Free Manse, Keig
May 9th, 1864
My Dear Archie,[2]
I fear there is no hope of Mary Jane’s recovery. The fever has been only secondary and her disease is rapid consumption. Within the last two or three days she is very much wasted & changed in appearance. But she is quite calm & composed and is prepared to die.
Either Papa[3] or Mamma[4] sits with her constantly and she cares for nothing so much as to listen to Papa while he repeats verses from the bible.[5] She takes no interest in anything but the Bible.
She told Mamma that she was glad that she had been brought through so severe an illness — that it was well worth it all to gain the happiness that she had gained. It is still possible perhaps that she may rally but we can hardly dare to hope so. She is now so weak that it seems a question of days or even hours how long she may live. Dr Williamson will see her again to morrow.
Do not blame me for writing to you thus. On Saturday I was hopeful but now I seem almost in the presence of death. But though it is very hard for us all and especially for myself I feel that it is best for her and for us too.
Your sincere friend,
Wm R. Smith
Do not think I should not have written so to you. You do not know how great a loss it will be to me. And I wished to tell you what I have myself seen in her, that there is but one thing that can give composure and happiness even in death.
P.S. Mary Jane was very thankful for the oranges — she finds them very refreshing now when she is unable to take a drink. We could not have got them here. She cannot take the jelly but Mamma sends her thanks for it.
[1] CUL ADD 7449 C050 MS
[2] This letter is quoted in full by B&C (p.53). As WRS’s biographers note, Archibald Macdonald, the elder of two sons, was “a lifelong friend”. WRS and his brother George later boarded with the McDonald family at Aberdeen during the university session of 1864–1865 after Mary Jane’s death. The tone of the letter betrays the young Robertson Smith’s agonised feelings over the approaching death of his elder sister, just two months short of her nineteenth birthday. She died of consumption six days later, on May 15, 1864. Mary Jane was the first child born to WPS and his wife Jane in July, 1845, the same month in which William Pirie Smith received his call to Keig. Alice Smith describes the death of her sister in Children of the Manse.[COTM]
[3] Smith, William Pirie (1811–1890): a man of humble origins, WPS was typical of the self-made Scotsman of the period. After apprenticeship as a wood turner, he slowly accumulated sufficient academic learning to gain a bursary and entered King’s College in 1832 as a student. An excellent if strict teacher, WPS took over the headship of the West End Academy after his predecessor’s, later father-in-law’s death in 1842 before his subsequent ordination to the Free Church parish of Keig and Tough in 1845. WPS educated all his sons (and numerous others) at home in the manse schoolroom while minister at Keig.[COTM]
[4] Smith, Jane née Robertson (1821–1899): was the daughter of Peter Robertson, head master of the West End Academy in Aberdeen. In 1844 she married WPS who had become head teacher on her father’s death in 1842 and the couple moved to Keig in 1845 on the ordination of WPS as Free Church minister there. [COTM]
[5] As subsequent letters illustrate, WRS is highly erratic in his use of capitals.