Philip Doddridge, [Northampton], to unnamed correspondent [a friend of the parents of one of his students], undated.

Sir

         A very unusual Perplexity & Distress in my Affairs the last week hinder’d my answering your prudent & obliging Letter so soon as I should otherwise have done. I am extreamly sorry that I must now do it in a Manner which will be afflictive to you & your good Lady.

         I had been informed by several Hands that Mr Henry St Nicholas was under very little Government at St Albans so that I expected a sharp Contest with him when he came into my Family. His Father assured me he would second me in the most vigorous Attempts to reduce him to order if he behaved at all amiss. At first being a Stranger in Town he was very regular but absented himself more than once from Family prayer in the evening before the Death of that good Man, with whom I fear all the Hopes of Governing this poor Lad were taken away. Once he lay out of my house for which I admonish’d him with great solemnity & intended to have informed his Father had I not heard he was so weak that I fear’d it would quite overwhelm him. When he return’d again after that one melancholy Scene he immediately told me he intended to board abroad not being pleased with his Study which was the best in the House in my Judgment & which he might have exchanged for several others & from that Time he began to take Liberties for which I was obliged to admonish him. One Night he took 3 of his Companions to an Alehouse. Kept them there very late & knowing I sat up for his coming in broke my House ^in at a Window^ about Midnight & slip’d up without seeing me[.] [O]n this I thought it necessary to give them all a publick Admonition before Family prayer the next Morning in Contempt of which he stay’d out till after prayers three or four Nights just after it. I then told him directly I would bear it no longer & intended to have informed you Sr had not Mr Somes with whom I talk’d over the Matter went to Mr Watson about it (not that I remember by my express Desire)[.] He told me while he continued in my Family he would conform to the Orders of it but that he would quickly leave it. Yet he stay’d out after that till ten almost every Night carried his Companions frequently to the Ale house. Neglected Lecture two or three Days in on Week & ye Meeting sometimes on the Sabbath Day. Particularly yesterday when he went to Daventry I know not with whom or for what. Whenever I talk to him he says he will have these Liberties he is under no bodies Controul has his Fortune in his own Hands & therefore will take these innocent Freedoms as he is pleas’d to call them. He left my Family on Saturday & is gone to board with a poor widdows at a great Distance in the Town where there is no prayer in the Family & I suppose no Government. He desires to attend my Lectures but really Sir I hear so many ill things of him I fear he will bring a reproach upon us all. He swears as I am told most scandalously. I cannot say I ever saw him drunk but I fear he often exceeds the Bounds of Temperance & prudence if he don’t sink into the greatest Excesses in that Respect. I must do him the Justice to say he behaves generally in a very complaisant Manner speaks of me with the greatest Respect gives as good an Account of the Lectures as most of the Class but nevertheless I think such a pupil will be dangerous & tho most of my other Lads are persons of great Sobriety & I doubt not of strict & eminent piety, some may be ensnared & all disgrac’d by such a Companion. I am loath to turn him away in Vengeance as I have done one with whom he had a particular Friendship & who came but since last vacation. My Respect to the Memory of his dear Father & to the other Branches of his Family would lead me to treat him with the greatest Tenderness [here Doddridge has inserted a drawing of a heart] my Family so disordered that I thought it not to be born & tis certain that if he does not [speedily] remove or reform I must refuse him a Liberty of attending my Lectures tho he seems most earnestly to desire it. I beg your Advice on this Head & entreat you dear Sir to do your utmost to bring him to a better Sense of things. For my part I determine to do all I possibly can to preserve the Character of those committed to my Care but you may easily apprehend there are numberless Instances in wh a watchful Eye may be eluded & especially when several are in a Confederacy to conceal the Irregularities of each other. I never have discovered any Immorality that I have not attempted immediately to redress[;] to turn a Student away or to complain to Friends is an Extremity to wh I would not proceed where milder Methods will do but I am now come to a full Resolution tho directly contrary to the Biass of my Temper for the future rather to err in the severe than the indulgent Extream. Excuse so long & unconnected a Letter, & believe me with sincerest Respect

                     Sir your most faithful

                                 Humble Servant   P Doddridge

My humble Service attends your good Lady & Mr Watson

P.S. I propose on occasion of this late Disorder’s (which what ever the Malice & Falsehood of some of our Church people & Antinomians may have represented are intirely new in my Family[)] to draw up some Laws relating to the Conduct of my Pupils which I shall require them all to subscribe if they desire to continue with me, as likewise all that may hereafter come.

Address: none

Postmark: none

Notes: none

Text: ENG. MSS. 369, no. 39(a), Raffles Collection, John Rylands University Library of Manchester; noted in Nuttall, Calendar, p. 368; published in Congregational Historical Society Transactions.