Philip Henry’s Mother

His mother was Mrs. Magdalen Rochdale, of the parish of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, in Westminster.  She was a virtuous pious gentlewoman, and one that feared God above many.  She was altogether dead to the vanities and pleasures of the court, though she lived in the midst of them.  She looked well to the ways of her household – prayed with them daily, catechized her children, and taught them the good knowledge of the Lord betimes.  I have heard him speak of his learning Mr. Perkins’s “Six Principles” when he was very young, and he often mentioned, with thankfulness to God, his great happiness in having such a mother, who was, to him, as Lois and Eunice were to Timothy, acquainting him with the Scriptures from his childhood.  And, there appearing, in him, early inclinations both to learning and piety, she devoted him, in his tender years, to the service of God in the work of the ministry.  She died of a consumption, March 6, 1645, leaving behind her only this son and five daughters.  A little before she died, she had this saying: “My head is in heaven and my heart is in heaven.  It is but one step more, and I shall be there, too.” – from Matthew Henry’s (1662-1714) biography of his father, Philip Henry (1631-1696) (An Account of the Life and Death of Philip Henry [1698]).