Richard Ryland, London, to Maria Grace Saffery, Salisbury, [Saturday], 17 January 1807.

London 17 January 1807

Madam

   I have to thank you very much for what you write of my Daughter’s character & Deportment as they have appeared to you & I have a very sanguine Hope that her Levities & Indiscretions which I have had occasion to complain of before are fading away before encreasing years & serious Reflection – if the power of true Religion is added for which I doubt not I shall have your & Mr Saffery’s best Endeavours & fervent Prayers, all will certainly be well.

   I enclose you a B P Bill for the amount of your charge, which had very full Content and request your continued attention in the same way – warm Clothing & attention to general Health will I hope be all that is necessary to her well-being in that Respect. She has been always rather too tall for her years, but without any constitutional or rational Complaint, acquired or inherited, so far as I know – her Brothers, the one at 18 & the other at 16½ are already taller than me.

   I shall hope to write to her quickly – in the mean time if she recommends herself to the Society she is with by her Manners & to the Father of us all by her Prayers – She will do what is very material to my Happiness as well as to her own.  

                     I am

                                 Madam

                                         Your obedt Servt

                                                                     R Ryland

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, p. 224 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, II.D.5.a.(6.), Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. Address: Mrs M G Saffery | Salisbury. Reference above is to his daughter, Harriet Frances Ryland (b. 1786), who would live with the Safferys in Salisbury for a number of years. Her sister, Lucy (1787-c. 1833) would soon join her sister at the Safferys' home and school.