Eustace Carey, Collingham, Nottinghamshire, to John Sutcliff, Olney, 25 September 1813.

Collingham Sept.ber 25 1813

My Dear Sir

         I have this week receiv’d my watch with a kind note from my beloved tutor and therefore wish to make the earliest acknowledgement of his kindness

         I understand the parcel has been at Leicester this week or two, but as I’ve been at Nottingham supplying for a month, had not the opportunity of receiving it. Thank you kindly for this, and every token of your regards   As to D.r Fawcett’s Bible I shou’d like it. Some time since, received M.r Cecil’s life and remains for wh.h also am truly grateful. Thro’ great mercy am well and happy. Am this way now to preach for M.r Jarman’s school sabbath-night; But hope to get to Southampton by the meeting, where I may enjoy the happiness of seeing my D.r MrSutcliff. Do remember me affectionately to M.rs S— & Miss Pn  M.r Nichols sends his respects to you and yours

                           I am most gratefully Yours,

                                             Eustace Carey

pay my kind respects to all the students

Text: Timothy Whelan, Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1741-1845 (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2009), p. 166 (annotated version); also Eng. MS. 387, fol. 18d, John Rylands University Library of Manchester. On the back page Sutcliff has written: “Rec.d Sep.r 30. 1813.” Reference above is to John Fawcett's The Devotional Family Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments:  With Notes and Illustrations, Partly Original, and Partly Selected from the Most Approved Expositors, Ancient and Modern, and a Devotional Exercise to Each Chapter (1811). Another reference is to the Life, Character, and Remains of the Rev. Richard Cecil (3rd ed., 1812), collected and revised by Josiah Pratt. William Nichols was the Baptist minister at Collingham, 1807-35. John Jarman (1774-1830) was the Baptist minister at Nottingham, 1804-30. According to an entry on 5 July 1813 in the Friar Lane Church Book, Mr. Jarman was experiencing an “indisposition” in his health at that time which required the church to procure the services of other ministers for a time. This may well explain Eustace Carey’s month-long supply in Nottingham, as mentioned in the above letter. See F. M. W. Harrison, “The Nottinghamshire Baptists and Education,” Baptist Quarterly 27 (1977-78), 95; Thornton Elwyn, “Particular Baptists of the Northamptonshire Baptist Association as Reflected in the Circular Letters 1765-1820,” Baptist Quarterly 36 (1995-96), 375-76; John T. Godfrey and James Ward, The History of Friar Lane Baptist Church, Nottingham (Nottingham:  H. B. Saxton, 1903), 39, 47, 56, 199-203.