Richard Baxter, the Nonconformist divine, was far advanced in life
before he met the excellent woman who eventually became his wife.
He was too laboriously occupied in his vocation of minister to
have any time to spare for courtship; and his marriage was, as in
the case of Calvin, as much a matter of convenience as of love.
Miss Charlton, the lady of his choice, was the owner of property
in her own right; but lest it should be thought that Baxter
married her for "covetousness," he requested, first, that she
should give over to her relatives the principal part of her
fortune, and that "he should have nothing that before her marriage
was hers;" secondly, that she should so arrange her affairs "as
that he might be entangled in no lawsuits;" and, thirdly, "that
she should expect none of the time that his ministerial work might
require." These several conditions the bride having complied
with, the marriage took place, and proved a happy one. "We
lived," said Baxter, "in inviolated love and mutual complacency,
sensible of the benefit of mutual help, nearly nineteen years."
Yet the life of Baxter was one of great trials and troubles,
arising from the unsettled state of the times in which he lived.
He was hunted about from one part of the country to another, and
for several years he had no settled dwelling-place. "The women,
he gently remarks in his 'Life,' "have most of that sort of
trouble, but my wife easily bore it all.
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