Russell Scott, Portsmouth, to John Taylor, No. 1 St. James Square, Bristol, [Thursday] 6 June 1793.

Dear Brother Taylor,

   Your letter this morning found me unprepared for the melancholy intelligence it contained... Amidst the regret & grief I feel at her loss it is a consolation to reflect that the exchange of worlds is to her the completion of all her best desires & hopes. I feel a satisfaction too that her last moments were composed & placid.  Had it been the divine will, I should have wished once more to have seen her in this life....

   How are the children? I bless God that they are left to the care of a Father who knows his duty to his children, & who will to the utmost faithfully endeavour to discharge it. I much wish to see them & I much wish to see you. I cannot now fix the exact time, but I hope nothing will occur to prevent my being with you soon. Let me hear from you as soon as convenient, & give me every particular respecting my late much loved sister & her dear children. My wife is but poorly. She sympathizes most sincerely with you & with me, & desires to be remembered. Farewell.  Your sincere friend and brother,

                                                         Russell Scott.

Text: Isabella Scott and Catherine Scott, ed. A Family Biography 1662 to 1908 (London: James Nesbet & Co., 1908), pp. 69-70; also Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, vol. 4, p. 302. Mary Scott died on 4 June 1793 in Bristol. Two letters by Mary Steele to Russell Scott, dated 13 March 1795 and 20 November 1795, involving the distribution of some of Mary Scott’s possessions, can be found in Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, vol. 3, pp. 336-37, 340.