John Webster Morris, Dunstable, to John Saffery, Salisbury, [Wednesday], 17 February 1802.

Dear Bror

   I take the earliest opportunity of answering your enquiry, relative to an Assistant in the boarding school.  A gentleman in this town, of small fortune, has a large family of Daughters which have been brought up rather genteelly. A few years ago, when we kept school, several of them were instructed at our House in writing, arithmetic, English grammar, needle-work, and a little of the French language.  The eldest of them, who is a smart, steady, and of a kind & obliging disposition, is now with a Mrs Wilmshurst of Maldon in Essex. I procured her this situation about 2 years ago, and where she gives great satisfaction.  Mrs Wilmshurst is the widow of an independent minister, a lady of some literary attainments, and keeps a respectable boarding-school.  The eldest Miss B. however is desirous of another situation, and would be fully equal, I should think, to the charge which you propose:  and should such an engagement take place, it is intended that one of the younger daughters should succeed her at Maldon.  This then is the first proposal.

   The advertisement in the Magazine related to two of these younger Daughters, either of which would, I conceive, be sufficiently qualified for your situation: but the family propose a premium with one of the younger for two years, if it would suit Mrs S. to take one of them, in order to her being more fully qualified for such an undertaking.

   Ms B.’s family are all Church-folks, and are ignorant of true religion: yet they have always discovered a great regard for me, and are particularly anxious to have their children placed in religious dissenting families; and have all along applied to me to procure them situations which I approve.  Though they have no religion themselves, yet they think their children should have some, and wish them to be situated where they may reap some spiritual advantage.

   I do not know that I can add any farther information respecting these young ladies.  They are all of them fine girls, appear genteel, have been much accustomed to habits of industry and economy, are rather of an aspiring temper, and though they have by no means had a finished education, yet are decently well informed, and of good natural capacity.  The eldest, now at Maldon, about 21, is the most sedate, and the most affectionate; and of her qualifications in general there can be little doubt.  She however has no knowledge of French.  The younger, about 17, a keen smart lass, has some knowledge of French, would need some farther instruction to qualify her for the charge. None of them shew any aversion to religion, all feel a respect for religious characters, and would prefer a situation with such.

   I have been the more diffuse upon this subject, as I wish to leave nothing unsaid which might furnish you with the necessary means of a satisfactory determination.  You will please to favour me with your answer.

   We have been expecting letters from India for some time past, but no late intelligence has arrived. However I have just received a Bengallee New Testament, which was brought over by an Irish Gentleman, who lately arrived from Serampore.  This I suppose is the only one in Europe, though several other copies have been long expected. The last accounts are dated in April, 1801, at which time bro. Brunsdon was very dangerously ill, and we fear the next letters will announce his death! Still however there are those to be found who count not their lives dear unto them, and are willing to devote themselves to this arduous service.  Mr Chamberlain, a Bristol student, is now preparing to join our brethren at Serampore, and will sail by the first opportunity.  He is a singular young man; about 4 or 5 years ago he was a plowman to one of the farmers of my congregation, apparently a great ignorant lubber; but behold, he is now become learned in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic! He has applied himself to learning with the greatest avidity, and retains a happy portion of missionary zeal.

   Mr Fuller’s health is much restored, and he has resumed his usual course of labour.

   I am particularly obliged to Mrs S., and to you, for her poetical compositions, and beg you will in future allow me to be accountable for such valuable communications.  At present I must beg leave to insert the lines on Sin, and reserve the hymn on Baptism to another opportunity. I mean only to sprinkle B. M. while in infancy, and baptize him when more mature. Mrs S’s compositions appear to me more than usually interesting: there is so much heart and soul in them: so much that is impressive and soothing, plaintive and animating, that I should be much gratified by a more frequent insertion, and beg you will use your influence to favour this design.

   With kindest respects to Mrs S

                     I am, dr bro.

                                 Yours very affectiony

                                             J. W. Morris

                                            “at Mr Fox’s Harborough Leicestershire.”

Clipstone

Feb. 17. 1802

P.S.  You will please to mention whether we shall print your advertisement in N.o 10.  Are you removed from “Salisbury” to “Sarum,” that you have altered the address; or is the latter only a contraction of the former.

Text: Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, I.A.(24.), Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. Address: Rev. Mr Saffery | Sarum | Wilts.  Postmark: 19 February 1802. For a complete annotated version of this letter, see Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 188-89. John Webster Morris (1763-1836) was a printer and Baptist minister, frist at Clipston and then at Dunstable. He also served as editor and publisher of the Biblical Magazine from 1801 through 1803, and the Theological and Biblical Magazine from 1804 through 1807, in which several poems by Maria Grace Saffery appeared. Simon Wilmshurst was the Independent minister at Maldon, 1773-1800. Daniel Brunsdon (1777-1801) and his wife sailed for India in 1799. Morris’s fears were correct; Brunsdon died of an enlarged spleen and mercury poisoning in July 1801. John Chamberlain (1777-1821) studied at Bristol Academy (1799-1802), where he became a close friend of Brunsdon. He and his wife, Hannah Smith, sailed for America and then India on 15 May 1802. Andrew Fuller was the Baptist minister at Kettering and Secretary of the BMS, 1792-1815.