Diary of Anna Green Winslow | Page 4

sorry now
that I had more than one book at a time; in that case I might have thot
to have bro't it away with me, tho' I forgot my own Bible & almost
every other necessary. But who can tell whether you may not git your
Valuable Books. I should feel comparatively easy if you had these your
Valuable property."
Her painful solicitude over the loss of a borrowed book is indeed
refreshing, as well as her surprising covetousness of the Family

Expositor and Harvey's Meditations. And I wish to add to the
posthumous rehabilitation of the damaged credit of this conscientious
aunt, that Anna's book--Harvey's Meditations--was recovered and
restored to the owner, and was lost at sea in 1840 by another Winslow.
Joshua Winslow, when exiled, went to England, and thence to Quebec,
where he retained throughout his life his office as Royal Paymaster. He
was separated many years from his wife and daughter, and doubtless
Anna died while her father was far from her; for in a letter dated
Quebec, December 26, 1783, and written to his wife, he says,
"The Visiting Season is come on, a great practice here about Christmas
and the New Year; on the return of which I congratulate my Dearest
Anna and Friends with you, it being the fifth and I hope the last I shall
be obliged to see the return of in a Separation from each other while
we may continue upon the same Globe."
She shortly after joined him in Quebec. His letters show careful
preparations for her comfort on the voyage. They then were childless;
Anna's brothers, George Scott and John Henry, died in early youth. It
is interesting to note that Joshua Winslow was the first of the Winslows
to give his children more than one baptismal name.
Joshua Winslow was a man of much dignity and of handsome person, if
we can trust the Copley portrait and miniature of him which still exist.
The portrait is owned by Mr. James F. Trott of Niagara Falls, New
York, the miniature by Mrs. J. F. Lindsey of Yorkville, South Carolina,
both grandchildren of General John Winslow. His letters display much
intelligence. His spelling is unusually correct; his penmanship
elegant--as was that of all the Winslows; his forms of expression
scholarly and careful. He sometimes could joke a little, as when he
began his letters to his wife Anna thus--2. N. A.--though it is possible
that the "Obstructions to a free Correspondence, and the
Circumspection we are obliged to practice in our Converse with each
other" arising from his exiled condition, may have made him thus use a
rebus in the address of his letter.
He died in Quebec in 1801. His wife returned to New England and died

in Medford in 1810. Her funeral was at General John Winslow's house
on Purchase Street, Fort Hill, Boston; she was buried in the Winslow
tomb in King's Chapel burial ground.
We know little of the last years of Anna Green Winslow's life. A journal
written by her mother in 1773 during their life in Marshfield is now
owned by Miss Sarah Thomas of Marshfield, Mass. It is filled chiefly
with pious sermon notes and religious thoughts, and sad and anxious
reflections over absent loved ones, one of whom (in the sentimental
fashion of the times) she calls "my Myron"--her husband.
Through this journal we see "Nanny Green's" simple and monotonous
daily life; her little tea-drinkings; her spinning and reeling and knitting;
her frequent catechisings, her country walks. We find her mother's
testimony to the "appearance of reason that is in my children and for
the readiness with which they seem to learn what is taught them." And
though she repeatedly thanks God for living in a warm house, she notes
that "my bason of water froze on the hearth with as good a fire as we
could make in the chimney." This rigor of climate and discomfort of
residence, and Anna's evident delicacy shown through the records of
her fainting, account for her failing health. The last definite glimpse
which we have of our gentle little Nanny is in the shape of a letter
written to her by "Aunt Deming." It is dated Boston, April 21, 1779,
and is so characteristic of the day and so amusing also that I quote it in
full.
Dear Neice,
I receivd your favor of 6th instant by nephew Jack, who with the Col.
his trav'ling companion, perform'd an easy journey from you to us, and
arriv'd before sunset. I thank you for the beads, the wire, and the
beugles, I fancy I shall never execute the plan of the head dress to
which you allude--if I should, some of your largest corn stalks, dril'd of
the pith and painted might be more proportionable. I rejoice