Philip Doddridge, Bury, to Mercy Doddridge, Northampton, 28 June 1745.

Bury   June 28. 1745

My Dearest

             It is always a most sensible pleasure to me to sit down to write ye last Letter you are to receive from me in a Journey. And I am to begin this wh a piece of such very good News that I can hardly wish any thing better for my Self than that I may receive as good Tidings from your Self at Oundle on Thursday Night when I have set my Heart much upon seeing you. I had just now a Letter from Mr Trotman who arrived at Sudbury yesterday after I left it wh was about ten in ye Morning, in wh he informs me that when he came away you were much better than you had before been. Most agreeable you may be sure this was to me when I had been uninformed for no less that twelve Days concerning you for my last Letter was dated on Monday Sennight. He also tells me you intend on a Letter to morrow night but if I defer writing till I receive it ye last post before you set out to meet me will be a silent one wh I wd by no means permit it to be. I dare say it will be no News at all to tell you that I long much more to see you than I should probably have done if we had been married but a Month ago & that ye thought of that part wh your Tenderness gives you in my Health makes me rejoice in it much more than I should otherwise do. I have all imaginable Reasons relating to my Self & my other Friends to wish to see you at Oundle according to ye Petition of my last but none impresses me so much as the Hope that it may conduce to your Recovery about wh I beg you would consult Dr Stonhouse & if he thinks it will be any way prejudicial to it then I strictly charge & command you dear Madam that, how eagerly soever we may concur to desire ye Anticipation of our Interview, you would not stir out of doors no not so much as to Wellingborough tho to say ye Truth I should be greatly delighted on proper Information to meet you there at Mr Rodicks on Friday Night if you can venture no farther. Yet venture not so far without a permit & wh it come to Oundle if you can or if you cannot find some Body else to let me know how matters stand. I am here quite well wh good Mr Webb, who inquires most kindly after you, sends you his Service & would have been exceeding glad to see you.

             Since I wrote this I received yours wh as ye Frank proved insignificant I think very cheap at 18d. Had ye Villain abused a Dog of yours as he has done your Sammy my Indignation would have risen as it is I must only assure you that I will spare no Trouble or Expence to procure him ample Justice  Tis late ys Saturday Night – The post will soon go out so I cannot enlarge & I must write to Mr Jackson. I inclose this Letter in one to him & wh it I send yours & another ^very kind one^ to poor Sammy. I intirely approve of every Line you have writ & long to be with you to comfort my dearest under this new accession of affliction. I thank you for your exceeding kind Letter. I bless God that you are better & pray from my heart your recovery may be perfected. I hope it was in Mercy to dear Sammy that this wretch was suffered to break loose of him & I really think that had he been my own Brother I should have felt so warm an Emotion. Remember me kindly to ye dear Children & all Friends I am

                        Dear Creature

                                    Most affectionately yours wh all ye passions of my Heart

                                                             P Doddridge

Mr Gardiner has ye Tooth Ach

He sends you his Services &

His Horse carries me most charmingly

Address: To | Mrs Doddridge | in Northampton

Postmark: None

Note on address page (in Mercy’s hand): Dr Ds  | June 23 45

Text: Ferdinand J. Dreer Autograph Collection, English Clergyman, Vol. 1, Box 263, Folder 52, Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Letter does not appear in Geoffrey F. Nuttall, Calendar of the Correspondence of Philip Doddridge (1979) but it does appear in his Philip Doddridge: Additional Letters (2001). Doddridge wrote to Mercy from Norwich on 19 June and 21 June (attended the ordination of Abraham Tozer there on 20 June) and once again on 23 June, just as he was leaving for Sudbury and directing her to send her next letter to him at Bury St. Edmunds. He wrote to her from Sudbury on 27 June, the day before the above letter was composed from Bury. Mercy responded to her husband on 30 June, sending the letter to their friend, John Purchase, in Cambridge.