Anne Rebecca Britt

  General Notes:

The following was taken from a newspaper obituary found in the Blackwell Bible, owned by A. Earl Garrett of Danville, Virginia. (As of Nov 2008, the Garrett Bible and the original obituary is in the possession of Clara Garrett Fountain of Danville, VA):
Died
On Saturday, January 29, 1881, near Brookston in Warren Co., NC [currently Vance Co., NC] Ann B. Wortham, wife of Richard J. Wortham Esq and daughter of the late Isaac Britt of Lawrenceville [VA] in the 61 year of her age.
The deceased was a lady of more than ordinary refinement and culture and of strong powers of mind, and one distinguishing trait of her character was her universal and unvarying kindness and charity to all. She never turned a deaf ear to the tale of distress.
Her illness was long and painful and borne with uncomplaining resignation.
Her son, A. R. Wortham Esq was summoned on Sunday last to attend her funeral obsequies [funeral rites or ceremonies]. For though her recovery was not hoped for, her speedy death was not anticipated. She leaves behind three children besides Mr. W.

Another such Obituary:
Mrs. Ann Rebecca Wortham, wife of Richard J. Wortham, Esq., of Warren co., NC and the sister of the gallant Col. I. T. Britt, of Virginia, died at the residence of her husband, January 29, 1881, in the 51st year of her age.
The deceased was faithful in all the relations of life in which she was placed. As a wife she was affectionate and true; as a mother, tender and kind; as a neighbor, obliging, and as a friend constant. Honest in her convictions and positive in her character, she spake candidly and acted firmly in the discharge of all the duties of life. There was blended in her character a rare exactness of nerve and womanly propriety. In personal appearance she was comely, with an unassumed dignity of bearing; yet graceful and easy in her manners. In youth and early womanhood, it is said possessed great personal beauty and was much admired for her many accomplishments. Mrs. Wortham, in many particulars, was in advance of the age in which she lived; many of her expressed thoughts will be the better understood and appreciated as learning becomes more general and accurate, and the sciences more fully developed. She was, indeed, a woman of more than ordinary attainments; she kept fully abreast of the literature of the day, and was especially well versed in the political history of the world. She improved well the advances afforded in a quiet country home for reading, meditation, and solid attainments. In the days of her health she had, intellectually, no superior and scarcely an equal in the community in which she lived. Her last illness was long and painful, and death came doubtless as a Providential mercy to release her from her sufferings.
In compliance with a request from the deceased, there was no funeral sermon preached on the occasion of her death, but Dr. C. T. Simms, of Warrenton, her friend from childhood, read the "Burial Service", and delivered a short oration at the grave, giving an outline of the history of her life. We are informed the Doctor had stated that he had known the deceased since he was a child, and that she was a descendant of one of the best families in Virginia, spoke in feeling terms of her kindness of heart, her attentions to the sick and poor, and stated that the deceased had told him many times that she was prepared to meet her God.
Mrs. Wortham leaves a husband and four children, with a large circle of relatives and friends, to morn her loss. Her children are all residents of this state, to wit: Adolphus R. Wortham, Esq., Attorney at Law, Oxford, NC, Mrs. Sallie Blackwell of Granville county, and Benjamin and Perry of Warren county.
To the bereaved family we tender our warmest sympathy and sincerest condolences, and express the hope that we may all meet again the noble woman over whom they weep in the land of eternal light and glory.
Note: Dr. C. T. Simms can be found in the 1880 Federal Census for Warrenton, Warren County, North Carolina, page 218A: C. T. Simms (65 - VA/VA/VA) and his wife Dorithy Simms (80 - NC/NC/NC). C. T. is a Book Pedlar and the census clearly records Dorithy as his wife.
- The 1870 Federal Census for Sandy Creek, North Carolina, page 584A: Christopher Simms (56 - VA) and his wife Dorathea Simms (70 - NC). Christopher is a farmer with real estate valued at $ 4,600 and a personal estate valued at $1,750. Also in the household is a seamstrees, Elizabeth Johnson (60 - NC).
- The 1860 Federal Census for Warren County, North Carolina, Warrenton P. O., page 247A: C. T. Sims (45 - Mecklenburg, VA) and his wife D. Sims (45 - Warren Co., NC). C. T. is a farmer with real estate valued at $ 4,600 and a personal estate valued at $14,000 including 16 slaves. Also in the household is J. W. Sims (15 - Warren Co., NC) and T. Milam (70 - Warren Co., NC). Milam has a personal estate valued at $4,100.
- The 1850 Federal Census for Warren County, North Carolina, page 247A: Christopher T. Simms (36 - VA) and his wife Dorathy Simms (48 - NC). Christopher is a farmer with real estate valued at $ 3,000. Also in the household is John M. Simms (6 - NC) and Tabitha Milams (55 - NC).

Another such Obituary:
Died in Warren county on the 29th ultimo, of spinal disease, Mrs. Ann Rbecca, wife of Richard Wortham, Esq., in her 59th year of her age. The subject of this notice was the daughter of Isac Britt, a prominent planter of Brunswick, Va, and was a lady of much intelligence and refinement, and in her younger days possessed great personal beauty. But unlike mere physical charms, which fade with the advancing step of Time - the beauties of her head and heart ripened and expaned with each succeeding year, and although she had been an invalid for several years, her mind had been so well cultivated and her heart so well stored with hope, faith, chairty, patience, and christian fortitude, that her last days were spent so serenly that she seemed to enjoy the society of her husband, children, and friends as much as she did life when standing before the Altar with the partner of her choice, she assumed those sacred vows she ever afterwards so faithfully kept as wife, mother, and friend. And while her death inflicted an irreparable loss upon her devoted husband and four children - for who can fill the place of wife and mother, two of the sweetest names known to our language, her neighbors will greatly miss her - for she never passed unheeded the appeals of charity, nor failed to give wise and motherly counsel when asked by her friends and neighbors. But tho' dead to the world - she still liveth. tho' her body has been committed to the earth, we have the consolation of firmly believing that her soul is with her God who gave it. This estimable lady leaves a memory that will ever be cherished in the hearts of her husband, children, and friends. Truely can it be said, "she lived the life of the just and died the death of the righteous." What tombstone ever bore a more glorious epitaph.

Anne married Richard Jordan Wortham, son of John George Wortham and Elizabeth Ward Jordan, on 5 Apr 1844 in Brunswick Co., VA. (Richard Jordan Wortham was born on 29 Oct 1817 in Warren Co., N.C, died on 7 May 1889 in Vance Co., N.C. ¹ and was buried on 29 Jun 1889 in This was an alternate date of death.)