Final portion of a letter from John Ryland, Bristol, to John Sutcliff, Olney, postmarked 25 April 1800.

 “. . . to find money to pay for all we have already, as there are 3 on the Broadm’d Benefactions, which will not well maintain above two and a half—On these accts. I cannot buy many books this year, either for myself or the Library.—Morgan is at Oxford.—I hear they like him well—Webb is just return’d from Plymouth Dock where he went to assist Birt in the time of his afflictn. He bears his sore bereavemt well. His Ch. & Bror Steadmans are now distinct—both places well filled—and both Congregats very harmonious—We unite in Love to yourself Mrs Sutcliff and Miss Johnston      I am

                                                                                          Dear Bror

                                                                                               Yours cordially

                                                                                                            John Ryland

Text: Timothy Whelan, Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1741-1845 (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2009), p. 103 (annotated version); also Eng. MS. 861, fol. 47, John Rylands University Library of Manchester. Individuals mentioned above include Thomas Morgan (1776-1857), who would later become the Baptist minister at Cannon Street, Birmingham (1802-11), and afternoon preacher, copastor, and pastor at Bond Street, Birmingham (1815-46); Joseph Webb (1779-1814), William Steadman’s brother-in-law and Baptist minister at Tiverton, 1801-04; Isaiah Birt (1758-1837), Baptist minister at Plymouth Dock (1781-1813) and Cannon Street, Birmingham (1813-27). William Steadman was ministering at this time to a Baptist congregation in Liberty Fields, Plymouth, founded by former members of Birt’s congregation. Sarah Johnston was the unmarried sister of Jane Johnston Sutcliff (d. September 1814) (see Haykin, One Heart, 249).