Jane Attwater Blatch, [Bratton,] [to Mary and Thomas Dunscombe,] [Broughton,] [Wednesday] 28 November 1810.

My ever dear Beloved Friends,

   Week after week has elapsed since I have been daily in Expectation of hearing from you. I resolved frequently to write – then look’d forward to ye morrow in hopes that wd free me from my anxiety at length the welcome long wished for favor arrived.  But alas it grieves me to find Indisposition have been the painful cause of your silence – I considered Miss Coltman was with my dear Friend wch was a pleasing satisfaction to me & my busy fears suggested perhaps my long lov’d Silvia is Ill, then I again recollected that was yt the case you had a friend with you to whom I was no stranger & to whom writing you knew I was so partial, surely she wd write & acquaint me with you real situation if any thing painful existed as to your health. Your reason for not accepting her offer was too tender concern for the peace of those you love – I intreat you to employ some one in future to let me know particularly how you are. Tell Mary she need not be afraid to write to me – so long as she love her valuable mistress & pays all that attentive concern to her wch is due I shall view her & her letters with affectionate partiality. –

   I wish you wd come down & stay a month or 2 with us & see what change of air wd do. – I would do all I could to render it comfortable at Bratton & my poor dear sister Head wd Esteem your company more than any ones except her children. My cousin Thos was at Bradford yesterday, said my sister was well but very low – I wrote to my Nieces at Bristol to day – they talk of going to Lymington. I tremble for them – may God preserve ym all from every dreaded Ill – I cannot advise them what to do now – all I can recommend to them is to consult Dr Cox & to adhere to his advice. You say “his account is terrible” – It appears so indeed to me so far as I know of it & seems too great an undertaking for any of their relations to form a plan or perswade ym to adopt any method now unless we insure success –

   Ah my beloved friend what different trials do we feel in this world of changes & we know not what yet await us nor wd I be anxious to know but most ardently desire to be prepared for all that is prepared for me – knowing our heavenly father is infinite in wisdom & knows what is best for me better than I do for myself – hitherto we have been supported under heartrending strokes, such strokes that in prospect I thought I could never survive nor indeed could I have borne such agonizing distress had not divine power upheld me – I wd never mistrust the goodness of God no more than His power but I have much reason to mistrust myself under every trial. I have reason to have no confidence in myself being so often painfully convinced of my own weakness. I can depend on nothing short of omnipotence.

Decr 13th

   When I began this letter I had it in prospect to visit my dear sister Head wch I did last week accompanied by my Niece Anna Jane Whitaker who is gone to stay with her Aunt for some time.  I found her quite low almost out of heart & hope – She cannot bear ye thought of her sons going to London.  She says she would prefer Dr Coxs care to any other medical man in ye kingdom.  She rendered very reasonable & substantial reasons for opposing it nor can I at all blame her for not acceeding to ye proposal. – May Infinite wisdom direct & bless all their united Endeavor for his good & their comfort.

   I assure you my dear Friend it is allmost more than I can bear to visit my poor sister – the violence & turbulence of grief I ever wish to be kept from as it does not appear to me at all consistent with that state of dependance & intire unworthyness of any mercy wch we really stand in – shall such poor weak finite creatures as I question & dispute with Infinite Wisdom? – It so much shocks & pains me that I cannot sleep wn I have been there.  Most ardently do I wish to see her more passive & resign’d. – But alas this we cannot possess without God gives us a calm a tranquil mind.  Him who still’d ye boisterous ocean can alone still the tumults of ye troubled soul.  I feel greatly for my dear sister & wish it was in my power to be useful but alas my weakness & Impotence appears too apparent in ye distresses of my beloved Friends. – I have recd a note from my Niece since she has been there wch informs me that my dear sister was better more composed &c wch rejoiced my heart – it is an unspeakable blessing & astonishing to see her health continues so good notwithstanding the tempestuous storms of Trial she has passd thro’ – true indeed it is that strength is granted equal to the day –

   My beloved Friend my heart is much Interested about you.  I have felt much fearing Mr B put you to some Inconvenience owing to Mr Ds not being at home but he told me you assured him repeatedly that it was not inconvenient &c – I would not for ye world you should be put to difficulty on our account. – I hope Mr D –  has not suffered materially by Mr Mannings failure. I wish he had had nothing to do with ye 2nd purchase as I fear it will be ye means of his leaving you at this dreary part of ye year & consequently hurt your spirits – I long to hear you are comfortably settled at home enjoying the sweets of domestic happiness & leaving ye world & all its concerns to those who have no higher nor better aims. Ah my dear Friend – how many blessings I have to be thankful for in my little humble sphere of life! I wish to enjoy & wisely improve them to ye glory of the giver – but alas my richest Earthly treasure is forever gone! Her Absence I shall ever feel with ye most tender regret but I strive to think of her superior Bliss & ardently wish to be prepar’d to participate it with her[v] – we have lost many young people in this neighborhood by death & of late the older ones has also been taken away. Mr Nevill whom I suppose you remember to have hd me speak of died some weeks past he have left his property wch consists mostly of an Estate & comfortable house & premises equally between six sisters & their children – I suppose it will soon be sold. – Mr B & myself have long said was we to survive Mr Nevil we shd like to purchase ye house &c but wn we shall have it in our power is not yet certain.

   Ah my dear Friend what are all Earthly schemes now the most pleasing are mixed with pain but may I be kept from every murmuring thought “God does all things right” was ye language of my beloved Child & Instructress & shall her parent still be such an unapt scholar? I had a pleasing Interview with Mrs Tomkins & her sweet children I retraced a likeness in more than one of them to your dear & hond Father. They are indeed lovely branches may they be spar’d & made blessings to their relatives & connections – We are thro’ mercy tolerable in health our dear & hond parent endears himself to us by his good temper & is an enlivening companion for my beloved partner we are indeed endeared to each other by affliction & time – O may we be daily meeting for an Eternity of Bliss where no fear of parting absence sin or sorrow shall ever afflict us.

*When my dear Anna hd of Mrs Wiltons death she wept & exclaimed

“Who next from this Dungeon shall fly?

My merciful God is it I?”

“Who would have thought that dear woman full of health & vivacity should have died before me!”

Text: Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols.  (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 3, pp. 379-82 (annotated version); Reeves Collection, Box 19.2.(c.), Bodleian Library, Oxford. At the time of the above letter, George Head, Marianna Attwater Head's only son, was suffering from mental derangement.  Apparently, he had been treated by Dr. Cox of the Fishponds, near Bristol, but an effort was being made to send him to a facility in London for further treatment. Given the death of her only daughter, Anna Jane Blatch, the year before and her remarkable resignation in the face of such a terrible event, Jane Attwater Blatch could certainly empathize with her older sister, who faced a similar situation, the impending death of her only son. Blatch, however, was uncertain whether her sister possessed a sufficient level of faith to face such a crisis in her life.

Reference above is also made to the recent visit to Broughton by Eliza Coltman of Leicester, Mary Steele's close friend. She arrived in September and stayed into November. The above letter, with its references to Coltman and Anne Steele Tomkins, should be read in conjunction with the following two letters: Mary Steele to Anne Steele Tomkins, c. August 1810; Maria Saffery to Anne Whitaker, 28 September 1810.

The Revd James Manning was the Presbyterian minister at Exeter who had entered into a business enterprise with Thomas Dunscombe and was now unable to pay Dunscombe the debt he owed; apparently Dunscombe had borrowed funds from Joseph Blatch in order to engage Manning in the now failed business transaction, so both men were in somewhat of a financial strait. Also worth noting, the “Mrs Tomkins & her sweet children” is  a reference to Anne Steele Tomkins (1769-1859) of Abingdon and her children. She was the half-sister of Mary Steele and known from birth to Jane Attwater Blatch.