Mary Doddridge, Northampton, to Mercy Doddridge, Sr., at Mrs. Brenns, Hot Wells, Bristol,  1 September 1751.  

My Dear Mamma        

             I am at a loss to find words to thank you for your very affectionate & obliging Epistle, the Joy it gave me to hear that my Dear Pappa was a little better was more then any Words can Express. I always knew that I Lov’d my Dear Pappa & Mamma with the Truest affection & that I must have been a monster of ingratitude if I had not but I find I wanted this affliction to teach me how to Value them, that you was always Dear to me I could be no stranger to but I never till now knew how Dear or how much my Happiness depended on Your’s. May Heven grant you may not be made still more Dear to me by the loss of Either, but the subject grows too Affecting & I must leve it. 

             I beg the Favour of you Dear Madam to give my Dr Celia’s most affectnate Duty to our Dear Pappa & Assure him we most Tenderly Sympathize ^him^ with ^him &^ you Dear Madm to in this affliction, & should think our selves very happy was it in our power in any degree to aleiviate it, but my Dear Mamma as I would wish to take a large part too in evry sorrow & evry care if by that means make them more easy for you to bare, so also I cannot help interesting my self even in the best circumstance that can give you the lest pleasure or pain so you will Easely belive Madm that to hear your Lodgings are Agreeable to you gave me a very sensire pleasure & I must think my self much oblig’d to evry Friend who has indevourd to make your present Situation in some degree agreeable to my Dear Pappa & Mamma,

             but I belive Madm you would chuse I should change the subject & give you some tho it must be but a short amount of Domestick affairs in the First Madm the Money you intrusted in my Hands is all distributed into that of many others but our good Elders & Decons have supply’d me with 19£:15s & Mr Cuttler paid to me 9£:9s alas which remains at present untuched I have reciv’d the subscription money for several sets of the Family Exposeter I have kept all the money seprate to prevent mistaks I intend to take first that Which I rec’d of the Elders & as to Coles [coals] Madm they are so excesive Deer that we know not what to doe we can’t get ^Common^ Pit under 15d & yesterday thay sold for 18d the sea Cole Sceler is full & I have bought one small lode of Wedgbury at 18d of MrPlumpton, the Breakfast Shuger is nigh gon & I should be glad to know whare to get a supply I beg also to know Madm wheather you would chuse to have Bett How stay longer then to finish the Quilting, the last Quilt is in the Frame,

              I have indevourd my Dear Mamma to doe as do as well as I can & wish I may be so happy as to gain your approbation,

         but my Dear Mamma it is time for me to conclud but this I must not do till I have given my Brothers Duty as he particularly Desierd & his best thanks for the very obliging notice you & my Dear Pappa ware pleas’d to take of his Letter

           I must only add my best wishes that it may please god to restore my Dear Pappas Health & to continue your’s & to bestow on you evry Blessing is the most ardont Prayer of

                        my Very Dear Mamma

Your Most Obedient

& Dutifull Daughter

Mary Doddridge

Nortn Sepr ye 1: 1751

Address: To Mrs Doddridge | at Mrs Brenn’s at | The Hot Wells | Bristol 

Postmark: none

Note on address page: Polly Sept. 1 [in Philip Doddridge’s hand]

Text: Crew MS 50, fol. 57, Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge. Philip Doddridge responds to this letter on 4 September, still at Bristol, to which Mary responds on 13 September, having heard from Dr. Stonhouse that her father is better (see Nuttall, Calendar, letters 1782 and 1787). The Doddridges left Bristol on 17 September and sailed from Falmouth for Lisbon on 30 September, arriving there on 13 October. He died there on 26 October 1751.