As to his other affairs, he died poor, but honest, leaving no Debts, or Legacies; except of a few p'ds to Mr. Trumbull and my Lady, in token of respect, Gratefulness, and mutual Esteem.
I shall with pleasure take upon me to draw this amiable, quiet, deserving, unpretending, Christian and Philosophical character, in his Epitaph. There Truth may be spoken in a few words: as for Flourish, & Oratory, & Poetry, I leave them to younger and more lively Writers, such as love writing for writing sake, & w^d rather show their own Fine Parts, y^n Report the valuable ones of any other man. So the Elegy I renounce.
I condole with you from my heart, on the loss of so worthy a man, and a Friend to us both. Now he is gone, I must tell you he has done you many a good office, and set your character in y^e fairest light, to some who either mistook you, or knew you not. I doubt not he has done the same for me.
Adieu: Let us love his Memory, and profit by his example. I am very sincerely
D^r SIR, Your affectionate & real Servant, A. POPE.
[Footnote 22: He was born at Shelton, near Newcastle, May 20, 1683; and was the youngest of eleven children of John Fenton, an attorney-at-law, and one of the coroners of the county of Stafford. His father died in 1694; and his grave, in the church-yard of Stoke upon Trent, is distinguished by the following elegant Latin inscription from the pen of his son:
H.S.E. JOHANNES FENTON, de Shelton antiqua stirpe generosus: juxta reliquias conjugis CATHERINÆ forma, moribus, pietate, optimo viro dignissimæ: Qui intemerata in ecclesiam fide, et virtutibus intaminatis enituit; necnon ingenii lepore bonis artibus expoliti, ac animo erga omnes benevolo, sibi suisque jucundus vixit. Decem annos uxori dilectee superstes magnum sui desiderium bonis omnibus reliquit, anno{ salutis humanai 1694, { ætatis suffi 56. See Gent. Mag. 1791, vol. lxi. p. 703. N. ]
[Footnote 23: He was entered of Jesus college, and took a bachelor's degree in 1704: but it appears, by the list of Cambridge graduates, that he removed, in 1726, to Trinity hall. N.]
[Footnote 25: Ford was Johnson's relation, his mother's nephew, and is said to have been the original of the parson in Hogarth's Modern Midnight Conversation. See Boswell, i. and iii. ED.]