. Paul's, bestowed great attention upon the choir of that cathedral*. In drawing, and painting in water colours, she made a much greater progress; and as some of her Letters shew that her knowledge of these sciences was by no means superficial, so some of her performances, still remaining, prove that her execution would not have

* For the service of that church she requested her friend Mrs. Carter to alter the Anthem of "Lo, He comes with clouds descending;" the whole of which she composed, except the first stanza. See the Series of their Letters, 4to. p. 333, vol. i.