John Saffery, Northampton, to John Shoveller, London, [Sunday], 23 August 1795.

My Dear Bror & Sister

   I am much obliged by your affecte note which I recd Saturday on a whole sheet of paper  Am glad to hear you are all with our dear Father well – thro’ mercy it is thus with me except feeling rather more ye effects of yesterdays exercises yn usual Mondays – I should have written to you but my engagements in preaching which is every evening except Saturday somewhere, with a variety of other things have kept me so employ’d I have had no time for writing except to my dear Elizabeth.  I knew she had inform’d you of me – I recd a letter from her Yesterday thro divine goodness she is well her Father recd a letter from her by the same Post  I hope to see you next Monday evening, tho’ it is with difficulty I have resisted the united importunity of yr Friends to stay another Sab. with them.  I thank you for your affecte wishes for my staying with you a few days & one Sab. but this will not, cannot, be.  I shall yn have been from home a month.  My design is to stay with you a few hours, perhaps till Wednesday morning & yn go for S– as fast as ye Coachman will drive, tho’ not perhaps so fast as I shall wish – I was in hopes our good Father would have staid in Town over this week ’till my return, my duty to him, I shou’d be glad to see him  Will you endeavour to inform Mr & Mrs Hilton in a day or two yt Mrs Collier ye old Woman to whom they sent by me when I was last at N– is very ill, had been confined to her bed several weeks, & is I find in necessitous circumstances.  I don’t know if I do right in soliciting a small portion of their bounty for her, if they think so, I will do whatever they command, if I have the orders this week – My love to them, & beg their pardon for the liberty I have thus taken.  I’ll do it myself when I see ym – You want to know ye state of Religion in these parts.  I have not time to write much, but can say upon ye whole it is pleasing.  The Congregatn in College Lane yt I am now supplying is large about 700. & there are a great many godly eminent Xtians among ym & I think more of ye spirit of religion yn is to be found in Churches & Congregats in general.  The Villages about N– 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 miles distant & fm which a good part of their N0. comes afford a most pleasing appearance in a religious sense.  They are in general large, the people earnest to hear ye gospel with much attentn  Farmers living in ym some of whom feel much of ye power of godliness & lay out themselves to encourage & support ye preaching, & you may almost at any [service] have from 1 to 300 people glad to hear you in ym  O how different from ye little, wretched, cursed places about us.  Tho’ there are many pleasing situats in this County for Village preaching I suppose Northton has ye preference of ym all.  I hope God will give ym a godly, able, willing Minister; who will prove himself a Labourer.  Its a pity they should have a lazy drone where there is so much to do – I wish you & I felt what you express a desire for, more love too & zeal for God, let us beg & pray ye Lord for it.  I could say much on this head but must forbear – I was at Olney last week had a pleasing & profitable interview with Bror Sutcliff  I intend going to Walgrave Wednesday, & Kettering to see Bror Fuller Thursday & back to N– Friday. Pray for & believe me to be with earnest wishes for your best interest & Your Very Affecte Bror

                                             J Saffery

Northampton Monday

Augst 23.  1795

NB  Love to your dear Susan & her Sisters &c

If our dear Father is not under an absolute necessity of returning this week I should like to spend one day in London with him & tell him this with my duty

Text: Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, I.A.(20.), Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. Address: Mr Shoveller | 19 Upper Newman Street | Oxford Street | London. Postmark: 25 August 1795. 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. 102-04. 

Saffery had recently been supplying for the Baptist congregation in College Lane, Northampton, which was still seeking a replacement for John Ryland, Jr., who left there for Broadmead in Bristol in December 1793. Andrew Fuller (1754-1815) was the Baptist minister at Kettering and leader of the Baptist Missionary Society, of which Saffery was an ardent supporter. The Baptist congregation at Walgrave was a part of the Northampton Association; the church was led at this time by the Rev. Alexander Payne.