R.I.P. Dr. Graeme

Dr. Thomas Graeme, owner of Graeme Park from 1739 until his death in 1772 was responsible for the grand panelling that is found in the house today. He died on the property on September 4, 1772 on the day Elizabeth had decided to tell him of her secret marriage to Henry Hugh Ferugusson. She wrote:

I sat on the bench at the window and watched him coming up the avenue. It was a terrible task to prepare. I was in agony; at every step he was approaching nearer. As he reached the tenant house he fell and died. Had I told him the day before, as I thought of doing, I should have reproached myself for his death and gone crazy.

His obituary ran in the Pennsylvania Gazette on September 9, 1772:

On Friday last, September 4, 1772, died suddenly, at his seat at Graeme Park, Thomas Graeme, Esq., M. D., aged eighty-four years, Naval Officer of the Port of Philadelphia. He was descended from an ancient family in Scotland, and possessed all the natural talents of a Gentleman, improved by a liberal education. He was blest with a clear Head, a Masculine Understanding, and a happy, Sagacity, which justly placed him for Half a Century at the Head of his Profession, as a Physician, in this city. His Practice was fair and honorable, distinguished as well by his Medical Abilities and communicative Temper, as by a natural Philanthropy, that led him equally to the most affectionate and diligent Attendance on all his Patients, and to the charitable Relief of the numerous Poor who applied to him. He likewise long filled an important civil office, closely connected with the Trading Interest of this Province ; and, hating Covetousness, conducted himself therein with so much justice and Moderation, that he carried to the Grave with him, a character universally beloved for Integrity in his public Trust, as well as for the Amiable Virtues of Humanity in his private Station. From Temperance, and an extraordinary Vigor of Constitution, he attained fullness of Years. 

He was interred Sunday Forenoon, in Christ Church-yard, in this city, and the Esteem in which he lived, was testified by the great concourse of respectable Inhabitants of all Denominations, who attended his funeral.

He was buried at Christ's Church in Philadelphia, and his epitaph, written by Elizabeth reads:

The soul that lived within this Crumbling dust
In every Act was Eminently just.
Peaceful through Life, as peaceful, too, in death,
Without one Pang, he rendered back his breath.

RIP Elizabeth

Paraphrased from The Most Learned Woman in America by Anne Ousterhout). On the evening of February 11, 1801, while she sat up writing, Elizabeth suffered a chill. Her friend Betsy Stedman persuaded her to go to bed. By morning she was suffering a stranguary, but she refused to allow Betsy to call a doctor because she'd had this problem before and it had gone away on its own. By the third day a doctor was called in and she'd developed a pleurisy. Her breathing was compromised and speaking was difficult for her. She wasn't eating. According to a letter Betsy wrote to Elizabeth's cousin in Jamaica "her strength gradually wasted, but the powers of her mind were clear and strong, till on the 19th sight, hearing, and speech were all taken away." Finally, on February 23, 1801 at 4:00 am, Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson passed away.

That evening Elizabeth's dear friend, Dr. Benjamin Rush wrote in his commonplace book:

"This morning died at the Billet [Hatboro] near Philadelphia Mrs. Eliz. Ferguson, a woman of uncommon talents and virtues, admired, esteemed, and beloved by a numerous circle of friends and acquaintances. Her life was marked with distress from all its numerous causes, guilt excepted. An early disappointment in love, loss of all her near Relations, bad health, an unfortunate marriage connection, poverty, and finally a slow and painful death composed the ingredients that filled her cup of suffering. She was the intimate friend of my dear mother in law [Annis Boudinet Stockton], who died a few weeks before her. I owe to her many obligations. She introduced me into her circle of friends."

Elizabeth is buried at Christ Church in Philadelphia along with her parents, grandmother (Lady Ann Keith), and several of her siblings.


Source

 Her epitaph reads:

Elizabeth Fergusson

the true sympathizer

with the afflicted. Daughter

of Thomas and Ann Graeme

Wife

of Hugh Henry Fergusson

Died 1801. Aged 64

Eliza -- caused this stone to be laid

waits with resignation and humble

hope for reunion with her friend

in a more perfect state of existence