John Fawcett, Wainsgate, near Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, to John Sutcliff, Brick-kilne Lane, Birmingham, 10 April 1775.

Wainsgate April 10. 1775

Dear Brother

         I thank you sincerely for your very welcome letter which reach[ed] my hands a few days ago. I find you are yet involved in uncertainties. It is a true saying, Ου εχομεν ωδε μενσυςιν [sic] πολιν I hope you will not conclude that I am void of sympathy with or concern for you. It is far from being the case. I apprehend, that considering your youth, your trials have been singular. Yet hitherto the Lord has helped you, and I trust you will find in the End that all has been ordered for the best.

         I am obliged to you for your Subscription towards my little Book, tho’ I know not when it will see the Light.  If you can be of any Service in promoting the Sale of the Sick Man’s Employ, I shall take it as a Favour, as the Copy is mine.

         I know not whether Mr H. will stay at Shipley or no. Mr Crabtree &c have refused to assist in his ordination, and as such, he is not ordained. I cannot inform you of their reasons.—An unhappy difference about some unimportant matters is the cause of Brother Hindle’s leaving Bingley. They are likely to be quite destitute.

         Brother Townsend has a call to Akringdon, & inclines to accept it, tho’ he is much perplexed about giving up the poor people in Bolland. I suppose you have heard that Brother Greenwood is married to Miss Jackson. I think he goes on well at Rochdale. They are engaged in Building a meeting-house which will be a weighty Affair to them.

         I am very much straitened for time, having so many concerns on my hand. I have been endeavouring to get an assistant to take off part of my School-Work, but cannot yet succeed. I am generally very happy in the pulpit, and in my preparations for it. The means of grace are well attended here. Last Wednesday preached from Gen. 17.1. I am the Almighty God, walk before me &c I scarcely ever had a better season. May you & I, my dear Brother, be helped to walk before the All-sufficient God, in dependence on him and devotedness to him. Pray give my best respects to Mr Turner.

                                                               I am Dear Brother

                                                                                 Most cordially yours

                                                                                                   J. Fawcett

Text: Timothy Whelan, Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1741-1845 (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2009), pp. 26-27 (annotated version); also ENG. MS. 369, fol. 46b, John Rylands University Library of Manchester. On the back page Sutcliff has written, “Rec.d April 24. 75   Ans.d 2 June---.” References here to Fawcett’s An Epitome of Christian Doctrine, Experience and Practice. In Prose and Verse. For the Instruction of Youth, which he advertised at the end of the second edition of his Advice to Youth; or, the Advantages of Early Piety, a work that appeared sometime around 1778. Also Fawcett’s The Sick Man’s Employ, which first appeared in 1774 and was reprinted in 1809 and 1837. Others mentioned in this letter include George Haines, William Crabtree, John Hindle, George Townsend, and Abraham Greenwood.