Pietas in patriam the life of His Excellency Sir William Phips, Knt. late Captain…

In fine, our Sir William was a Person of so sweet a Temper, that they who were most intimately acquainted with him, would commonly pronounce him, The best Conditioned Gentleman in the World! And by the continual Discoveries and Expressions of such a Temper; he so gained the Hearts of them who waited upon him in any of his Expeditions, that they would commonly profess themselves willing still, to have gone with him to the End of the World.

But if all other People found him so kind a Neighbour, we may easily infer what an Husband he was unto his Lady. Leaving unmentioned that Virtue of his Chastity, which the Prodigious Depravation, brought by the Late Reigns upon the Manners of the Nation, has made worthy to be mentioned as a Virtue somewhat Extraordinary; I shall rather pass on to say, That the Love, even to Fondness, with which he always treated her, was a Matter not only of Observation, but even of such Admiration, that every one said, The Age afforded not a kinder Husband! This Kindness appeared not only in his making it no less his Delight than Study, to render his ⟨p. 96⟩whole Conversation agreeable to her, but also, and perhaps chiefly, in the Satisfaction which it gave him, to have his Interests very much at her Command. Before he first went abroad, upon Wrack Designs, he, to make his long Absence, easy unto her, made her his Promise, that what Estate the God of Heaven should then bestow upon him, should be entirely at her Disposal, in Case that she survived him.

But if all other People found him so kind a Neighbour, we may easily inferr what an Husband he was unto his Lady. Leaving unmentioned that Virtue of his Chastity, which the Prodigious Depravation, brought by the Late Reigns upon the Manners of the Nation, has made worthy to be mentioned as a Virtue somewhat Extraordinary; I shall rather pass on to say, That the Love, even to Fondness, with which he always treated her, was a Matter not only of Observation, but even of such Admiration, that every one said, The Age afforded not a kinder Husband! This Kindness appeared not only in his making it no less his Delight than Study, to render his ⟨p. 96⟩