Russell Scott, Milborne Port, to John Taylor, Manchester, [Monday] 29 July 1776.

… If you remember Sr the Directions were wrote with a Different hand & it was seal’d with a Different seal. I suppose you thought I should not take any Notice of these things, but this is not all I know by, as my sister was opening the Letter I look’d over her shoulder to satisfy my curiosity & saw the date, but more of this hereafter. I know you my dear Mr. Taylor to be a Man of honor, deny this if you can. I fancy you are ready to say within yourself I cannot deny it, my conscience will not let me, there, I will tell him when I see him that he is not so easy to be deceiv’d as I thought he was, give me leave to add a Word or two more on this subject.   I may say it is well for you, you wrote when you did or else you [would] have been condemn’d for violating your promise. I begun to think how well you had illustrated that doctrine of yours; perhaps you know not what I mean.  I will tell you. I beleive [sic] Sr there was a time when you said that Men were more steady in friendship than Women. I deny it. Not you nor 10,000 of my own sex shall persuade me to beleive it, for I know otherwise. I say friendship is most steady amongst the fair Sex, these are the real Sentiments of my heart; & it would give me joy to hear you had imbib’d them, but I hope your heart is not so much harden’d as to persist in your obstinate & stubborn way as too many of our sex do. But to whom am I speaking, to my friend & I hope my sincere friend, therefore I trust he will forgive my making so free with him, for I cannot help it.

…. My sister desires her Compliments to you & she is greatly indebted to you for your kind enquiry after her health; she has been very poorly these two or three days past. I hope to be at Daventry Tuesday fortnight – but I suppose to your great sorrow, as well as to mine, my sister will not return with me. I return you thanks for your kind Admonition & also for desiring to know how I have improv’d my time since I have been at home. I must confess I have not look’d in any Latin Book, so as to reap any Benefit from it since I had the pleasure of seeing you last.

   My sister has a friend that has lately open’d a Boarding-School, who desir’d her to draw up a Little plan on Education for her use, which she has done; her Health being in so indifferent a state that she could not write without great pain, she desir’d me to transcribe it for her, which I have accordingly done, & since that time I have been jaunting about amongst my friends….

Text: Isabella Scott and Catherine Scott, ed. A Family Biography 1662 to 1908 (London: James Nesbet & Co., 1908), pp. 37-39; for an annotated text of this letter, see Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, vol. 4, pp. 259-60.