Richard Ryland, London, to Maria Grace Saffery, Salisbury, [Friday], 9 December 1808.

London 9 Dec 1808

Sir

   As my Son has now forslown Mrs Reeves on Acct of the missing Articles & I have from Lucy an Acknowledgment that tho’ they are said to have been return’d long ago yet it is highly probable they never reached the owner – my way is clear to pay Mrs Reeves for them & close an Account disgraceful enough on all Sides – the Correspondence shall ever be censured if I can help it & therefore I shall never tell Mrs Reeves where my Daughters are –nor give either of my Daughters her directions – if my Son had been so fortunate as to have obtained a plain answer to his first letter to you signifying that the things had been returned but were probably lost by the way as he now tells me – it was all he asked & such Information in 3 lines wd have saved all that has followed – I see Mrs Reeves Character & Conduct with no Complacency, but the Contrary – but what there was disgusting or indelicate or perfidious or ungrateful or invidious in her application or my Son’s I cannot find out & I think it a pity that Terms shod be used but seems to me unprovoked & no less inconsistent with candour & with Charity  from Lucy’s letter I had certainly thought Croft had deserved my Censure – when I come to see what he has written – he appears to me to deserve nothing but my thanks – had I been in his Place I shd have acted as he did – I have therefore not handed him your letter – and can only say that you know not all that has led to these things – nor can I wish you shod – I do hope your Inmates will have learned, where they are, better to profit by religious Instruction & kind Treatment – I wish to relieve you from a painful Correspondence & myself, now – it is in vain now to wish it had not been so far extended or had been closed sooner.

                                 I am your

                                             R Ryland

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 210-11 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, II.D.5.a.(25.), Angus Library. Address: Revd Mr Saffery | Salisbury | Mr & Mrs R Dec 9th / 8.  Postmark: 9 December 1808.