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Marriage of Anne Butler Spotswood and Reverend John Thompson

To Lady Spotswood

Reverend Thompson of the Little Fork Church wished to make Governor Alexander Spotswood's widow his wife, but he was disenchanted whit her refusal. Here family felt that a clergyman was beneath the station of Lady Spotswood. Undaunted, Reverend Thompson appealed directly to Lady Spotswood:

Now, if I can make it appear that the ministerial office is an employment, in its nature most honorable and in its effects most beneficial to mankind, I hope your objections will immediately vanish and that you will keep me no longer in suspense and misery, but consummate my happiness.

I make no doubt, Madam, but that you will readily grant that no man can be employed in any work more honorable than immediately relates to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and to the salvation of souls, immortal in their nature and redeemed by the blood of the Son of God. And therefore if a gentleman of this sacred and honorable character should be married to a Lady, though of the greatest extraction and most excellent personal qualities, (which I'm sensible you're endowed with) it can be no disgrace to her nor her family...

And therefore, Madam, your argument being refuted, you can no longer consistently refuse to consummate my happiness. - Signed by the Reverend John Thompson, May 1742