Mary Scott, Milborne Port, to John Taylor, Daventry, [Saturday] 30 November 1776.

Sir, – 

   The reluctance with which I sit down to answer your letter is perhaps equal to the pleasure which according to your own account you felt in writing it. I must confess it has vex’d & mortify’d me exceedingly: little did I think from the very trifling encouragement I gave you, you would think yourself secure of me. I repeatedly assur’d you that I could not think of marrying without horror, & that if it were possible my aversion to the married state could be surmounted, it must be by very slow degrees, & when you importun’d me to tell you (the morng yt I left Daventry) if I felt no particular attachment to you, I told you, & most truly did I tell you, that I felt no other sentiments for you than those of esteem; I added indeed that I did not feel that extreme aversion to you which I once did, & that I could not tell whether time would produce any further alteration in the nature of my regard for you, but that if it should not, I never could think of marrying you; this declaration was extorted from me, by your assuring me of yr resolution to persevere, in opposition to every argument I could suggest to induce you to decline your pursuit. I wished you, as you was determined on persevering, to consider the affair as very dubious, that yr disappointment, if I could not see things in a different light from wt I then did, (& do still view them) might be less painful to yo, than it otherwise would be. As I did not entertain a thought in regard to you, which, if necessitated to have done so, I should have blush’d to have avow’d to the whole world, I treated yo wth the utmost frankness. Little did I think how much that frankness would be misconstrued; but your Sex are so presuming & encroaching in those affairs, that no Woman can tell how to treat you who is not as artful & designing as yourselves.

   Thus much just resentment has dictated, & now let us attend to reason. And Reason tells me that the connection you propose would not only be an imprudent, but even a sinful one, if it were to take place at present. I have communicated the affair to my Mother; I promised I would do you justice & that engagement has been most strictly discharg’d. I plac’d your virtues in the fairest point of View, nor blended with them one alloy of imperfection.  She burst into Tears & in an agony of grief entreated me not to leave her without a friend, opprest with disappointment, sorrow & pain. Had she claim’d yt prerogative of dictating which Parents in general do on those occasions, my Heart would have revolted from an authority which I think no Parent has a right to exert over a Child arriv’d at Years of Discretion.  But as she did not, Duty, Gratitude, affection conspir’d to oblige me to assure her I would not leave her. I never expected happyness but in the Discharge of Duty, & am persuaded I shall find higher felicity from attending her & endeavouring to soften those Afflictions which her other Children have envolv’d her in, than I could derive from the affection of the tenderest of Husbands; the consciousness of having violated the first of moral Duties would embitter every pleasure & render me the miserable victim of the most poignant self-reflection.  You must remember, Sir, that I have frequently told you I never would marry except I thought my Mother’s happiness would be promoted by seeing me settled in Life, & I hardly thought it possible it should, as her Ideas of Men and Marriage are if possible more tremendous than her Daughter’s. I assur’d you I would give you up at once if she suggested the least objection, & if you attempt to persuade her to acquiesce in your wishes, I do most seriously assure you that you will not only degrade yourself in my esteem, but that my heart will revolt from you more strongly than it has ever yet done; for I am firmly persuaded that the Man who wishes me to act contrary to my Duty in any instance is both unworthy my regard in any degree & incapable of feeling a pure & disinterested affection for me. My Mother has no objection to your Character, but if she could reconcile herself to the prospect of parting with me, she would deem it presumption in me to marry, in that very precarious state of Health I have suffer’d for several years past; this it seems is no objection with you, but you must allow me to say, it ought to be a very strong one with me. Your Sympathy tho’ it might afford a proof of yr Affection for me, could not avert, could not mitigate disease, or capacitate me to discharge the peculiar duties of my situation in Life. I need not tell you that every new relation brings with it new duties & new cares. I cannot discharge those that are already incumbent on me in such a manner as I wish to do, & to enter into a State that must necessarily enlarge those duties & those cares, whilst my incapacity to acquit myself according to my Ideas of propriety continues, would in my opinion be tempting providence. I must insist on your not attempting to stagger my resolution; inclination should submit to Duty, & you surely would be criminal in a very high degree, if after this representation which I have given you of my situation, you should endeavour to persuade me to take a step incompatible with gratitude & filial affection; for I have not a doubt but my Mother’s Days would be shorten’d by my leaving her.  She told me last night she did not think she could survive a separation.  Your good sense, I doubt not, will lead you to discern the propriety of dropping all intercourse between us; it will convince you that my objections are insurmountable; but if our judgment should still be so much biass’d by inclination as not to perceive their force, consult Mr. Robins, who is an impartial person, & I am persaded a sincere friend to both. You may if you please communicate my Letter to him, my confidence in his candor in such, that delicate as the subject is, I can have no objection to his seeing it; I have not a doubt but he will view things in the same light in which I do & that his Arguments will lead you to acquiesce in my determination.

   I presume it is now unnecessary for me to desire you not to think of visiting Somersetshire at Christmas, & if you should chuse to have your Letters return’d, I will find some way or other of conveying them to you….

   I intended to have requested the favour of Mr. Belsham, not to mention the worst part of my poor Brother’s conduct to Mr. Palmer, if when they have an interview he should enquire about him, for without doubt he will hear of his having quitted Davty, & as he at present appears to be penetrated with a lively sense of his past guilt & folly, I would if possible keep that a secret.[vi] Will you do me the favour to make that request for me, but I am afraid his extravagance will be known in this part of the World by means of Mr. Toller. Dear unhappy youth, I can only think of him with fear & trembling; he desires his respects to Messrs. Jacomb, Bealy & French, & if they will be so kind as to fulfill their promise of writing to him, they may address their letters to him at the Revd Mr. Thomas’s Grammar School at French Hay, near Bristol, yo will I flatter myself deliver this message for him. We left our friends in Hampshire on Thursday, and yesterday morng I parted from him; our sensations on both sides were too exquisite to admit of Description; he was much dejected the whole time we were at Broughton; my Health would not suffer me to attend him to French Hay, as I intended, so I sent him from Salisbury in the Bath Coach, & suppose that he arriv’d at the place of his destination early this afternoon.

   And now Sir I must bid you farewel, be assur’d that whilst you deserve it I shall always think, always speak of you with esteem, always be interested in your happyness, always rejoice to hear of your welfare. For altho neither Duty nor prudence will suffer me to form that intimate connection with you which you propos’d, yet I am yr very Sincere friend,

                                                 M. S.

Text: Isabella and Catherine Scott, A Family Biography A Family Biography 1662 to 1908 (London: James Nesbet & Co., 1908), pp. 40-43. Mary Scott was on her way back to Milborne Port, having passed through Broughton on her way to visit her brother at Bristol, who was working under the Revd Samuel Thomas in his school in Bristol. This may have been Mary Scott’s final visit to Broughton before the death of Anne Steele in 1778. Her visit produced one poem by Mary Steele, ‘To Myra 1776’ (see Whelan, Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, vol. 3). Mary Scott had previously visited Daventry to remove her brother from the academy; at that time, she would have seen and apparently met John Taylor. Taylor added the following note in shorthand to the letter:  “Very angry at my forwardness after her visit.” 

Thomas Robins (1732-1810) studied under Philip Doddridge at Northampton and Caleb Ashworth at Daventry, 1750-55; he subsequently served as minister to the Independent congregation at West Bromwich. In 1775 Robins suceeded Ashworth as Principal of the Academy at Daventry, serving during the brief time Russell Scott attended. In 1781 Robins was forced to resign due to a throat problem. See H. McLachlan, English Education under the Test Acts (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1931), pp. 156-60.

After completing his studies at Daventry, Thomas Belsham (1750-1829) remained for the next seven years as an assistant tutor, working alongside John Taylor. After ministering to an Independent congregation at Worcester, he returned to Daventry to become Headmaster of the Academy. He remained there until 1789, when he resigned to become a Unitarian minister. He assisted Joseph Priestley in the formation of the Unitarian college at Hackney, and, after Priestley’s emigration to America in 1794, assumed the pastorate of the Unitarian congregation at Gravel-Pit in Hackney. In 1805 he succeeded John Disney at Essex Street (Unitarian) Chapel, London, where he remained until his death in 1829. His first work, A Review of Mr. Wilberforce’s Treatise Entitled Practical View (1798), created considerable controversy. His most popular work was A Summary View of the Evidence and Practical Importance of the Christian Revelation (1807). He was a frequent contributor to the Quarterly Review, Gentleman’s Magazine, and the Monthly Repository.

Samuel Palmer (1741-1813) was educated at Daventry Academy (1758-62) under Caleb Ashworth. He served as minister to the Independent congregation at Mare Street, Hackney, 1767-1813, the same church Mary Steele attended in the mid-1760s when she was attending boarding school in Hackney (most likely Mary Scott attended the same school, though they appear to have known each other from an earlier date through her uncle in Yeovil and his friendship with Mary Scott's father).

Thomas Toller (1756-1821) came to the Independent chapel at Kettering in October 1775, just at the end of his studies at Daventry (1771-75).   He was officially installed as pastor on 15 June 1777 and ordained on 28 May 1778, remaining there until his death in 1821. Among Toller’s publications are A Plain and Popular View of the Evidences of Christianity and a funeral sermon on the death of Samuel Palmer of Hackney, his close friend. See Thomas Coleman’s Memorials of the Independent Churches of Northamptonshire (London, 1853), pp. 107-14; Robert Hall, Memoir of the Rev. Thomas Toller, in The Works of Robert Hall, ed. Olinthus Gregory, 6 vols (2nd ed., London, 1833), vol. 4, pp. 305-46.

During his brief time at Daventry, the young Russell Scott made the acquaintance of several Independent and Presbyterian ministers besides John Taylor. Robert Jacomb (d. 1832) ministered to Presbyterian congregations at Bath (1772-82), Salters’ Hall, London (1782-86), Wellingborough (1786-91), the Great Meeting, Leicester (1793-1803), and finally at Wellingborough again (1812-26). While at Leicester, among his attendants were Elizabeth Coltman and her parents.  Joseph Bealey (1756-1813), after completing his studies at Daventry, ministered at Narborough (1779-81), Warrington (1786-91), and Cockey Moor, Ainsworth (1791-1813).  The third individual mentioned in the letter is possibly John French, who attended Northampton Academy and later ministered at Independent congregations at St. Albans, Wellingborough (1764-69), and Ware.  See Surman Index, Dr. Williams’s Library, London.

Samuel Thomas was a Dissenting minister at Newland Church, Sherborne, Dorset, 1764-72, a village situated between Milborne Port and Yeovil, before removing to a church in the Frenchay, Bristol, 1772-1803, where he also operated a school and where Russell Scott would work for a time after his dismissal from Daventry. Revd Thomas’s wife was a cousin of Mrs. Scott.  See Scott and Scott, A Family Biography, p. 44.