John Saffery, Salisbury, to Anne Whitaker, Bratton, [Saturday], 20 December 1800.

Attached to the letter below is a letter from Maria Grace Saffery to Anne Whitaker, dated the same day.

   My dr M– has closed very abruptly & desired I wd finish Mr Greys preaching at Shrewton will be very accpetable to me, & I doubt not to ye people there. My love to him, & inform him notice shall be given of it – I wish he had come on to Sarum.

   You want to know @ ye School, but we know very little @ it ourselves – we have but Miss Head (intimated by you) & Miss Hoskins, there I fear it will rest. Our situation is truly perplexing, & I find myself very much tried, & depressed at times but we are in ye hands of God.  Mrs Hilton’s niece has declined coming as a teacher fm a fear she is not sufficiently qualified & we have declined all tho’t of having one for ye first quarter or half year & on ye other hand we determined on keeping two Servants fm a conviction it will be impossible to do with one – It wd be highly gratifying to my dr M with myself to converse & advise with you at times – I have tho’t much within these few days of ye Poets words – My soul with various tempests tossed – Her hopes o’erturned, her projects crossed – See every day new straits attend – And wonders where ye scene will end  Sometimes however my soul is stayed on God & happy O for a stronger faith, & more thankfulness – We have much to excite gratitude, & much to encourage faith, but I find nothing but grace in making me feel or do as I ought – The distresses of many @ us is truly great & ye support of ye poor a very painful matter. I used to pay 4 & sometimes 5 poor rates in a year & now we have one every 3 weeks, so yt every year they will be to us £14.10.0 at least, but enough of yse things we hope soon to hear of ye Lds goodness to you again  We expect Mr Shoveller here to-morrow to spend ye Sab. with us wn I shall Baptize 5 but I must close with saying yt we are Your very affectte Bror  & Sister

                                 J & M Saffery

Friday Night

Decr 20 1800

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed.,  Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 184-85 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, I.B.1.(15.), Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. Address: Mrs P. Whitaker | Bratton. No postmark. The quoted lines above are from ‘Remembering all the Days the Lord hath led us,’ hymn CCVII in John Griffin’s A Selection of Missionary and Devotional Hymns, designed for the use of the Congregation, meeting in Orange-Street, Portsea (Portsmouth, 1797), p. 190.