Ann H. Judson, Bedford Square, London, to Mrs. William Wilberforce, Brompton Row, Marden Park, 23 July 1822.

London Bedford Square

July 23 –1822

My Dear Mrs Wilberforce

   It seems to have been the design of providence, that my wishes, relative to an interview with yourself & Mr Wilberforce should be frustrated, notwithstanding my endeavours to the contrary. I cannot however prevail on myself to leave England, without making some apology for the earnest desire I have manifested to intrude, for a few hours, on that time so valuable to the public good – My reasons were the following – to express to Mr Wilberforce the happy effects produced by a perusal of his writings, of which I have been a witness in two cases, & to obtain some hints which might have been invaluable to us among the heathen.  Four or five years ago, my mind, in consequence of my long residence in a heathen land for constant witness of idolatrous scenes, became harassed with doubts relative to the existence of an eternal God, & the divine authenticity of the [f.301v] Scriptures. Mr Judson was the only person to whom I could communicate my trials. He gave me Mr W’s View of Religion.  A perusal of it was the means, not only of my removing my doubts & restoring my mind to its former state of tranquility, but gave those high & elevated ideas which that work is so admirably calculated to produce.  The transition from a state of darkness & distress, to light & joy was so great, that I was on the point of communicating to Mr W. the change that work had been the means of effecting but the fear of intrusion prevented.  The other case was on board ship on my passage to England – Two young ladies on board, daughters of Sir F. M. now in India became the subjects of religious impression.  I put into their hands the above mentioned book. It was the means of establishing & comforting their minds, & we entered into an engagement to read through that book once every year beginning the first of March. I should have considered it a particular privilege to have communicated with Mr W. on the best plans to be adopted, in introducing the gospel among the Burmans – but it is now too late¾Allow me my [f.302r] dear Madam to express my sense of kindness in Mr W’s Letter of yesterday, & the hope that his valued life will long be continued a blessing to his country & family – I embark this evening for Scotland, thence, after a few days, for America.  With best wishes for your health & happiness

         I remain My Dear Madam

                     Sincerely & Respectfully Yours

                                 Ann H. Judson

Text: MSS. Wilberforce, d. 13, fols. 301-02, Bodleian Library, Oxford. The Judson’s were baptised as Baptists in Calcutta in August 1812. Two letters by Ann Hasseltine Judson (1789-1826) were published in the Baptist Quarterly, 5.8 (1931), 372-75, including one from Rangoon by Judson to Mrs. Deakin in Glasgow, 16 January 1818. One of the other letters in this article is from Joseph Butterworth, Bedford Square, London, to Mr Deakin, Glasgow, 20 July 1822, announcing Ann’s departure for Scotland onboard the James Watts on the next Wednesday. Butterworth wrote again on 29 July to Deakin, glad to hear that Ann is safe in Scotland.  A second letter in the by Anne, dated 12 August 1822, from Liverpool, is addressed to a Miss Pennycook. Ann’s friendship with Butterworth, the son of a Baptist minister who became a significant Methodist layman, is duly noted in most of her biographies, but the Wilberforce letter is not mentioned. See James D. Knowles, Memoir of Mrs. Ann H. Judson, late Missionary to Burmah: Including a History of the American Baptist Mission in the Burman Empire (Boston: Lincoln & Edmands, 1829), 183); Arabella M. Stuart Willson, The Lives of Mrs. Ann H. Judson And Mrs. Sarah B. Judson, with A Biographical Sketch of Mrs. Emily C. Judson, Missionaries To Burmah (New York: Miller, Orton & Mulligan, 1855), who does mention that during her time in London she met “Sumner, Babington and Wilberforce” (109); Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Mission for Life: The Judson Family and American Evangelical Culture (New York: New York University Press, 1984); and Sharon James, My Heart In His Hands—Ann Judson of Burma: A Life, with Selections from Her Memoir and Letters (Durham: Evangelical Press, 1998).