Jane Attwater Blatch, Radfin, to Mary Whitaker, Bratton, [c. late 1792].

My dear cousin

   Accept my sincere Love & thanks for your tender anxiety for your kind offers I esteem it truely affectionate.  All my dear Friends with yourself are kind & affectionate at present I can but love & thank you & ym for it – since Mr Bs last journey to Gunville we seem in a still greater suspense & uncertainty yn we was before wch I confess much sinks my spirits as ye prospect of some certainty in going to Gunville was replete with much more satisfaction & ease to my mind yn ye thought of being here or of being put intirely out of Business the latter I confess is a most painful thought to me – we have many Friends it is true kind & good ready to afford us an asylum was we to need it but to a mind formd like mine  It seems far worse to be troublesome to my Friends yn to undergo any hardship my nature is capable of sustaining – I have a heart wch takes much more pleasure in conferring yn receiving an obligation  you will readily tell me this is a degree of pride but my dear I think it a laudable ambition – to be willing to put up with personal Inconvenience & to endeavor after an accomodableness of mind to it rather yn to load others with Inconvenience yt don’t belong to them.—Mr Bs spirits are so broaken yt he cannot act with yt decision wch is necessary he is solicitous to promote my happiness as well as his own & he knows my aversion to be put out of every thing & to be obliged to sell off all we have this is heart breaking work to both yet if his Health & spirits will not admit him to go on we must submit to this disagreeable Event – Could we have a little place [with] not more yn 50 or 100 pr annum it wd be greatly superior to quitting all – but we must endeavor to resign our wills to what seems unavoidable – I was rejoicd to see your dear Bror, he seems like a good Angel to brighten our gloom with his chearing & enlivening presence I wish he coud stay longer with us –

   Your proposal of going to Gunville with me is indeed very kind you tell me I must be free your kindness my dearest Niece induces me to be quite frank if we go I don’t wish you to go with me but after we have been there about a Fortnight I should esteem myself greatly obliged if you wd come & stay till your mama comes this is my present view of things your Bror Thos & you can ride thither fm Bratton in a month or six weeks time. It will be very pleasant traveling & I have a notion from Bratton to Gunville is a pleasant pretty road in ye spring & summer – It happens just right yt its in a pleasant time of ye year for traveling you know I hope my dear sister will not take cold – I hope she is quite recoverd from her late Indisposition & that her valueable life with each of her dear Children will be long long spared – so far from the thoughts of moving house being oppressive to me that it is quite an amusement to my mind I have already cleard three or four of our rooms so yt there is now a part of this house intirely at Mr Henrys service  I intend puting up my China & Earthen ware yt I shall not want so yt we may be ready to depart at a short warning should providence make it clear for us to go to Gunville – we desire earnestly & unitedly to be guided by Infinite Wisdom but our path appears very dark Intricate mysterious what is before us we know not may Infinite goodness yet overrule all for our Eternal if not for our temporal good My love & best wishes await your dear mama self & Bror & sister. 

   I am thro mercy blest with health. Yesterday & for some days have had an uncomfortable pain in my stomach & bowells but hope it will wear off as if it’s the will of God I wish to be preservd to that period wch we expect & to yet live to praise Him whose mercy is in ye midst of all great towards us & if Life is spared may it be devoted to greater usefulness yn ever adieu my beloved relative wishing you every Blessing I am in sincerity yours truly

                     Sincere Friend & Affecte Aunt

                                             J. Blatch

I esteem my self highly favord in having ye nurse I wishd for I hope it will please God to permit her to come

Thank your dear mama for her nice apples wch I eat night ye last thing & morn ye first thing so she may suppose I don’t fail to think of ye doner

Leeks & Brocole too O fie I am sorry I cant return these favors thank you thank you all

[1]quiting] MS

Text: Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols.  (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 8, pp. 164-65 (annotated version); Attwater Papers, acc. 76, II.A.19, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford.  Address: Miss Whitaker | Bratton. No postmark. For an annotated version of this letter, see Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 8, pp. 164-65. This letter was composed in 1792 when the Blatches were living at Radfin, but considering a move to Gunville. Mary Whitaker (1773-1800) was an unmarried daughter of Caroline Whitaker, Jane’s sister. The possible move to Gunville was the result of some financial changes in the life of the Blatches, but another factor may have neen the pregnancy of the near forty-year-old Jane Attwater Blatch (note the reference above to a "nurse." She would give birth in 1793 to Anna Jane Blatch (d. 1809). Mary's younger brother, Thomas Whitaker, is also mentioned above.