Thomas Dunscombe, to John Rippon, London, 24 February 1794.

         And so you are incapable of snatching from the business of printing, preaching &c &c a single half hour for a Letter of Friendship or even of chit chat by way of relaxation and amusement? A few lines, full of requisitions & enquiries for the Register, scribbled on the blank page of an advertisement with a rapidity that has left them scarcely legible, is all you can afford me, well, come when they will, & contain whatever they may, your notes give me pleasure, the pleasure which is inseparable from the exercise of love, the passion that is always associated with the Idea of you and yours.

         You want my reply before Feby has given us the to by, therefore, as I have no prospect of being at Abingdon soon enough to send by Mr Kent I will send by Post, and include amendments of the List of Churches in my Letter, referring to the pages & will be as well as sending back your own List corrected.

         Your disappointment about the Broughton family was but secondary. I had reason to hope that one of themselves wod have given me all necessary particulars & might have been easily arranged &c when possessed, but I have been disappointed in consequence of the indisposition of a Friend.

         As to what you wish for respecting Mr Atkins (as you insist upon having “yes or no”) I must actually decline it, for so highly did I esteem him, so sincerely did I love him, & so much do I still feel the loss of that intimate that affectionate Friendship with which he honoured me that I am really incapable of complying with your wish.

         The congregations to wch his practical benevolence is extended are sixteen. I wod specify these to you but I think you had better not have the information as yet; by our next annual distribution of his bounty we have agreed to print a small abstract of all the Trusts he has constituted; a Copy of this I will take care to transmit to you, and from thence you may abstract again, just as much as will accord with your own plan. And from thence ^also^ I think you will be able, without any foreign aid, to fabricate a few lines ^about the Benefactor^ by way of recommending to enforcing such an example. Tis the first of the kind that has been set by living affluence, among the Dissenters of this Kingdom.

         Perhaps (but remember I promise nothing) my mind may be led to record a few particulars that will be a proper accompaniment hereof in your Register. However, at all events, wait wh patience, & say not a syllable about him ’till our abstract is finished.

         This business lies wholly wth me, and I was to have done it by last Annual meeting, but I could not and even now I have not taken one step toward it, but I am bound by promise to be ready with it at our next meeting. Therefore if life & health are spared, conscience will force me to fulfilment.

         Now take your List of Churches &c into company. Advertisement on page 2d. “This list was first collected by S. S. about two years ago; since then altered in 150 places &c &c.” Pray how could you say this list was collected &c? You might as correctly say, when you sit down to a good Devonshire dinner, “This squale pie was first gathered a fortnight ago off the best codling tree that grows in the county; the book, indeed has been adding since then some onyons and meat & paste &c &c.” Page 3d. next to Harringdon comes “Kingston Lisle T: South.” – who was formerly at Wantage.

Oakingham has a Pastor (your Register says who) I recd a Letter from him last year about Mr A’s Trust dated Nonsuch lane.” I hope the Tenant is as unparallel’d as the place of abode, for he direcetd to “T. D. decenting Minister &c.”

Wantage is, as here, unsettled.

Page 5: Cambridge you know is where & what is Mag[w]ick’s church?

Page 6: Bampton, & Bovey to Exeter. You can fill up. Bourton has only Mr Beddome. Mr Wilkins serves Circencester statedly.

Page 6. Fairford. Mr Williams from Unicorn Yard is to settle there at Lady Day. Tewkesbury – Davis. Westwainscot – Dawson. Hatton. Don’t put 7th day Bm under Names of Ministers, and doesn’t Davis supply them? Thornbury I believe is supplied from Bristol as [Bopeck?] is dead. Broughton, you know, has Wm Steadman. Watford, Thos Hunt.

Page 8th. Arnsby and Leicester, I cannot alter.

Page 10th. Burford might as well be in at Witney. It is one of Mr Atkins’s List & always served by Baptist Ministers.

Pendered supplies both at present, but not likely to settle.

Page 11th. Bridgewater: B. Morgan is you know the assistant at the Pithay. Wellington – Cherry. Clapham – I don’t know, but think it is Jno Ovington. There is a Church at Lingsfield in Surrey, but who is the Minister I know not. It is one of Mr A’s L’s Aulcester. James Biggs: Shipston – Tay[page torn] In Wiltshire there is Stratton, Thos Smith cum H. L. I can give you no farther help toward perfecting the List. When did you hear from Tiverton? The Loyal there carry it with a high hand I hear. Poor harmless usefull Sampson (whose delight is in acts of kindness) because, when the mandicuts [?] for flannel waistcoats called on him, he expressed doubts whether it was constitutional that our Soldiers should depend for these on Charity, if they were necessary, is in[?] as seditious, and the Grand Jury have found the bill. Take care therefore what you say on Friday next. I wish, from my heart, Kings & Courts wod be more cautious than they generally have been how they plunge their Countries [into?] the distractions and desolations of War. When are we to see swords hammered into plougshears?

Do give me a Letter, a real Letter, worth reading, and not put me off as you have done latterly.

With our joint love to all I am very sincerely

                     Yrs T. D.

Feby 24. 1794

Address: To Mr Thos Rippon | Drawing Office | Bank of England | London | J. R.

Postmark: FE

Text: John Rippon Letters, British Library, Add. Ms. 25386, fols. 423-24.