A clerical gentleman remarkable for preaching many Sundays from one text, had nearly fun through the year from these words, ‘Peter’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever.’
The church bell tolled one morning earlier than usual. The minister dispatched a servant to enquire who was dead.
The sexton pretended real ignorance, but returned for answer ‘That he believed it was Peter’s wife’s mother, as she had been sick for a long time!’
(Liberator, May 14, 1841, pg 3)
