Richard Ryland, London, to MGS, Salisbury, c. September 1806.

London Septemr 1806.

Madam

         The young Person respecting whom I have been corresponding with you of late now comes to your charge with this – it is a Daughter of my own & she comes under the Care of her eldest brother, as I cannot at present be so far absent from Town myself. She is now 20, had had an Education of Sufficient Information & Accomplishments in worldly matters with a strict & anxious attention from the beginning to inculcate those principles which we as protestant Dissenters of the Calvinistic Persuasion deem essential so far beyond this World & all its Concern & Interests – how far all this reaches the Heart can only be known by & effected by a Superior Power. My family consists now of Eleven Children of whom this is the Eldest – her mother has had 12 & suckled 11 of them herself and taught them all, except the 2 little ones who are still too young to read & to write & to know the first Elements at least of every thing serious & important – this with a Constitution naturally feeble & within the last 2 or 3 years extremely weakened by separated Miscarriages has rendered it impossible for her to have any continued [relation] with her whose Temper & manners were not altogether subservient & accommodating and kindly coalescing with her own & with her own domestic arrangements – I am sorry to say that Harriet did not altogether accommodate herself in these Respects so as to be an useful & agreeable Inmate latterly & I was therefore obliged to seek an Asylum for her elsewhere – in the situation which she has just left, which was with a dissenting Minister & his Wife in Somersetshire, I believe all parties were much pleased with each other, but they suddenly broke up Housekeeping, & produced my last application to you, without any censure whatever on the Conduct of my Daughter, or any Dissatisfaction on either Side, but much the contrary.

   I am persuaded she can make herself agreeable & perhaps even useful to you – in point of fortune, she has not, nor ever can have any Independency – at some remote period, after her Mother’s death as well as my own – her mother only 19 hears older than herself – She will have such a share of about £20,000 as her mother & I shall direct – but that divided amongst 11 Children can leave but a very small sum to each – and there is not sort of Probability of its ever being materially encreased from any quarter.

   I mention this because an Idea sometimes gets about of any young Person whose Friends keep a Coach – though ours is used much more to go to Meeting than any other Place – that they are to have great Expectations & of Course are objects of ambition to Men whose Fortune is to seek – and she in particular has not wanted Flatterers and Flatterers in this View –

   She has a very considerable natural Talent as to making up & altering & suiting the different Articles of her own dress of every Sort – and it has in some Degree been adverse to her – leading hereafter to cut good things to pieces for the sake of change so to please her Fancy – instead of being confined to plain making & mending – I wish her Dress to be plain & neat & good – above all, decent & wide of modern Indecorum –

   I would wish you to take the Trouble of providing for her – and paying for – what is decent & necessary in this respect where wanted – mentioning to me before hand when any thing is wanting that comes to much money – and allowing her 2/6 pr week for trifles of pocket money – when she had a quarterly allowance for all her Expences – too much of it went in Frippery and there was beside something like an opportunity given for her to have Debts at some of the Shops, which I dread above all things – and which I never tolerate in any Branch of my Family upon any Occasion – with you I think there can be no Opportunity for this & I request you will do me the Favour to prevent it altogether and to let whatever is bought for her be paid for at the moment.

   As to her Correspondence, in this Age of writing & reading, with the Facilities that they have, open & concealed, and at her age, I know not how to put any Restriction upon them – there were Correspondences in the place where she was before. She went into Somersetshire, chiefly in Connection with a Mrs Reeves, a young married Woman, flighty & indiscreet, though of good Fortune & very respectable Family & Friends, which I could not approve & which I had some Reason to fear might have led to a Connection extremely unworthy of her – and which occasioned her Removal – I believe it ceased entirely with that Removal –  

    I know not that I have any thing particular further to suggest. We shall have your kind attention & your prayers – and I hope all will go well – at the End of every quarter, (at least) I shall be glad of an Account, and to pay it. If Mr Saffery comes to Town at any time he will of Course do me the favour of a Call

                                 I am Madam You mo. Obed. Servt

                                                         R Ryland

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 219-21 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, II.D.5.a.(5.), Angus Library. No address page.