Maria Otis Colby 1821

Beneath this consecrated vase
lies entombed the remains of
the lovely and beloved Maria Otis Colby
who was consort to the Rev Phillip Colby of Middleboro
and died at their residence on the twentieth of May 1821
in the thirty fourth year of her age
in whose short day were comprised the most sweet,
engaging, useful and meritorious, progressing day by day
until mature age had prepared her for the life
of the most eminent Christian, administering consolation to many.

Her thirst for knowledge led her into the walks of literature
and through a vast variety of the best writers yearly.
The sacred oracles were the manna of her soul,
her Bible marked throughout by her pen gave evidence
that she embraced truth in the love and purity of it.

Felial, fraternal and conjugal love glowed
through her life not expired but in death.
Her bed of death what pen can portray.
In the distress of excruciating miseries
she firmly recommended God and Heaven
to a crowd of weeping parishoners and poured out her soul
in the most devout universal prayer to God and her saviour
while the spirit seem'd wafted in that upward path
"to a better world that is an heavenly, wherein dwelleth righteousness".

Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord


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