Widow of John Darby, Mother of John Nelson Darby.
This is same grave as George Darby & Children.
Anne Vaughan was the daughter of Samuel Vaughan.
Died 1847, Age 90.
This creates an interesting problem to resolve when compared with the passage in WG Turner's biography;
"His mother's death when he was only five years old, made a deep and lasting impression upon young Darby. And the tender memory which he cherished in his heart of her would sometimes find expression on unexpected occasions. When he was fifty years of age we find him writing of her thus: "I have long, I suppose, looked at the portrait of my mother, who watched over my tender years with that care which only a mother knows how to bestow. I can just form some imperfect thought of her looks, for I was early bereft of her; but her eye fixed upon me that tender love which had me for its heart's object — which could win when I could know little else — which had my confidence before I knew what confidence was — by which I learnt to love, because I felt I was loved, was the object of that love which had its joy in serving me — which I took for granted must be; for I had never known aught else. All that which I had learnt, but which was treasured in my heart and formed part of my nature, was linked with the features which hung before my gaze. That was my mother's picture. It recalled her, no longer sensibly present, to my heart.""
The key words in the passage by JND are 'I suppose'. They introduce a 'suppositional analogy' to illustrate the importance of not confusing a representation with reality. He could equally well have introduced the analogy with the words: 'Suppose that I am a man looking at a portrait of his mother...' JND often uses this device when explaining an idea and sometimes he even omits the words 'I suppose'. In The Irrationalism of Infidelity (published in 1853, nineteen years after the death of his father) JND gives an analogy: 'I have been conversing with a man, with my father, with intimate acquaintance of his and my history. He has told me things which, in connection with it, prove their own truth; and one comes and proves by inferences, that from dates, and the like, he could not have been where I was. I cannot solve the difficulty, but I do not doubt my intercourse with him. Perhaps I detect that he who would persuade me of the contrary, does not like that I should believe what he has told me...' (C.W vi. 341) As far as I know, no-one has used JND's words to suggest that Mr Darby senior didn't die in 1834 or that he 'reappeared' in 1853. No! It is simply an analogy. There is a simlar passage where JND refers to 'my son' owing him a debt... No reason here to imagine that JND fathered a child. Analogies are no basis for historical truth... Timothy Stunt
