She died when he was young, and his stepmother was not pious.
He began to drag his religious anchor, and at length, having read Shaftesbury, left his theological moorings altogether, and drifted into a wide sea of ungodliness, blasphemy, and recklessness of living.

Such at least is the picture drawn by the sinner saved of his own earlier years.

While still but a stripling he fell desperately in love with a girl of thirteen; his affection for her was as constant as it was romantic; through all his wanderings and sufferings he never ceased to think of her, and after seven years she became his wife.

His father frowned on the engagement, and he became estranged from home.

He was impressed; narrowly escaped shipwreck, deserted, and was arrested and flogged as a deserter.