Mary Doddridge (cousin), Salop, to Mercy Doddridge, Sr., [Northampton], 24 February 1755.  

Salope Febr 24 1755

Dear Madm

             I return you many thanks for the favour of your kind & obliging Letter & am sorry for the Trouble I will give you of my Acct from time ^to time^ I am much obliged to you Dear for the right Copy of the annuity I receive & will make it my duty to write it [as] well as I can for the future & but sure I am that there is not so great trouble in these things & many more & I am at more trouble in writing than any one can think and have not been used to it as some have Dear madam as the kind Providence of ^God^ fixes me so far off my Friends to now and then to review your Letters gives me grate pleasure Dear Mad it gives me grate pleasure to hear such news of my Dear Cousin Philly [Philip Doddridge, Jr.] & my best wishes attend him & may he still go on and behave in such a manner & that you may have daily support and happiness ^in^ him & all my Dear Cousins & may you have the pleasure to hear successful accounts of him from time to time and I have the pleasure to tell you that I hear nothing from Mr Harrold who is so obliging to take my Letter but that he is pleased to approve of my poor management in the Family & as I receive your obliging Letter at a Time that I was very weak and low dear madam and it gave me no small uneasiness to hear you were so very much displeased with me in regard to my quitting the place I am now in if I know my own Heart I should so disoblige any of my friends that wish me well & I have grate [sic] never to believe you dear madam to be of that number and I could think I were very ungrateful to shirk the kind Reproof of a Friend that I have known now all most 23 years and I hope I can say I have always taken your good advice [kindly?] & in particular the [suit?] I am sorry to hear you are so much displeased at what I said in jest to Mr Harrold’s son I am sure I thought no harm in what I then said dear madam I hope it is not my temper nor do I desire to govern any one I know it were not my place but there are many things but I would [be] glad for Mr Harrold & for master that he is so happily fixed & you are so well & it is to the great support of Mr Harrold it is now some time since I wrote to Sally Dunkly & by this time I know but little what I then said but I was very ill I do not remember that I mentioned any thing of leaving my place only on this head that if I [continued?] so ill I should not be allowed to stay Dear madam I never [thought] of leaving this place so long as Mr Harrold will be pleased to keep me & it please God to give me any measure of health that I can go on but often I think I cannot but God hath been with me and supported me many a Time my desire in coming out was this so being Saying be up Something of what unkind Providence hath given me more than many others that if my Life be spared it may a small matter to flee to it I should be laid aside & bound up for service which on account of my health I am not so fit as I was some years ago but dear madam I am much obliged to you for your very friendly advice but should I be laid a side I hope I shall be comforted with a little for I hope I can say I am not for great things I am very easy[ily] injured for the low things of this life I beg I may look to a better I have as great reasons as any one to adore the Goodness of God to me for many years & I desire never to forget it & a kind providence has been with me I may say in every place & I do firmly believe it [is] God that fixes the Round of our Habitations & I would not pass it for I hope I desire in all my ways to acknowledge God & he will direct my way by your order madam I have received a pound ten & sent the Receipts2 & if they be not wrote in a proper manner then you can [be] so obliging to favour me with line I would be so good to write to write me a copy of it I have sent my Receipts to the annuity after the favour of you to date it when it goes my duty attend you madam and kind love to all my Cousins and compliments to all Friends please to excuse all faults

                                                 Dear mad2am I am

                                                             Your most obliged &

                                                                        Humble Servant

                                                                                   Mary Doddridge

Address: To | Mrs Doddridge

Text: Crew MS 50, fol. 22, Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge. Spelling has been modernized in this letter. Mary Doddridge, after ending her time with Sarah Ekins (now Stonhouse), has apparently taken a position as a servant with a Mr. Harrold and has either recently left him or is contemplating doing so, an action that does not meet Mercy Doddridge's complete approval.