1825-1894. 



PR 






THOMAS OUGHTON 



THOMAS OUGHTON 



1825-1894 




LONDON 

J. M. DENT & CO. 

ALDINE HOUSE, 69 GREAT EASTERN STREET 
1895 



3n fIDemoriam 

"WHAT DOTH THE LORD REQUIRE OF THEE, BUT TO DO JUSTLY, 

AND TO LOVE MERCY, AND TO WALK HUMBLY WITH THY GOD ? " 



The following lines were written on the fly-leaf of a little book Mr 
Oughton gave me as I was leaving Jamaica for America in 1854, and 
are inserted in this Memorial as indicating his ideas on the eternity of 
congenial companionship : 

" Though travelling through a wilderness, 

Where duty's call divides us, 
Though many a wintry storm distress, 
The Star of Hope shall guide us. 

"And this shall cheer the lonely way, 

And gild the gloom of sorrow ; 
And through the shades of parting day, 
Point to a brighter morrow. 



should this star be clouded here, 
And should we meet oh, never! 
The transient joys of life to share, 
'Twill not be dimmed forever. 

" No ! we shall meet, though parted here, 

To part again oh, never / 
But joyful with our Saviour there, 
To spend a long Forever ! " 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

PREFATORY WORDS . . . . . n 

BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE. BY COLONEL HICKS . 14 

I. MEMORIAL TRIBUTES FROM MRS PAXTON HOOD . 21 

II. MEMORIAL TRIBUTES FROM COLONEL HICKS . 29 

III. TRIBUTES FROM FRIENDS IN JAMAICA . , 49 

IV. TRIBUTES OF FORMER JAMAICA FRIENDS . . 63 
V. TRIBUTES FROM AMERICAN FRIENDS . . 69 

VI. TRIBUTES AND WORDS OF CONSOLATION . . 77 

VII. OFFICIAL TESTIMONIES .... 85 

VIII. NOTICES OF THE PRESS ... 95 



PREFATORY WORDS 
BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE 



PREFATORY WORDS 

THIS Memorial of my Husband is justified by its con- 
tents. My first thought was that our children and their 
children would prize it as a precious treasure ; but I 
have been made to know that, besides his near relatives, 
many friends who greatly loved him desire that such 
tributes as are here collected should take a permanent 
form. 

Except to give a brief outline of his life, I do not 
trust myself to speak of him. It is not necessary that I 
should do so. What can be expressed in words (which 
can express only a part) has been done for me, and I am 
grateful and satisfied. 

The chief influences which combined to form my 
Husband's rare character are seen in the reminiscences of 
his childhood and youth, and early manhood, written by 
his sister, Mrs Paxton Hood, whose estimate of his worth 
is marked by clear insight and just appreciation, and is 
founded upon intimate knowledge, the result of long 
association and complete sympathy. 

My brother, Colonel Hicks, making his home with us 
in 1870, soon came to be and ever continued to be on 
such terms of closest intimacy with his brother, that no 



12 PREFATORY WORDS. 

one can set forth with greater certainty what manner of 
man he was. My brother's delineation of my Husband's 
characteristic traits and habits of life, exemplified by 
illustrative incidents, presents a portraiture in which I 
recognise the features of the companion of my life. 

Upon the death of my Husband, a multitude of friends 
made kindly haste to comfort me and mine with letters 
of sympathy and appreciation of the greatness of our 
bereavement, and there was a general public expression 
of regret and esteem by the press, in the courts, by 
ministers of religion, and by public associations. I 
tender sincere thanks for these testimonies, which are 
highly valued ; but it would not be practicable to embody 
all in this Memorial. Some portions, however, have 
been selected, sufficient to indicate the impress my 
Husband made upon others throughout his life. The 
selections have been so made as to be representative, 
from friends who knew him intimately and continuously 
for many years ; from those who knew him intimately in 
former years ; from those who knew him intimately in 
later years ; from those whose acquaintance with him, 
though very brief, had disclosed to them some of his rare 
qualities ; from those who knew him in official or business 
relations, or in social companionship, or in religious life, 

To the writer of one of the letters, the Rev. William 
Gillies, and to my brother, I am greatly indebted for 
counsel and aid in making representative selections from 
the abundant store, so as to present my Husband as seen 
from many points of view, and to preserve in this form 
some of the many comforting messages of Christian con- 



PREFATORY WORDS. 73 

solation and hope which have been received. The words 
of sympathy and esteem here published represent the 
words; written and spoken, of many other friends, who 
will find their own thoughts and feelings expressed in the 
selections which have been made. 



BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE 

BY COLONEL HICKS. 



BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. 

Thomas Oughton was born in London, December 
27, 1825. 

His father, the Rev. Samuel Oughton, came to 
Jamaica in 1835 as a Baptist Missionary, and took an 
active part in the closing efforts to abolish slavery in the 
British West India Islands. For many years he was 
Pastor of the East Queen Street Baptist Church, King- 
ston, and was held in high esteem as a man of more 
than ordinary power in the pulpit and on the platform. 
In England he had married Hannah Bancroft, a native 
of Gloucestershire. During her life in Jamaica she wrote 
a number of poems, which were collected into a small 
volume, entitled " Fugitive Pieces," and published for 
private distribution. The children of this marriage 
(besides those who died in infancy) were: 

1. THOMAS. 

2. ELLEN who died at Lucea, Jamaica, when ten 

years of age. 



BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE. 15 

3. LAVINIA widow of the late Rev. Edwin Paxton 

Hood of England, the celebrated preacher 
and author. 

4. BURCHELL for many years the distinguished 

Superintendent of the Mico Institution (for 
training Teachers) in Antigua, and, in his 
later years, Superintendent of the " Home 
for Little Boys," Farningham, England. 
Died 8th July 1887. 

5. TYLER a Surgeon in the British Army, serving 

with distinction in Afghanistan, Abyssinia, 
and Ahashtee, and retiring with the rank of 
Brigade-Surgeon. Died in England, May 1 886. 

6. GEORGE an officer in the Government Statistical 

Department, Sydney, Australia. 

7. MARIANA married to Mr Ernest Stevenson, 

Civil Engineer, Manchester, England. 

EDUCATION. 

When his father removed to Jamaica, Thomas was 
left in England for his education. At first he attended 
an excellent school in Stroud, Gloucestershire, near 
where his great-grandmother lived, whose home was a 
most delightful home for the young school-boy. After- 
wards, for a more advanced course, he was sent to the 
Fulneck Boys' School (Moravian), near Leeds. 

CHOICE OF A PROFESSION. 

Having completed the prescribed course of study at 
Fulneck, Thomas left the school, and soon after joined 



1 6 BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE. 

the family in Jamaica. For a few months the question 
of the choice of a profession remained in doubt, many of 
his friends believing that he would follow in his father's 
footsteps. However, after the fullest deliberation, the 
choice was made to study for the Law. 

PROFESSIONAL STUDY. 

Thomas was articled at first to Mr Charles Harvey, 
Solicitor and Master in Chancery, Spanish Town. Sub- 
sequently, the articles were transferred to Mr Alfred 
Rodgers, Solicitor, Falmouth ; but (excepting the last 
six months of the articled term) he remained at Spanish 
Town, which was then the seat of Government and of 
the chief Law Courts, acting as the Law Agent of Mr 
Rodgers while pursuing his professional studies. This 
enabled him to gain a very complete knowledge of the 
practical details of his chosen profession. 

PROFESSIONAL WORK. 

Thomas Oughton was admitted to practice as Solicitor 
on the T2th February 1851. He first joined Mr James 
All wood, Solicitor, of Spanish Town, as Managing 
Clerk, and afterwards became the junior partner in the 
firm of Allwood & Oughton. 

Upon the expiry of the articles of this co-partnership 
in 1864, he removed to Kingston, where he established 
a Law Office. In the same year he was appointed 
Solicitor to the Kingston Benefit Building Society.* 

* In the formation of this very useful Society, the parent of many other 
Building Societies in Jamacia, he was intimately associated with the late 



BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE 17 

In 1870 Mr Henry Garsia, Solicitor, joined him in 
partnership, the firm becoming Oughton & Garsia. In 
1872 the scope of his professional work was enlarged by 
his appointment as Advocate, whereby he was empowered 
to exercise the functions of Barrister in addition to those 
of Solicitor. In 1894 Mr Charles Macdonald Ogilvie, 
Solicitor, became a partner in the firm, which took the 
style of Oughton, Garsia & Ogilvie, which style the 
surviving partners still retain. 

GOVERNMENT APPOINTMENTS. 

In 1871, and again in 1874, Mr Oughton was appointed 
to act as Crown Solicitor and Assistant Attorney-General ; 
in 1876, 1877, and 1878 he was acting Judge of the 
Kingston District Court ; in 1875, acting Attorney 
General; in 1885, acting Judge of the Central District 
Court; in 1888, acting Resident Magistrate of Kingston 
an office taking the place of former District Court Judge. 
In 1872 he was appointed Clerk of the Legislative 
Council, which position he held until his death. 

OTHER PUBLIC APPOINTMENTS. 

Besides the foregoing, Mr Oughton held the honorary 
appointment, under Government, of Visitor to the Public 
Hospital, and Member of the Board of Visitors of the 
Shortwood Training College. 

Rev. Wm. Gardiner, its chief founder, and rendered essential service ; and 
he performed, gratuitously, the duties of Secretary, until the Society was 
well established and in a position to employ a salaried officer. 

B 



1 8 BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE. 

Soon after removing to Kingston he was appointed 
by the English Trustees of the Mico Trust a Member of 
the Local Board of Visitors, now merged into the Board 
of Directors. He also served as Director of the Jamaica 
Co-operative Fire Insurance Company, and other Com- 
panies. 

HOME LIFE. 

In 1855, at Rockford, in the State of Illinois, he 
married Miss Marie Abigail Hicks, to whom he had 
become engaged during her residence in Jamaica, where 
for two years she had been a missionary teacher under 
the auspices of the American Missionary Association. 
After the wedding tour, which included a visit to the 
Falls of Minnehaha on the Upper Mississippi, they 
began their home life at Mulberry Garden, Spanish 
Town. During the greater part of his Kingston life 
their home was at his residence, Bel Air, bordering 
upon the city limits, and his mountain residence, Bar- 
dowie, in St Andrew, to both of which homes he 
became fondly attached. 

Four children were born of this marriage, of whom 
two survive him : 

1. ANNA wife of Mr John D'Aeth, Engineer in the 

Public Works Department, Jamaica. They 
have one son, John Bancroft. 

2. LILLIE died 27th January 1880, aged 20 years. 

3. THOMAS BANCROFT, LL.B., Lond. Univ. Bar- 

rister. Now Clerk to the Legislative Council 
and Assistant Attorney-General. Married, 



BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE. 19 

June 1889, Miss Nettie Ogilvie. They have 
three children, Thomas Bancroft ; Burchell 
Ogilvie ; Nettie Marjorie. 

4. EDITH married Mr Geo. Montague White, 
February 1891. Died at Barbados, Decem- 
ber 1 5th, 1891, aged 21 years. 

Mr Oughton's health, during his long residence in 
Jamaica, was exceptionally good up to the year 1887, 
and his hours of professional labour and mental occupa- 
tion were much beyond the average. In 1887 he had a 
slight paralytic stroke, which laid him aside from his 
work for only a few days ; but he never fully recovered 
his former vigorous state of health. He had given him- 
self, from time to time, periods of relaxation, making 
visits to America, Antigua, England, and the Continent. 
His last visit abroad was to America, in 1893, when he 
spent a short time at the Dansville Sanitorium, and 
visited the World's Fair, and re-visited the scene of his 
marriage, where he enjoyed a few weeks of delightful 
rest on the quiet farm. 

He had intended to retire from law practice at the 
close of 1893 J but afterwards it seemed to him desirable 
that the retirement should not take place until the end of 
1 894 ; and his health had so much improved by his visit 
to America that he felt sufficiently strong to continue his 
work. 

DEATH AND BURIAL. 

On the 3ist of May, 1894, he left his home in as good 
health, apparently, as for many months previous. Re- 



20 BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE. 

turning in the evening later than usual, just upon enter- 
ing his residence he experienced a second and fatal 
paralytic stroke, and remained unconscious until death 
occurred the next morning at 3.30 o'clock. 

That evening his funeral service was held in the East 
Queen Street Baptist Church, and he was buried in May 
Pen Cemetery. On the Sunday following his death, 
Bishop Hanna, of the Moravian Church, preached, ex- 
tempore, a commemorative sermon from the text "He 
served his generation " ; and in several pulpits, tributes 
of esteem and affection were paid to his memory. On 
the next Sunday the Rev. Wm. Pratt, M.A., Pastor of 
the East Queen Street Baptist Church, preached the 
funeral sermon, portions of which appear among the 
Memorial Tributes. 

[Other particulars of Mr Oughton's life will be 
gathered from references and statements incidentally 
made in the Tributes to his memory which have been 
selected for this Memorial.] 



MEMORIAL TRIBUTES 



I. 

From Mrs PAXTON HOOD, England. 

I WISH I could get at my dear brother's letters, most of 
which I have preserved ; but as they are far from me, 
and unavailable, I must write without them. Some of 
them might well appear in a memorial volume ; for the 
wisdom, humour, and kindly affectionate character of his 
letters to me would be very interesting to many from 
whom his natural reserve had concealed the deeper parts 
of his nature. 

I was ten years old before I had any personal know- 
ledge of him. He was then a lad of eighteen, and had 
just left school. There were little traditions of his child- 
hood which my mother " kept in her heart," and which 
floated down to me. 

I have heard that he was a very silent and thoughtful 
child, and would sit for hours in his high chair, his 
elbows resting on the table and both thumbs in his 
mouth. Once when he had been sitting in this way for 
some time, our mother said to him, " Well, Tom, what 
are you thinking about ? " To which he replied, " I was 
wondering, Mamma, where the devil was when the world 
was drowned ! Was he in the ark ? " 

Another story of his childhood which I remember to 



24 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

have heard was that, on the solitary occasion on which 
he was ever punished, his mother desired him to go into 
the garden and gather a twig for his own punishment. 
Whenever this was mentioned to him in his after-life, he 
used to say, " I daresay I took care to get one which 
would not hurt much ! " 

He was little more than ten years of age when our 
Father and Mother and their younger children sailed 
for Jamaica, leaving Tom in England under the care of 
his great-grandmother in Gloucestershire. There he 
was sent to school to a Mr Reid, whom I have heard 
described as a most accomplished and superior man, 
whose school was one of high repute in Stroud and the 
neighbourhood. Here the boy worked well and dis- 
tinguished himself by his ability, industry, and the high 
moral tone of his character. At the age of fourteen it 
was thought desirable to make a change in his school, 
and he was sent to the Moravian School at Fulneck near 
Leeds. Here he at once took a good position, and was 
respected by masters and boys. He chose as his friend 
the boy whose character and attainments had given him 
a very foremost rank in the school ; and together the two 
boys worked all during the next four years, finding mutual 
stimulus in each other's industry, talent, and character, so 
that when at the age of eighteen Thomas said farewell 
to Fulneck, he and his friend Jackson Shaw were the 
two chiefs of the school. 

The influence of those four years at Fulneck was 
never lost to them, and to some influences of his earlier 
life in Gloucestershire may be ascribed the fine modest 



MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 25 

manliness of character for which he has ever been dis- 
tinguished. Three names and two places were ever the 
most sacred in his memory, and never mentioned by him 
without a reverent seriousness which showed how deeply 
they had influenced him ; the names of Elizabeth 
Cousins, Hester King, and Jackson Shaw. These two 
ladies, relatives of his and older than himself, sought to 
influence his character and to develop that which was 
highest and deepest in him, helping to strengthen his 
religious feelings into religious life, as good women have 
so often done for those who needed and were willing to 
receive their help. Of these two sweet women, both of 
whom died young, he never failed to speak with reverent 
affection and gratitude, which seemed like a halo round 
their memory. Of Jackson Shaw he spoke in the same 
way, showing how open his heart had ever been to the 
influences which best strengthen and deepen character. 
So the homes in Gloucestershire and the influence of 
Fulneck endeared both places to his affections, and 
enshrined them in his heart to the end of his life. 

His modesty was such that few except those intimately 
acquainted with him knew how accomplished a man he 
was. To the more substantial and essential branches of 
education, he added the graces of Music and Drawing, 
excelling especially in the latter accomplishment, whilst 
his musical knowledge was sufficient to enable him to act 
as Organist for many years in his father's Church. He 
was also a good French scholar and a good Grecian and 
Italianist. 

After leaving school he was for a short time a clerk 



26 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

in the Baptist Mission House in London, but at the end 
of the same year, 1843, he went out to our parents in 
Jamaica. Here he came again under good and helpful 
influence in that of his friend, the Rev. George Rouse, 
who was at that time his father's assistant and co-pastor. 
I believe he was baptized on Christmas day, 1844, and 
so admitted into his father's Church. 

In 1846, I, a delicate school girl, was ordered by my 
doctor not to spend another winter in England, and 
returned to Jamaica, my education very crude and incom- 
plete. Then began that wonderful relationship between 
my brother and me, which made him not only my chief 
friend, but very love of my life, second to none until 
I learned to know him who became my husband. My 
brother undertook my education, and I read and studied 
under his direction for several years. I have much to 
thank him for in many ways, not only intellectually, but 
morally and spiritually. He sought to give to both 
manners and character of thought and feeling the highest 
tone. I remember how strongly he expressed himself 
on what ladies might do or say. No one ever heard 
him use or encourage a word of slang. He impresses me 
now, as I think of him, as having been altogether " pure 
in heart." 

I am writing hurriedly, recalling those nine years in 
which we were most intimate and close friends ; and now 
that I can scarcely see * to write more I can but add that 
in all those years he was ever my wisest counsellor, my 

* It is hoped that the cataract from which my dear sister is suffering may 
soon be successfully removed by the oculist. 



MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 27 

dearest and best friend, and my most tender and loving 
brother respected as much as loved ; for he was good 
to the core, a true, pure, loyal, modest gentleman, "sans 
peur et sans reproche" My Father once said to me, as 
we were talking of him in these more recent years, 
" Thomas is perfect ; if he has a fault it is that he is so 
faultless ! " Certainly it may be said of him, He did 
justly, loved mercy, and walked humbly with his God. 



II 

MEMORIAL TRIBUTES 



II. 

From Colonel HICKS. 

THE loss to myself, in the death of my beloved brother, 
is very great. I find comfort in recalling our many years 
of intimate loving friendship and genial interplay of 
thought and feeling, and in dwelling upon the life that 
so greatly enriched my own life, as it did the lives of 
many others. But the sense of personal loss is still so 
vivid that I find it difficult calmly to consider and 
enumerate the qualities and characteristics which dis- 
tinguished him, and made his friendship and intimacy 
inexpressibly dear to me. 

His character was staunch. It was built upon firm 
foundations. It was based upon a reverent faith, as 
towards God, and a conscientious sense of right and 
duty, as towards man. Upon these foundations was 
built in youth and maintained throughout life a char- 
acter as lovable as it was staunch, as beautiful as it was 
upright. " Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever 
things are honourable, whatsoever things are just, what- 
soever things are lovely, whatsoever things are gracious," 
these were habitually manifest in his life ; they were 
his life. 

Recalling the varied traits of his character each 



32 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

having its own separate quality of excellence I am 
reminded of Lowell's poem, in which he says : 

" Of all good things I would have part." 

The poet therefore begs choice gifts of Nature : of the 
oak, some of its steadfastness with its leafy gracefulness ; 
the unyielding might of the granite ; the pensiveness and 
the never-dying green of the pine tree ; the merriment, 
the sparkling, bright content of the brook ; and the 
modesty of the violet Such a blending of qualities 
characterised him whose loss to us we so deeply feel. 
This blending of the strong with the graceful, unswerving 
principle with gentle courtesy, a firm sense of duty with 
loving sympathy, attracted others to him with a desire to 
know him, and, by those who knew him, caused him to 
be so implicitly trusted and so tenderly loved. In a re- 
markable degree his character fulfilled the ideal of the 
English poet who aspired to be like the noble river 
Thames : 

" Though deep, yet clear ; though gentle yet not dull ; 
Strong, without rage ; without o'erflowing, full." 

How gentle he was, gentle in word and gentle in 
manner ! How sympathetic ! His was " that sweet, 
attractive kind of grace " ascribed to Sidney. Children 
and dumb animals were instinctively his friends. How 
thoughtful and considerate was he for others ; how 
forbearing and tolerant and patient ! It was due to his 
kindly nature, no less than to his wise judgment, that, 
without any surrender of honest conviction or compromise 



MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 33 

of principle, he avoided unnecessary frictions and raspings 
in his intercourse with others. In private circles and in 
public gatherings it was he, oftentimes, who found the 
needed word which served as the wished-for irenicon to 
harmonize aroused antagonisms. Let him be called a 
" child of God "; for he was a peacemaker. His genial 
temper and winning ways, combined with his alertness of 
mind and ready resource, enabled him to fill with special 
acceptableness the position of chairman at public meetings, 
for which his services were frequently sought. 

Though simple in his tastes he was not an ascetic. 
His sympathies were wide. His feelings of kindness 
towards his fellow-men, of whatever class, caused him to 
sympathise with them in their rightful pleasures no less 
than in their griefs. He shared, sincerely and truly and 
did not simply appear to share in the enjoyments of 
many grades of society. When he mingled with friends 
among the humbler classes, there was no suggestion of 
condescension on his part. 

He was fond of indulging himself in the pleasure of 
giving pleasure to others. He delighted in bestowing 
gifts. With him, assuredly, " it was more blessed to give 
than to receive." His gifts of friendship were many, but 
I have lately had reason to believe that his gifts of charity 
were more abundant. It is only since his death that it 
has come to my knowledge incidentally, from intimations 
here and there, how many have had cause to bless him 
for his kind gifts in their time of special need. He was 
charitable, also, in his thought for others. He was inclined 
like Joubert " if a friend were blind of one eye, to look 

c 



34 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

at him in profile." He was patient with evil-doers. He 
did not long cherish resentments, however justifiable they 
may have been. An instance of this charity in thought 
and in deed I will mention. One who had received favours 
from him, afterwards charged him with unjust dealing ; and 
after the charge had been wholly disproved (at the cost 
to him of much precious time), the accuser, finding him- 
self in sore need of assistance, came to the man he had 
so greatly wronged by his accusations, and appealed 
to him for aid ; and the appeal was not fruitless. 

Among his prominent traits was a modesty of rare 
quality. This pervaded all his speech. His opinions 
were never obtruded, nor uttered with self-confident 
emphasis. He was a little chary of his words, which 
were worth not less but rather more than their face value. 
He was singularly reticent in regard to any thing that 
seemed to savour of personal worth or achievement. 
During the period of our close intimacy nearly a quarter 
of a century he was engaged, as advocate or solicitor, 
in some noted causes celebres, and he gained some signal 
successes ; but I never caught from his lips a syllable or a 
tone of boastful exultation or a hint of self-praise. The 
absence of self-assertion was very marked. It is not an 
essential feature of a modest character that one refrain 
from asking for appointment to an official position for 
which he finds himself to be well fitted ; but it is a fact, 
worthy of mention, that all of Mr Oughton's various 
appointments to positions of public trust came to him 
without his solicitation. 

In private life as in public life he was unobtrusive 



MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 35 

of self. Ever ready to take upon himself trouble for 
others, he was extremely solicitous that he should not 
be a cause of trouble to others, and he often suffered 
discomforts which, had he given the slightest hint, his 
friends would most gladly have removed. But it was 
his way, to endure physical pain and mental pain in 
brave silence. Once (I have never been able to account 
for it) a gratuitous aspersion was cast upon his pro- 
fessional character ; and when, in due time, the wrong 
was righted and the vindication came most complete 
and most emphatic, the evident depth of his feeling 
of relief and satisfaction was the only sign his friends 
ever had how deeply he had felt the wound. 

But in the hour of bereavement he was not unwilling 
that others should enter into his sorrow and share his 
grief. Such a loving nature could not feel the loss of 
loved ones lightly, and he welcomed the sympathy of 
any trusted friend. The great bereavements of his 
life, the loss of two daughters, both exceptionally 
bright and gifted, both dying almost in the bloom of 
youth, had a saddening influence, and certainly tem- 
pered in some degree the buoyancy of his spirits, 
but did not leave him gloomy. He was still a 
cheerful, hopeful, helpful companion, whose fountain of 
sympathy with others and for others did not cease 
to flow. 

He had been blessed with a happy childhood. 
Home and school had each efficiently done their part ; 
and when he reached manhood he was well equipped 
for the serious business of life and for all life's 



36 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

varied duties. His intellectual powers were well 
developed. They were of a high order and had a 
wide range. His mental vision was swift and clear; 
he was accustomed to see to the core of things. 
The tentacles of his mind, reaching out in many direc- 
tions, were keenly sensitive. His thought was quickly 
responsive to another's thought, and he was never so 
full of himself that he could not give hospitable 
entertainment to the thought of a companion. He 
had a ready wit, and a fund of humour of rare 
excellence. His mind, too, was richly stored with 
knowledge. Evidently, his faithfulness to his duties as 
a student had been of that same high quality which 
we know characterized his performance of the duties 
of later life. I was often greatly impressed with the 
accuracy and the extent of the knowledge which he 
had at command, and which he must have acquired 
in his youth. 

He knew his work. It was a point of conscience 
with him to know it thoroughly. He mastered and 
retained the mastery of it by unremitting diligence. 
He was ever replenishing his large professional library ; 
and upon the arrival of the English Mail, with its 
parcel of periodicals, I used to notice that the Law 
Magazine claimed his first attention. 

He knew his work ; and he was faithful in doing 
it. Nothing was shirked. As work increased, which 
could not well be declined, he increased his hours of 
labour. Nothing was slighted. Alike to the private 
client and to the Government, to the humblest and 
to the highest in rank, he gave his best. 



MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 37 

From childhood he had known the Holy Scriptures, 
and his character was moulded in accordance with 
their teaching. It was as a young man of fixed 
Christian principles that he began his law studies. 
During, or just before entering upon his course of 
study, he had doubts, I am told, whether in the light 
of Christian duty, he should continue in his purpose; 
and I am also told that it was his mother, whom 
he always esteemed as one of the most excellent of 
Christians and safest of counsellors, who dispelled his 
doubts and convinced him that he should persevere.* 
I think all good men in the Island have reason to 
be thankful to her for her wise counsel at this critical 
period of her son's life. One cannot measure the 
influence for good, felt by the community at large, 
and especially by the younger members of the legal 
profession, of such an upright, useful, honoured life 
as that of Thomas Oughton, Solicitor and Advocate. 
That which was said of one whom he admired is 
emphatically true of himself: "He made faith in 
goodness easy to other men." 

I have no reason to suppose that he ever came to 
regret his choice of a profession. Certainly it was a 
source of satisfaction to him to know, as he did know, 

* Mrs Hood was not in Jamaica at the time, and refers for exact infor- 
mation upon this point to Mr Rouse, who had already given me the facts 
according to his recollection. Mrs Hood's impression is that Mr Oughton 
was indebted, in part at least, to his " father's good sense and fine judgment 
in convincing him of the necessity for having good and true and conscientious 
men in a profession which held so much power over the rights and property 
of others." 



38 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

that his legal knowledge and acumen had been of avail 
in solving many difficulties arising in the relations 
between man and man, in satisfactorily adjusting many 
family troubles connected with property, in unravelling 
many a legal tangle and settling conflicting interests on 
the lines of justice and equity, and in maintaining the 
endangered rights of the widow and the fatherless. 

The professional work which he remembered with 
greatest pleasure was, undoubtedly, that done in behalf 
of a number of the religious bodies of Jamaica. Early 
in his legal career he was successful in averting dangers 
which amid wild excitement and tumult threatened 
the tenure of his father's office as Pastor of the East 
Queen Street Baptist Church of Kingston, and the title 
of the Baptist Missionary Society to the Church pro- 
perty. In more recent years several of the religious 
denominations, reposing a special degree of confidence in 
his probity, wise judgment and thorough knowledge of 
law, sought his advice ; and by his counsel and under 
his guidance church properties of doubtful or compli- 
cated titles were placed on a safe and simple basis, order 
was brought out of confusion, and a multitude of uncer- 
tainties and perplexities otherwise likely to arise in the 
future were effectually avoided. 

In his latter years I noticed, in his remarks touching 
the practice of law, a tone of criticism, indicating a cer- 
tain degree of dissatisfaction. He greatly regretted that 
the machinery of law could so often be used to delay, 
obstruct, or evade justice. He felt that much is needed 
yet to be done in the way of legal reform, so that in a 



MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 39 

surer, more expeditious and less vexatious way the ends 
of justice might be secured. 

His public and professional duties in the closing 
decade of his life left him comparatively little leisure 
for general reading ; but his reading was never wholly 
neglected. In earlier life he had read much, and had 
acquired an intelligent knowledge of standard authors, 
classic and modern. He had accumulated many books, 
and was continually adding to their number, until his 
general library became exceptionally large. 

Among his books he had his strong special likings. 
Of modern and standard story books, those which breathe 
a bracing healthful atmosphere, those of a manly, 
vigorous, genial tone, those which would increase one's 
hope and strengthen one's faith, were the books he 
delighted in. The morbid, the pessimistic, the cynical, 
as well as the merely sensational, repelled him. He 
read Dickens in preference to Thackeray. He remem- 
bered, and sometimes re-read, the famous stories told by 
Walter Scott and Cooper. He read with much pleasure 
the works of George Macdonald and of Dr Holland, 
Macdonald's American counterpart. He was also 
attracted by the exquisitely delicate fancy of Hawthorne 
an author who stands apart by himself. Not a few in 
Jamaica are indebted to Mr Oughton for their knowledge 
of this rare genius. 

He read some of the poets. What was simple and 
graphic and came close to human experience he liked, 
but much that is recognized as poetry gave him but a 
very limited degree of pleasure. Indeed, there are 



40 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

oceans of vague, dreamy, fanciful verse in which he could 
take no interest. Of the poets of his own time, Lowell 
was a prime favourite. The many-sidedness of Lowell 
appealed to his sympathies in many directions. In his 
younger days Cowper and Montgomery were among his 
favourites, and he never lost his liking for them. 

I know not why, but of the many poems familiar to 
him, he held fully in memory, with verbal accuracy, only 
two. One of these by Montgomery, entitled " Wedding 
Wishes," he sometimes recited on the occasion of a 
friend's marriage, and he recited it with all the more 
feeling, because it was so applicable to his own wedded 
life. The poem is not always found in published collec- 
lections of Montgomery's works, and I am sure that the 
friends of Mr Oughton especially those who have heard 
him repeat it will be glad to see it here : 

WEDDING WISHES. 

THE POLAR DOUBLE STAR. 

The cynosure of midnight skies 
Appears but one to seamen's eyes ; 

Yet twain they are, 

And each a star, 

Perhaps a sun. 

May you, my friends, reverse the view, 
And while on earth you look like two, 

From heaven be seen as one ; 
Yea, like that polar symbol, be 
A double star of constancy ! 

I have never met any one with a keener relish for wit 
and humour of the best sort. Of English humourists, 



MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 41 

Hood and Dickens held the first place in his estimation ; 
and he greatly enjoyed the fun which he found in Mark 
Twain, Max Adeler, and other American humourists. 
He entered so fully into the spirit of the humour, that 
in his reading it lost nothing of its effect ; and partly be- 
cause he relished it himself, partly because others so 
greatly enjoyed it, he seldom wandered outside the line 
of humour in choosing a reading for public or private 
entertainments, where his readings were always in great 
request. In such private entertainments he took a special 
delight. He never appeared more fully to enjoy himself 
than in the long-to-be-remembered evenings of social 
recreation in his own home, where, in the midst of 
congenial friends, song and music and reading chiefly 
filled the hours. His presence was always a main factor 
in the evening's enjoyment ; for not only was he an 
exceptionally fine reader, willing to bear his part, but 
was also an exceptionally good listener, heartily ap- 
preciative of the musical and literary gifts of his 
friends. 

I have quoted one of the two little poems he held 
in memory. The other was a bit of humour which, 
also, he was at times persuaded to repeat at a wedding 
feast. During the last few weeks of his life he found 
delight sometimes of an evening in teaching this to a 
little boy, his grandchild. I was an interested spectator; 
and it was most pleasant to see him as he wanting 
nothing of his old-time vigour and vivacity and humour 
in tone and look and gesture recited, with a merry 
twinkle in his eye, the lines which the grandchild 



42 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

repeated after him. I like to recall the little incidents 
of those closing days of so bright a life, bright to the 
end; and I think a modest place might be found here 
for this bit of playful verse.* 

He had a keen appreciation of a good sermon fresh, 
thoughtful, vigorous, earnest ; but was impatient of mere 
platitudes and perfunctory utterances. He had a sincere 
liking for the sermons of his brother, the Rev. Paxton 
Hood. During a considerable period prior to 1870, 
while the pulpit of the Church where he worshipped was 

* Mr Bourne and his wife 

Had at breakfast a strife, 
He wished bread and butter with his tea. 

Said she, " I rule the roost ; 

You shall have a plate of toast ; " 
So to loggerheads with him went she. 

There was one Mr Moor 

Lived on the next floor, 
A man very strong in the fist, 

Who, hearing all this clatter 

About toast and bread and butter, 
Went and seized Mr Bourne by the wrist. 

Said he," Odds my life ! 

You sha'n't beat your wife ! 
It is both a shame and disgrace ! " 

" Tis no business of your'n," 

Quoth Mrs Bourne, 
As she dashed a cup of tea in his face. 

Said poor Mr Moor, 

As he went through the door, 
And shook his wet locks like an otter 

"In the wars of wedded dears 

Whosoever interferes 
Is sure to get into hot water ! " 



MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 43 

vacant, Mr Oughton was accustomed on Sundays to read 
a sermon to the congregation ; and he found that Mr 
Hood's sermons, abounding in imagery and illustrations 
by story and parable and verse, were those which made 
the most vivid impression. Among his chief favourites 
were Robertson of Brighton, and Henry Ward Beecher ; 
and, more lately, Beecher's successor, Dr Lyman Abbott. 
He was catholic in his spiritual fellowship. His sym- 
pathies were with the true and good of every flock ; 
and he was thankful for fresh pasturage in whatever 
field it was found. 

His favourite portions of the Bible the portions 
from which his selections at family worship were almost 
invariably made were the Psalms and the Gospels. If 
children were visiting in the family he rarely failed to 
select some Gospel narrative or parable likely to interest 
and so instruct and influence them. Of the Psalms, the 
iO3rd appeared to be a very special favourite. I remem- 
ber that on three several occasions, when he had returned 
to Jamaica from a visit to England or to America, he 
chose that psalm as the one to read when first engaging 
in family worship after having thus returned safely to his 
home. 

How much he is now missed in that home cannot be 
told. For in the severance of a wife's companionship 
with such a character a tender companionship of un- 
alloyed and unbroken loving sympathy for a period of 
forty years who would attempt to describe the loss? 
Or the loss to the daughter and the son, by whom he 
was beloved by " each one more than each ? " In times 



44 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

of special trouble or joy, of perplexing doubt or hopeful 
anticipation, each had always found in him a sympathy 
and appreciation so full and complete that it did not 
seem possible the like could have been given in so 
perfect measure to any other. 

In very many circles, by many classes of his fellow- 
men, he is missed. " The footsteps of his life " were 
felt in the lives of many,* to whom he was a counsellor 
trusted to the full, a sympathising companion, a kind 
and wise helper, the heart's true friend. The Master's 
behest is : " Let your light shine." My brother's light 
did shine, not dazzlingly, in brilliant flashes ; it was an 
even, steady, unobtrusive irradiation, diffusing brightness 
and cheer, gladdening with its light many a darkened 
heart. His influence was widely and deeply felt, not 
because of any striking act or episode of his life, but 
rather as the result of his gentle and strong and winning 
characteristics, manifested day by day an unconscious, 
habitual outflow of " the charities that soothe and heal 
and bless." His favourite star, which he learned to 
admire after coming to Jamaica, was Canopus, bright, 
and not variable ; and his life might be likened to such 
a star 

" that casts around its tranquil way 

The radiance of its own clear day." 

*Rev. C. C. Starbuck writes : " For nearly forty years it (Mr Oughton's 
home) was a house in which all that was struggling, however imperfectly, 
for the better cause against the worse, for Christ against Belial, were sure of 
a welcome. To have entered deeply and permanently into the life of a few 
is much, and Mr and Mrs Oughton have entered permanently into the lives 
of many." 



MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 45 

What I have learned of the last day of his life is 
typical of the whole life. His morning greetings to 
his wife were loving and cheery, and in his thought- 
fulness for her comfort he suggested various changes in 
arrangements for a proposed journey to the hills on the 
morrow, that she might have less care and trouble. His 
parting good-bye could not have been more tenderly 
affectionate. Then with courageous heart, not uncon- 
scious of his precarious hold upon life, he entered upon 
the day's work in his office, diligently attending to the 
interests of his clients ; and he prolonged his labour be- 
yond the allotted time that some matters of seeming 
urgency might not suffer detriment. Leaving his office 
more fatigued than was his wont, he still delayed his 
home-coming, and called upon the widow of a native 
Minister who had long been Pastor of a Kingston Church. 
This lady was soon to leave the parsonage, and procure a 
home in another part of the Island, and had entrusted to Mr 
Oughton the preparation of some necessary legal papers ; 
and he called to give certain directions, that there might 
be as little delay as possible in securing for her the new 
home. The lady protested that he should have spared 
himself this extra labour, and should have sent for her to 
come to him at his office ; but he said that he could not 
think of giving her that trouble, as he could call on his 
way home. The business was then explained to her 
minutely, clearly, patiently, until she fully understood 
what was required. After that he remained a while, and 
spoke of former days ; of his acting as chairman at one of 
the public meetings held by her husband; of the prospects 



46 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

of the Church, and expressed the wish that soon it might 
have a good and true man for a Pastor. He referred to 
her loneliness in her widowhood, and spoke words of 
sympathy and comfort ; he inquired about her new home, 
and the friends and neighbours she would have, and 
hoped the change of home would be a pleasant one for 
her. And he spoke of his own plans ; of going to the 
hills next day for rest ; of his plans for taking days of 
change and rest every week during the hot summer 
months. When finally he said good-bye his last good- 
bye and departed, there was left behind in the widow's 
heart a sense of sympathy, a glow of comfort, a cheering 
light that surely will not fade away. Only once more were 
words spoken by that tongue wherein dwelt the " law of 
kindness." On the way home he admonished the coach- 
man, who was flicking with the whip, not to strike the 
horses ; and with that was closed the record of the utter- 
ances and ministrations of his gentle lips. 

This last day is remembered, simply because it was his 
last day. Otherwise for it was so like to other days, 
it would have had no special prominence, and its incidents 
would have been comprised within 

" That blest portion of a good man's life, 
His little, nameless, unremembered acts 
Of kindness and of love." 

9 

But as we recall the day, and note how it was filled with 
love, with thoughtful care for others, with faithfulness to 
duty, with forgetfulness of self, with sympathy for the 



MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 4 7 

sorrowing, and a kind regard for God's dumb creatures, 
we see how true a type it was of the life he lived. 

" Four things a man must learn to do, 
If he would make his record true : 
To think, without confusion, clearly ; 
To love his fellow-men sincerely ; 
To act from honest motives purely ; 
To trust in God and Heaven securely." 

Well do we know that he, whose worth was far be- 
yond this imperfect attempt to express, " made his record 
true." That record remains with us, and shall not grow 
dim, but shall be to us an example and an inspiration ; 
and our lives shall be the nobler, gentler, and more loving 
because of the noble, gentle, loving life lived by him, who 
has been called to join 

" the choir invisible 

Of the immortal dead, who live again 
In lives made better for their presence." 



Ill 

TRIBUTES FROM FRIENDS IN JAMAICA 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 
EXTRACTS FROM SERMON. 



I. 

Rev. WILLIAM GILLIES, Co-Principal, Mico 
Institution, Kingston. 

I HAVE tried to realize how great a blank the loss of Mr 
Oughton has caused to you ; but I am afraid I have not 
succeeded, though not unfamiliar with a loss of the kind. 
I have seen many references to him that were full of 
kindness, and showed how much he was appreciated, and 
how very sincere and warm was the esteem in which he 
was held. But the balance of Mr Ough ton's character 
was so complete, that it is not easy in ordinary terms to 
express what needs to be said of it And this applies so 
well to the intellectual as well as to the moral side of the 
character, that one feels at a loss. The difficulty is one 
we always meet with when we have to deal with the 
symmetrical. " Thou desirest truth in the inward parts, 
and in the hidden part Thou shalt make me to know 
wisdom." This I take it is the ideal of a perfectly sin- 
cere man and really good man. It is the spring of that 
moral glow that pervades the manner and the life of 
some men men who are not too common. Their pro- 
fessions are not loud, but their influence is great, and it 
lasts wherever it is once felt. The more I have thought 
of this, the more clear has it become to me that there 



52 TRIBUTES FROM 

was in your husband a combination and a balance of 
qualities that we do not often meet with. 

That is why I think of the great blank to you, which 
no one can fully realize. But, while the change is to us 
who remain sad, the thought of "departed worth" is 
very pleasant and heartening. The memory of it is a 
source of strength. Besides, I have got a very real con- 
viction, that what we call death is after all a kind of 
evolution, a beautiful setting free of all our higher 
powers, and an immediate entrance on a wider sphere 
for their exercise. So small a part of the man is that 
which dies, though he deeply impressed the stamp of 
nimself upon it, that I do not concern myself about the 
"garment of mortality." It is but the cast-off clothing, 
the old rug sometimes how beautiful in life that we are 
to put away and have nothing more to do with. But the 
qualities of character we were so familiar with from day 
to day are to live and shine and glorify the Divine 
Artist that brought them into being. It is in this way I 
think of your departed husband the same thoughtful, 
genial, kind, playful, sincere, and serious man he was 
here, as good company now and to be so for ever, as he 
was here, his stores of wisdom and experience gathered 
here to be an eternal possession. 

Mr Radcliffe, Dr Phillippo, Mr Henderson, and Mr 
Oughton what a variety of gift and attainment and 
character, and all gone so quickly one after another ! 
To name them thus together is both saddening and 
inspiriting. One sometimes hears remarks that seem 
intended to convey the idea, that the beautiful in char- 



FRIENDS IN JAMAICA. 53 

acter is in this island "a strange plant in an unkindly 
soil ; " but we are not so poor as some suppose, and I 
feel sure that a truthful sketch of your husband's life 
would show how much of " the true, the beautiful, and 
the good" may be combined in a single life, and that 
too with the rare modesty and self-repression that 
Wordsworth had in mind when he wrote 

" Wisdom is often nearer when we stoop 
Than when we soar." 



II. 

Rev. WILLIAM GRIFFITH, Pastor of the United Free 
Methodist Church, Kingston. 

DURING the thirty years of my acquaintance with 
your husband, I had many opportunities of learning his 
sterling worth, the unswerving integrity that governed 
all he did, and to esteem him very highly for his own 
sake. I count it a privilege to have known him and 
to have been honoured with his friendship. 

More than any man I have known, the path of duty 
seemed ever plain and clear. He never appeared to 
need to think as to which of any alternative course 
was the right one. Neither did he ever fail to follow 
the one his judgment and conscience approved. The 
right was ever right to him, and men unable to under- 
stand, or at least to appreciate a rule of conduct so 
high, as unsuited to their own lives, were not slow to 
recognize its value in him. I never heard from him 



54 TRIBUTES FROM 

an unkind word about any one, and he was incapable 
of doing an unkind thing-, and all who knew him knew 
this. 

For over twenty-five years we were constantly and 
closely associated in important business matters affect- 
ing large public interests, he as Solicitor and I as 
Director and Chairman of the Kingston Benefit Building 
Society. His chair was next to mine. I am only 
saying what all the officers of that institution acknow- 
ledge, that the magnificent results of the past have 
been largely due to the invariable soundness of his 
professional advice, the marked interest he took in the 
general business of the Society, and the public con- 
fidence inspired by the fact of his being the trusted 
professional adviser of the Board. 

In his profession as completely as in his private 
life his Christian character dominated all he did. He 
served God before all else, and served everything the 
better for so doing, thus furnishing another proof of 
the possibility of fidelity in all relations of life and at 
the same time to conscience and to God. All who 
entrusted to him their business knew they would be 
faithfully served. His clients trusted him, and he 
deserved their confidence. 

Ever loyal in his attachment to his own church, 
we all felt that in his large-hearted, liberal-handed 
catholicity he belonged to us all. And now that he 
is taken from you for a little while, you have the 
supreme comfort of knowing that among the legacies 
of his life is a reputation that knows no breath of 



FRIENDS IN JAMAICA. 55 

blame. He served God and he served his generation, 
and he has left the world the better for his beautiful 
and blameless life. 



III. 

Mrs BERRY, St Andrew, Jamaica. 

How soon your husband followed my dear brother, 
Dr Phillippo. Their deaths were both sudden, so that 
they could not say farewell to relatives and friends. 
They were spared the trial of parting, though we are 
left to mourn. Your husband, like the Doctor, will 
be greatly missed, he was so kind and helpful, and 
those who were left widows and orphans found in him 
a true friend and wise adviser. You know I came 
out from England when he did, in December 1843, 
so that I knew him a long, long time. 

IV. 

Mrs CRAIG, Chapelton, Jamaica. 

MR OUGHTON will be very much missed beyond his 
family circle. In him the poor have lost a good friend. 
I am sure that, by-and-by, it will be a consolation to 
you to know how much he was loved and trusted, and 
what sincere regret is felt by all at the loss of so good 
a man. 



56 TRIBUTES FROM 

V. 

J. C. FORD, Esq., Kingston, Jamaica. 

I HAVE always felt the greatest respect and esteem 
for one whom the whole Island has regarded as a 
power for good, and as an ornament to his profession 
and to society. In this Island such a life as your 
husband's was indeed precious as an example of an 
upright and honourable man, faithful, just, generous. 

VI. 
Rev. J. BALFOUR, Calabar College, Kingston, Jamaica. 

IT is hard to feel that I shall not see your dear husband 
here again. He was the kindest of friends to me, and he 
always made me perfectly at home with him. I loved to 
meet him and listen to his reminiscences. Frequently, when 
passing his office, I called in to have the pleasure of being 
with him for a few minutes. I learned to look to him for 
sympathetic counsel when I needed friendly guidance, and 
I have never come away without seeing my course more 
clearly and feeling better for our interview. I cherish 
his memory as that of one of my best friends, into whose 
heart I have seen, and have found it good and noble. 

VII. 
Rev. F. L. KING, Snowden, Jamaica. 

A GREAT friend to many people has been called away. 
To how many he was a good and kind friend, helpful with 



FRIENDS IN JAMAICA. 57 

his counsel, wise advice, and judgment; and helpful also 
with his wise liberality, " the day only will reveal." 
Truly he has laid up " treasure in heaven." 



VIII. 

The Right Rev. BISHOP DOUET, Jamaica (Letter to 

Mrs D'Aeth). 

THOUGH I cannot say that I knew him at all intimately, 
still I had a very deep regard and respect for him as an 
upright man and sincere Christian. He is one of those 
men who will be missed, and whose place in the com- 
munity cannot easily be filled. The recollection of this 
will always cause his memory to be revered, and this is 
some consolation to your mother and yourself in the 
sorrow at losing a loving husband and a tender father. 



IX. 

Extracts from Sermon preached in East Queen Street 
Baptist Chapel, Kingston, by the Rev. WM. PRATT, 
M. A., from the text : Psalm xxvi. i and 8. 

WE are met here to-day for a special purpose, which is, 
we must all feel, of a saddening nature, but yet at the same 
time, as I trust we shall likewise feel, may prove to be a 
stimulus and inspiration to every soul. We are met to 
remember and review the life of our departed friend, 
Mr Thomas Oughton, who was for some fifty years 



58 TRIBUTES FROM 

associated with this Church ; and more especially to con- 
sider " what manner of spirit he was of." 

Now it seems to me that the two chief features of Mr 
Oughton's life and character are well expressed in the 
verses I have selected as a text. For, if we regard his 
conduct or " walk " in life, it was marked as we all know 
by integrity ; and the one thing that most forcibly struck 
me, during my too short acquaintance with him, as dis- 
tinguishing his spirit, was his attachment to God's house. 
Integrity and love to God and His house, I cannot but 
think, were the leading characteristics of our dear friend, 
and I also cannot but think there was a close connection, 
a connection of cause and effect, between the two. In my 
opinion we see, exemplified in the life and character of 
Mr Oughton, integrity as the outcome and fruit of love to 
God and His house. 

The story of his life may truly be summed up in the 
words of the Psalmist: "I have walked in mine 
integrity." With humble and thankful confidence he 
might, like the Psalmist, appeal to God as the witness of 
his sincerity and uprightness, saying: "Judge me, O 
Lord, for I have walked in mine integrity ; " and we with 
a like confidence may point to his unblemished life and 
character as a bright example of sterling integrity. 
Again and again the Government of this Island showed 
its confidence in his ability and character by appointing 
him to fill responsible positions. Whatever post he 
occupied he proved that this confidence had not been 
misplaced ; for his conscientiousness and righteousness 
were as conspicuous as his legal capacity. 



FRIENDS IN JAMAICA. 59 

The tenor of Mr Oughton's mind and spirit was to 
put truth and right in the first place, and not to relegate 
them to any secondary position. He was just and feared 
not. Nor were the finer feelings of his heart blunted in 
the discharge of his duties, for it was his habit to show 
leniency and consideration wherever he could. It may 
truly be said that by his just and considerate dealings 
he magnified and adorned the office of a lawyer. 

Our friend's life was a solemn reality ; and he 
cherished and sought to fulfil in it a serious, unselfish 
and godly purpose. Yet he enjoyed the society of his 
fellows no one more so than he, I think, in his own 
quiet way ; and in congenial company that playful 
humour, that was so marked a characteristic of his mind, 
sparkled in his eyes and in his talk. 

But above all other society he loved the society of 
home. Home was to him the happy centre to which he 
ever gladly returned, and where his soul found most 
gratifying and satisfying rest. In his home the resolve 
of the writer of the loist Psalm was his : "I will walk 
within my house with a perfect heart." Of him it may 
be said, as was written of a great English author by his 
widow, that " his highest virtues were known only to his 
wife, his children, his servants, and the poor." His 
benefactions to the poor, though done in secret and 
unostentatiously, were as I can testify, and some 
members of this congregation from far fuller knowledge 
could testify both frequent and numerous. 

Mr Oughton loved God and His house. His love of 
God's house and worship was, I think, the most distin- 



60 TRIBUTES FROM 

guishing feature of the spirit of the man. Most truly 
could he have said with the Psalmist, " Lord, I have 
loved the habitation of Thy house and the place where 
Thine honour dwelleth." This Chapel was very dear to 
his heart. He loved it for the sake of all its endearing 
associations. In this pulpit his father ministered with 
great intellectual power and eloquence for a quarter of a 
century. Here too, in connection with this Chapel, his 
mother lived and laboured, beloved by all who knew her 
for her true and gentle Christian spirit ; and on the wall 
of this Chapel a memorial tablet testifies to the deep 
affection felt for her by family and friends. In the ceiling 
above our heads we have a mark of the son's attachment 
to this place in the electroliers he in his generosity placed 
there, and a sign also, it seems to me, of that attitude of 
his mind which ever led him in every direction to 
welcome the new light. 

But this place was loved by him chiefly because here 
his soul " beheld the beauty and glory of the Lord.'* 
Here he " professed a good profession before many 
witnesses " by baptism. He delighted to worship and 
serve God here. For many years he acted as Organist, 
and so led the service of praise to the Lord. He was a 
teacher in the Sunday School, and one minister of the 
Gospel, at least, is still living and labouring in the Island 
who tells how much he has owed to Mr Oughton's wise 
and faithful teaching. 

Was our departed friend's love to God a weakness ? 
Far from it : it was the secret, the source and support, of 
the strength and beauty of his character. His hatred of 



FRIENDS IN JAMAICA. 61 

the "vain" and the "evil" was but the other side the 
reverse of his love to God. It was because his heart 
was tender with love to God that it was ever stern to all 
forms of wrong and oppression, but ever gentle and kind 
to the weak and helpless the widow, the little children, 
and the dumb animals. 

The cause of right and truth and purity and God, in 
this City and Island, and this Church in particular, has lost 
much in Dr Phillippo and Mr Oughton, the two mutual 
friends who have recently passed away from our midst, so 
near together and both so suddenly. But the Christian, 
least of all, should fear and despair. The workers may 
fail and fall : the Lord's work goes on, and on, to a 
glorious consummation. As for the blessed dead " con- 
sidering the issue of their life let us imitate their faith," 
and one and all prove ourselves to be true and worthy 
followers of them " who through faith and patience inherit 
the promises." 



IV 
TRIBUTES OF FORMER JAMAICA FRIENDS 



PROF. C. C. STARBUCK. 
REV. J. D. EAST. 
MRS ANNIE LEWIS. 
J. N. CAMP, ESQ. 



I. 

Prof. C. C. STARBUCK, Andover, Mass. 

MY sister says : " There are very few men of whom it 
may be so emphatically said that they were good husbands, 
good fathers, and warm and faithful friends." 

What a different thing my ten years in Jamaica would 
have been but for you and Mr Oughton : the remem- 
brance of this part of my life is inextricably associated 
with your names. God gave to Mr Oughton length of 
life, and all those experiences of joy and sorrow which 
help to ripen for higher service. All good things and 
good men in the island will feel his loss. 

II. 
Rev. J. D. EAST, England, formerly of Kingston, Jamaica. 

No word that I have seen expressive of the appreciation 
in which Mr Oughton was held, could exceed that which 
my own feeling and conviction would write. As a friend 
and counsellor I held him in high esteem, and in seasons 
of trial and perplexity I consider myself deeply indebted 
to him. I had the profoundest sense of his judgment in 
some circumstances of great delicacy, and feel that he 
saved me from issues which might have proved painfully 

E 



66 TRIBUTES OF 

disastrous. I have ever regarded it as a great blessing 
that amid all the changes, and at times diversity of opinion, 
never a word has passed between us to disturb our per- 
sonal friendship. This I am thankful to have enjoyed to 
the very last of our intercourse with each other. 



III. 

Mrs ANNIE LEWIS, Scotswood-on-Tyne. 

WITH all the trials life has brought you, how you can 
rejoice and be happy in the remembrance of the happy 
years in which you have shared the life of such a man as 
Thomas Oughton. Even his acquaintances and friends 
are proud to have known him. 

IV. 
J. N. CAMP, Esq., Iowa, formerly U.S. Consul in Kingston. 

BEING like him undemonstrative by nature, he probably 
never knew how much I admired his character and rare 
abilities, or how warmly I cherished his friendship. 
During the period of our association, I was quite a young 
man, with limited experience of the world, charged with 
grave responsibilities for which I sometimes felt inade- 
quate. Mr Oughton always welcomed my approach for 
friendly counsel and advice when the difficulties of my 
position bore most heavily upon me, freely giving me the 
benefit of his exceptionally clear, sound judgment. 



FORMER JAMAICA FRIENDS. 67 

After the lapse of twenty-eight years his strong per- 
sonality stands forth as distinctly in memory as if we had 
parted but a few months ago, a noble, gifted man ; quiet, 
earnest, kind, genial, modest and unassuming, but firm 
and self-reliant ; honest, honourable, just, strong, brave ; 
inspired by lofty aims and purposes ; high-minded and 
clean in both private and professional life. Such was Mr 
Oughton to me in the day of our association, and such 
memory still holds him. 

By cordial, generous hospitality, he contributed largely 
towards making his home and yours seem like a home to 
me, and to make me forget that I was a stranger in 
a strange land. 

My experiences have grown vastly more broad and 
full with the passing years, but the pleasant hours spent 
with Mr Oughton and yourself have been continuously 
cherished in memory. 



V 

TRIBUTES FROM AMERICAN FRIENDS 



GENERAL JOHN C. SMITH. 
HON. J. W. DICKINSON, LL.D. 
Miss CORNELIA ALDIS. 
DR KATE J. JACKSON. 
DR G. R. BR&CKETT. 
MRS LUCY A. BRADNER. 
MRS DIEHL. 
JAMES W. SCOTT, ESQ. 
MRS CAROLINE G. SCOTT. 



General JOHN C. SMITH, Chicago. 

How can we express the sorrow that fills all our hearts 
as we think of your sad bereavement, and the loneliness 
of your home that was so happy. May God comfort 
you in your great affliction. Would that by words of 
friendship and love we might help to solace you. Our 
sympathies are with you. It was our happiness to know 
your beloved husband and to know him was to love him. 
All that is said of his sterling qualities of manhood, 
his goodness of heart, and sympathy with the poor and 
afflicted, and love of justice ; and his gentleness and 
cheerfulness, finds prompt response in our hearts. He 
was all your loving heart wished him to be. 

We are happy in having enjoyed his company and his 
friendship. The recollections of the many happy weeks 
we spent at Bel Air, and the brief time you both gave 
us in our own home, are among the brightest recollections 
of our eventful life. How well we recall his happiness 
at our 96th reception to welcome your brother/ when he 
saw so many of our " brave boys" and so many of the 
Colonel's old comrades and friends. His last letter to 

* A re-union at General Smith's home in Chicago, during the World's 
Fair, of the widely scattered members of the 96th Regiment Illinois Volun- 
teers, organised in 1862, and discharged at the close of the war in America, 
1865. 



72 TRIBUTES FROM 

us, expressing regret that he could not be present at our 
Reception of Masonic friends, we greatly prize ; it was so 
genial and sparkling, and characteristic of the good man 
that he was. 

Hon. J. W. DICKINSON, LL.D., Mass. 

IT seemed to me as I became somewhat acquainted 
with your husband, that he was a model man, and a 
model husband. His intelligence and learning and quiet 
humour and refinement of manner and spirit made him 
a most desirable companion and friend. I began to 
love him the day I first met him in his own home in 
Jamaica. 

Miss CORNELIA ALDIS, Boston (in a letter to Mrs 
Bancroft Oughton). 

LITTLE as I saw of Mr Oughton, he impressed me as 
a very unusual man ; so clever, intellectually, and at the 
same time as frank and open-hearted as a child. I do 
not think I ever met a man of his age, except my own 
father, who seemed to me so untouched by worldliness ; 
in whom so very keen a mental vision was united to so 
kind a heart. And so I can appreciate what a blow it is 
to you and Mrs Oughton to lose him out of your lives. 

Dr KATE J. JACKSON, Dansville Sanatorium, New York. 

WE learned with grief of Mr Ough ton's death ; and 
when we called to mind his cheering presence with us a 



AMERICAN FRIENDS. 73 

year ago, we could not make it seem possible that he 
had gone from earthly sight for evermore. 

In the light of our knowledge of him we could under- 
stand all that was written of his true and noble qualities 
of character as a citizen and friend, and as a husband and 
father. What a consolation to you and to all who knew 
and loved him that he leaves for all "a blessed memory." 

I shall never forget his courage and patience under 
bodily ills, or the sunshine of his nature. Though sick, 
and at times almost helpless, while here, yet his helpful 
influence made an impression that will not soon be 
forgotten. 

Dr G. R. BR&CKETT, Charleston. 

I OFTEN recall our brief but pleasant acquaintance at the 
Sanatorium, and my delightful walks with Mr Oughton. 
In him a tender heart was wedded to a strong mind, and 
around both played the light of genuine humour. And 
what was more than all else, he was a devout and earnest 
Christian. He has left you and his family a legacy of 
precious memories, and a splendid public record. How 
much has gone out of the life of the community ! How 
you must miss his bright, genial presence. 

Mrs LUCY A. BRADNER, New Haven. 

I AM very glad to have the pleasant remembrance of 
Mr Oughton, which your delightful visit last summer left 
in our minds. Mr Bradner and I were both impressed 



74 TRIBUTES FROM 

with the gentle courtesy and manifestations of a lovely 
character which appeared in Mr Oughton's demeanour 
and words. 



Mrs DIEHL, New York. 

I MUST tell you, dear Mrs Oughton, that Robbie and 
I in our home so far away are mourning as if our own 
household had been invaded. Mr Oughton's kindness 
to Robbie last year, the sort of good comradeship which 
the mature man displayed towards the boy who liked to 
be treated as a man was most gratefully appreciated and 
will never be forgotten. When the " Atlas " steamer 
bore you away, Robert gazed long after the boat, as it 
put out to sea, and when we turned to go home his eyes 
were moist as he said, " There goes a good man, and I 
shall never see him again." 

JAMES W. SCOTT, Esq., Editor, Chicago Herald 
(in a Letter to Colonel Hicks). 

I SAW but little of Mr Oughton, but we met as old 
friends, and the affection I had for him seemed to have 
been with me all the time, through you and your sister. 
I think I told you how strange it seemed to me that 
night at the reception at General Smith's, to meet for the 
first time one I knew so well. He was beyond my 
highest anticipations, even after all you had told me. 
Having met Mr Oughton, I can better appreciate how 
much he was to you. 



AMERICAN FRIENDS. 75 

Mrs CAROLINE G. SCOTT, Chicago. 

I KNOW that I cannot say one word to comfort you, 
but I want to tell you how deeply I sympathise with you. 
My first thought, when Colonel Hick's letter came, was, 
" Oh, how thankful Mrs Oughton must be that they had 
that delightful trip last summer. I remember how 
gratified dear Mr Oughton seemed with it all, especially 
with his visit to Rockford. Mr Oughton was such a rare 
man, that separation from him means infinitely more than 
such separations do often mean. 



VI 
TRIBUTES AND WORDS OF CONSOLATION 



LADY MUSGROVE. 
Miss MARY KNIBB. 
"SISTER ISABEL" (Miss WISE). 
MRS HELEN L. BEECHER. 
Miss MARY E. B. NORTON. 



Lady MUSGROVE, England. 

I WOULD remind you for your comfort, that you stand 
upon a narrowing and not a widening gulf of separation ; 
every day, even every hour, brings you nearer to your 
husband.* 

Miss MARY KNIBB, Falmouth, June 4, 1894. 

YOUR husband's love for you always seemed so 
beautiful to me, indeed everything of him was lovely, 
noble, and true. Truly, his wife and children were the 
apple of his eye. How he will be missed ! We thank 
God for his beautiful, useful life here, and we are 
thankful, too, that we know he has gone to his inherit- 
ance on high. The Rev. Mr Wolcott once said to me, 
" Mr Oughton is my ideal of a Christian." How many 
there are, dear friend, who will not only sympathise, but 
who will truly mourn with you, feeling that we, too, 
have lost a friend. 

I think, what will life seem to you without him? 
And yet I am quite sure that God, who has called his 
dear servant home, will comfort and sustain you. And 
then he is your very own still, and though your eyes do not 

* I have some times passed this thought on to other mourners, who have 
thereby been comforted. 



8o TRIBUTES AND WORDS 

behold him, I am sure you will feel that he is near and 
bidding you be comforted, for he is full of joy and peace 
unspeakable. 



Miss KNIBB (Second Letter, June 5, 1894). 

How strangely our lives are mingled. This evening, 
going to search for a paper of business importance, I met 
with some lines, which I send you. They are your own 
dear Anna's ; and I think must comfort your heart at 
this time. When you once brought her to Falmouth, I 
sent her some flowers. Afterwards she wrote me a 
loving note, and these lines. I have often been cheered 
by reading them ; and now I send them on to cheer her 
dear mother in her lonely grief. God works in all ways ; 
and I pray that this may be one of his own messages. 

JESUS KNOWS. 

When our hearts are filled with grief 
Naught on earth can bring relief; 
Then how welcome is the call 
To trust the Lord for all in all, 
And to rest with sweet repose 
In the thought ihatjestts knows! 

Cast on Him thy every care ! 
He will all thy burdens bear ; 
And will soothe each anxious thought 
That to Him in love is brought. 
Well may we cast on Him our woes, 
And rest in peace, for Jesus knows f 



OF CONSOLATION. 81 

Jesus knows ! Oh, blessed thought 

That to us from Heaven is brought ! 

Wounds too sacred to reveal 

He with tenderest touch can heal ; 

And our lives he will dispose 

As seemeth best, for Jesus knows! 



" SISTER ISABEL" (Miss WISE), Deaconess Home, 
London. 

How shall I express to you how deeply my heart 
aches for you in the sudden and terrible sorrow our 
loving Father has sent you. I wish I could have been 
with you, if only to stand beside you, for I know words 
(except when they are His) are but out of place and poor 
comforters. But I feel sure our dear Lord, who wept 
long ago in sympathy, is close beside to whisper words of 
love and consolation. 

How glorious the meeting of those two friends, both 
suddenly summoned "up higher," and how deep the 
comfort for all left behind, the knowledge that they 
were ready. May it be that when our call comes, we 
may have lived as faithfully. 

It seems as if a large number one knows and loves 
are being gathered home, and it is well it should be so, 
for where our treasure is there also is our heart ; and the 
lonely spots and vacant places seem to make us look up 
to where our precious ones are with Christ. 

May our God just put His strong, everlasting arms 
around you, and hold you up, dear Mrs Oughton, and 
breathe His comfort into your heart. 

F 



82 TRIBUTES AND WORDS 

Mrs HELEN L. BEECHER, California. 

You can hardly imagine how my mind went back to old 
days, and to your little home in Illinois, and to that trip 
on the Mississippi, and to your dear good young husband, 
and to your bridal happiness, as I read that paper from 
Jamaica. Now it is all over ; and you like me are alone. 

We both have dear children to remind us of their father 
and to comfort us in our loneliness. We both have the 
memory of past happiness, and that is a great enrichment 
of our lives ; and we both have the privilege of looking 
back on honorable and honoured lives of those who have 
preceded us. We have nothing to be ashamed of all to 
take pride in, and is that not a consolation ? And then, 
best of all, we have a sure and certain hope of meeting 
again. 

I cannot tell you how much I think of that while hear- 
ing and reading so much of these doubts and darkness, 
this agnosticism as to another life. I feel more thankful 
than ever for Him who' 'brought Life and Immortality to 
light," for Him who is Himself the Way, the Door, so 
that we can " cast our anchor within the veil " through 
Christ Jesus. All through Christ. Without Him all is 
dark and gloomy and hopeless. With Him, all is light, 
and life, and happiness. 

Miss MARY E. B. NORTON, Pacific Grove, California. 

IT is not the first time that death has darkened your home, 
dear friend, but well I know that this loss must seem in 



OF CONSOLATION. 83 

the first terrible shock like the breaking up of the founda- 
tions of life. Your "strong tower," the lover of your 
youth, the tender and devoted husband, the comforter in 
all other trials, is gone. It seems so, beloved, because our 
eyes are darkened ; but O, 

" Believe not that the dead are dumb, 
But they that live are deaf." 

Above all the Blessed Comforter is with you, ready to heal 
and strengthen. In the midst of this sorrow I know you 
are comforted, too, by beautiful and blessed memories of 
the noble life you have so long shared. 

How gladly would we all go, as your husband went, in 
the full tide of useful activity, honoured and beloved in all 
his public and private life. 

The beloved daughters, who had gone before, were 
there to welcome him. The veil grows thinner as Heaven 
grows richer, and sometimes I seem to see and hear the 
beloved on the other side. As we look towards sunset, 
and daily come nearer our full reunion, should not the way 
grow brighter and our hearts be uplifted with joy and 
gladness ? 



VII 

OFFICIAL TESTIMONIES 



MESSAGE OF THE GOVERNOR. 

THE CHIEF JUSTICE. 

THE SUPREME COURT. 

THE MANDEVILLE COURT. 

BOARD OF VISITORS, SHORTWOOD TRAINING COLLEGE. 

LETTER OF CHAIRMAN, SHORTWOOD TRAINING COLLEGE. 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS, Mico INSTITUTION. 

THE KINGSTON BENEFIT BUILDING SOCIETY. 

THE JAMAICA CO-OPERATIVE FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY. 

THE KINGSTON MINISTERS' ASSOCIATION. 




< 



Message of His Excellency the Governor to the Honourable 
the Legislative Council of Jamaica. 

HONORABLE GENTLEMEN, I have the honour to report 
to you, with much regret, the death on the ist June last, 
of Mr Thomas Oughton, for twenty-two years Clerk of 
this Council. 

I avail myself of this opportunity of recording the 
Government's high appreciation of the late Mr Ough ton's 
services, and their sense of the ability and efficiency with 
which his duties were discharged during that lengthened 
period. 

I have now to intimate that Mr Thomas Bancroft 
Oughton, Barrister-at-Law, and a son of the late Clerk, 
has been appointed to be Clerk of the Legislative Council. 

HENRY A. BLAKE, Governor. 

KING'S HOUSE, 
12th February 1895. 



Sir ADAM GIBB ELLIS, Chief Justice (in a letter to Mr 
Bancroft Oughton). 

IT is with very great regret that I have just heard of the 
death of your father, and I hasten to assure you of my 
very sincere sympathy. 



88 OFFICIAL TESTIMONIES. 

I have always entertained a very great respect for your 
father, considering him a man of conspicuous ability and 
of a fair and upright character. The profession, and the 
community generally, have sustained a severe loss in his 
death, which will be specially deplored by his friends, 
among whom I wish to be numbered. 



The Supreme Court. 

AT the first session of the Supreme Court, subsequent to 
the death of Mr Oughton, remarks were made as follows 
by the Attorney General and the Acting Chief Justice : 

The ATTORNEY GENERAL. 

THE legal profession has suffered a great loss in the 
death of our esteemed friend, Mr Thomas Oughton. I 
do not think, your Honours, that it will be necessary for 
me to say anything in praise of Mr Oughton ; but I am 
sure that there was no member of the profession who stood 
higher in the public estimation, or who enjoyed more fully 
the esteem and confidence of his fellow practitioners. Mr 
Thomas Oughton has long been well known in the Courts, 
and I am happy to say that his name will still be, and I 
am sure favourably, known in my friend, Mr Oughton, jr. 

Mr JUSTICE NORTHCOTE. 

MR OUGHTON, jr., has our most sincere sympathy in 
the loss he has sustained by the death of his father, Mr 
Thomas Oughton, whose learning and many sterling 
qualities were fully appreciated and admired by us all. 



OFFICIAL TESTIMONIES. 89 

The Mandeville Court. 

ON the day of Mr Oughton's death and funeral, a tele- 
gram was received from A. V. Kingdon, Esq., the pre- 
siding Judge of the Court at Mandeville, stating that the 
Court had adjourned as a token of respect, upon motion 
of Arthur Levy, Esq., Solicitor and Advocate. 

In a letter to Mr Bancroft O ugh ton, Mr LEVY said : 

On hearing by telegram of the sudden death of your 
esteemed father, it appeared to the persons who were 
present in the Court Room and about the Court Offices a 
right and proper thing that I, who had known and 
respected him nearly all my life, should move an adjourn- 
ment of the Court, as a mark of respect to the memory 
of Mr Thomas O ugh ton, a Christian gentleman and a 
member of the legal profession, who had occupied so 
prominent and distinguished a position in it, and who, 
moreover, had once sat on the judgment seat as one of 
the best, ablest, and most impartial judges. The ad- 
journment was granted with expressions of sincere regret 
by the Court, who referred to our deceased friend in very 
nearly the same affectionate terms as I had done in 
moving the adjournment. 

THE BOARD OF VISITORS OF THE SHORTWOOD TRAINING 
COLLEGE. (From the Minutes of the Board. ) 

THE Board desires to place on record its sense of the 
loss it has sustained in the death of the late Mr Thomas 
Oughton, who had been one of its most valued members 



90 OFFICIAL TESTIMONIES. 

from the time of its formation, and would tender to his 
widow and family an expression of its entire sympathy 
with them in their bereavement. 

From the MOST REVEREND BISHOP NUTTALL, Chairman 
of the Board (in a letter to Mrs Oughton). 

As you know, for many years I have in various ways, 
public and private, been brought into close association 
with Mr Oughton ; and though we have often necessarily 
looked at questions from a different standpoint, and per- 
haps inevitably have brought to such questions a certain 
bias which must have had its influence on our final judg- 
ment and action, yet nothing ever occurred to mar the 
harmony of our personal friendship ; and I certainly 
never shared with your husband in the conduct of any 
important public business without an increasing admira- 
tion for his judgment, and for his paramount desire 
to do what was right and best. I mourn his loss as 
a private friend ; and the Colony, and especially the 
various Institutions to which he gave individual care 
and assistance, have great cause to mourn his loss as 
one of our foremost and most useful citizens. 

THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE Mico INSTITUTION. 
(From the Rev. H. H. KILBURN, Secretary.} 

I AM desired by the Directors of the Mico Insti- 
tution to express their sympathy with you in the 
irreparable loss you have sustained by the death of 
your husband. 



OFFICIAL TESTIMONIES. 91 

For many years Mr Oughton had been a most 
useful member of the Board of Directors (formerly 
Board of Visitors). On several occasions the services he 
rendered were of signal value in promoting and guarding 
the interests of the Institution, and he was held in 
highest esteem by all the members of the Board. 
Although he had not been able recently to attend its 
meetings, the Board felt a satisfaction in knowing that 
it could always rely upon his wise counsel and sound 
judgment whenever it should be necessary to consult 
him upon matters connected with the welfare of the 
Institution. 

Extract from the Thirty-first Anmial Report of the 
KINGSTON BENEFIT BUILDING SOCIETY, at a General 
Meeting held zqtk May 1895. 

" THE Directors regret to record the death, on the 
ist of June 1894, of Thomas Oughton, Esq. He was 
Solicitor of the Society from its formation in 1864, 
and his zealous and effective services were very faith- 
fully rendered for the lengthened period of over 30 
years, and which have tended in no small degree to 
place the Society on its present satisfactory position." 



THE BENEFIT BUILDING SOCIETY, KINGSTON. 

AT a Meeting of the Directors of this Society, Albert 
H. Jones, Esq. in the Chair, the following Resolutions 
were agreed to : 



92 OFFICIAL TESTIMONIES. 

I. The Directors of the Kingston Benefit Building 
Society hereby record their deep regret at the death, 
on ist June, instant, of Thomas Oughton, the Senior 
Solicitor of the Society. 

II. The Directors would further place on record 
their high appreciation of the very zealous and effective 
service he has so effectively rendered the Society from 
its formation thirty years ago, and which has tended 
in no small degree to place it in its present satis- 
factory position. 

III. The Society in common with the community 
at large has sustained a great loss, and the Directors 
tender to Mrs Oughton and the other members of the 
family their sincere expression of heartfelt sympathy 
in their great bereavement. 



THE JAMAICA CO-OPERATIVE FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY. 

THE Directors of this Company desire to express 
their sincere regret at the death of their Co-Director, 
Thomas Oughton, Esquire. 

The Directors would record their deep sense of the 
loss which the Company has sustained by the death 
of Mr Oughton, who was one of the founders of the 
Company and who always evinced the greatest interest 
in its success. His regular attendance at all the Board 
meetings, and his exceptional ability and experience, 
always proved of the greatest benefit in dealing with 
the business of the Company. 



OFFICIAL TESTIMONIES. 93 

The Directors desire to express their sincere 
sympathy with the widow and family in their sad 
bereavement. 

(Signed) HENRY FORD, Secretary. 

THE KINGSTON MINISTERS' ASSOCIATION. 
Resolutions adopted June 4, 1894. 

WHEREAS it has pleased God to remove suddenly by 
death Mr Thomas Oughton, for many years a prominent 
member of this community. 

RESOLVED. I. That this meeting of the Kingston 
Ministers' Association desires to place on record an 
expression of the loss which has been sustained. 

To the members of the Association Mr Oughton has 
been known, and to some of them somewhat intimately, 
for a number of years. In personal intercourse they have 
ever found him affable and courteous, and willing to give 
such valuable counsel and advice, as his long experience, 
extensive knowledge, and mature judgment rendered him 
singularly qualified to give. 

In his professional dealings they have found him 
careful and painstaking ; and owing to his profound and 
accurate knowledge of the Law, he was a wise and safe 
adviser, whilst in his business transactions they believe 
him to have been actuated by motives much higher than 
mere professional interest or gain. They also feel it to 
be but a well merited tribute to departed worth to recog- 
nize the ability with which he filled various important 
public offices. Such as those of Acting Crown Solicitor, 



94 OFFICIAL TESTIMONIES. 

Acting Attorney General, Acting District Judge and 
Clerk to the Legislative Council, and in these responsible 
positions gave great satisfaction. Above all they believe 
this was done without compromise of his religious prin- 
ciples and convictions as a professing Christian, and for 
this reason his example and influence could not but be 
potent for good, and the loss sustained by his death 
be seriously felt in this community. 

2. That this meeting would express to Mrs Oughton, 
with her son and daughter, the sincere condolence of the 
members of the Association with them in their bereave- 
ment, and the hope, that while they are sustained under 
the sorrow, it may be sanctified to them by "The God of 
all comfort." 

3. That a copy of these resolutions signed by the 
Chairman and Secretary on behalf of the Association, be 
forwarded to Mrs Oughton. 

(Signed) C. E. RANDALL, Chairman. 

HORACE PECKOVER, Secretary. 



VIII 
NOTICES OF THE PRESS 



The Gleaner. 

ONE of those links which bind the past to the pre- 
sent was severed yesterday morning by the death 
of Mr Thomas Oughton, who for a period of 40 
years practiced as a solicitor in Kingston, and for 22 
years acted as clerk to the Legislative Council. His 
decease was sudden and yet it was such as he had always 
wished to die in harness. During his long career, Mr 
Oughton bore a high reputation as a solicitor, and he 
brought to bear, upon every case which demanded his 
attention, a careful study, and a sound common sense, 
in addition to a practical knowledge of the law which 
proved of the highest value to his clients. His brethren 
in the fraternity recognised his talents and many a subtle 
point was brought to him for settlement and many a 
tangled knot to be unravelled. But perhaps the best 
that can be said is that, in all his transactions, Mr 
Oughton was a gentleman, and no word has ever been 
heard against his truthful honesty and steadfastness of 
purpose. While he was of a mild temperament and gentle, 
he stuck to his opinions with obstinacy, and he generally 
proved to be in the right. His many friends amongst 
the members of his profession and his numerous clientele 
will feel his loss keenly, for they have been deprived, not 

G 



98 NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 

only of a sound adviser but a sympathetic friend and 
confidant. 



The Standard. 

ANOTHER familiar form has passed from this mortal 
scene another busy, useful worker has disappeared 
from the professional and social life of the Colony. 
It is now upwards of forty years since Mr Thomas 
Oughton was admitted as an Attorney at Law, 
and during that long period of time he has held a 
prominent and honoured place in the legal profession. 

As a lawyer, Mr Oughton was distinguished for his 
faculty of keen, accurate perception, his masterly grasp of 
general principles, and his capacity for applying this com- 
prehensive knowledge to the illustration or confirmation 
of any particular point which he wished to establish. 
Possessing an appreciative sense of the humorous, he was 
himself a humorist of acknowledged ability ; and at literary 
entertainments he was ever cordially received as a clever 
delineator of bright, genial, amusing character. Mr 
Oughton was embued with the true religious spirit, but 
his religion was of the bright, cheerful, hopeful kind which 
seeks to unite the love of happiness and the principle of 
duty. It has been well said that the union of genuine, 
rich humour with deep piety, and the chastened, 
spontaneous use of it, under the guidance of a just judg- 
ment,"are among the rarest manifestations of intellectual 
power. In the work, disposition, and character of Mr 



NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 99 

Thomas Oughton this union was clearly manifested and 
his death will leave such a void as is caused by the 
removal of a strong, amiable, sympathetic individuality. 



Post. 

IT is with sincere regret we have this morning 
to announce the death of Mr Thomas Oughton, and we 
are quite sure that the whole community will join with us 
in expressions of sympathy with the bereaved family and 
intimate friends of the deceased gentleman. Mr 
Oughton has, during a long and busy public life, filled 
many positions of prominence, having on different occa- 
sions acted as Attorney General, Crown Solicitor, and 
District Court Judge, and has held the office of Clerk to 
the Legislative Council since 1872. To the discharge of 
the duties of these several offices, Mr Oughton brought an 
acute intellect, a well-trained mind and unflagging industry, 
and as a consequence stood always very high in the 
estimation of the Government. As a lawyer he enjoyed 
the confidence of a very large clientele for nearly half a 
century, and as a private gentleman his kindliness of 
heart and cheerful disposition endeared him to a host 
of friends. 

Gall's News Letter. 

THERE has passed away from us one of the Beacon 
Lights of the colony, who has for nearly forty years 



ioo NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 

cast his lustre all around us. There has not been 
found a single " spot " upon his disc, and ever since 
his light " went suddenly out," people have been 
wondering who will fill his place. 

As a chamber lawyer, Mr Oughton stood at the top of 
his profession, and we are not far wrong if we say that 
there has been hardly a cause of any importance in this 
Island in which Mr Oughton has not been in some way 
or other, more or less connected. A man of sterling 
integrity, truth and uprightness, he has been trusted with 
stupendous responsibilities on matters of the gravest im- 
portance, and his opinion has always had weight. He 
has very rarely been defeated in a cause, when he has 
recommended litigation, or suggested an appeal against 
a judgment. His success has been extraordinary and 
almost without a parallel in Jamaica. 

As a legal draughtsman, Mr Oughton was par- excel- 
lence. 



The Jamaica Baptist Reporter. 

IT was but a few months ago that we were startled 
by the news of the sudden death of the Hon. J. 
C. Phillippo, who was so widely known, not only 
for the leading place he held in his profession in 
the Island, but for the kind-hearted and Christian 
manhood which caused him to be honoured and 
loved wherever he was known. A similar shock has now 
passed over the community in the equally sudden death 



NOTICES OF TPIE PRESS. 101 

of Mr Oughton, who by his blameless character and by 
the position he had gained as the leading solicitor of the 
island, was as loved and honoured as any man in Jamaica. 
Mr Oughton was the son of the Rev. Samuel 
Oughton, formerly for many years the Pastor of the East 
Queen Street Baptist Church, of which Mr Thomas 
Oughton was a member at the time of his death. In 
early life Mr Oughton intended to follow his father's steps 
and give himself to the work of the ministry, but after- 
wards his plan was altered and he undertook the study of 
law, with the success that is so well known in the island, 
and which has been repeatedly acknowledged by the high 
appointments conferred on him by the government. 
Though in his latter years the claims of his profession left 
him little time for other work, some years ago, when the 
East Queen Street Church was without a Pastor, Mr 
Oughton was most actively engaged in supplying the 
vacant place and in keeping together the church in the 
time of its need. During his long and useful life, his 
unswerving integrity impressed itself upon all who be- 
came associated with him, and made the firm of which 
he was the head a guarantee for an honourable and 
pure administration of the law. His large practice ex- 
tended to all parts of the island, and many business firms 
and families will deeply feel the loss of a wise counsellor 
and true friend. 



PRINTED BY 

TURNBULL AND SPEARS 

EDINBURGH 



X" 











University of Toronto 






Library 






DO NOT if 


UO 




REMOVE / 


o 


j 




c\2 


i 




1 


1 


THE \ 


.1 


1 


CARD 


3 


d 






1 


FROM \ 


r^ 


o 




^ 


-d 


yi 


1 


H 

4 


THIS V 


t? 
s 1 


H 

M 


POCKET X 




O 




o j3 

^ 


i 






d 




* t- 






II 


p2i 


Acme Library Card Pocket 


& 3 
W) ^ 


-4- 

H 


LOWE-MARTIN CO. LiMTTlD 


s 






v->