Maria Grace Saffery, Salisbury, to Philip Whitaker, Bratton, Monday, [c. late February 1811].

My dear Bror

   I need not tell you when ye circumstances of yesterday are consider’d yt it was one of ye saddest days I have ever known – indescribable indeed were ye emotions wh yours excited.  Blessed be God for ye merciful relief to my burthen’d Spirit wh I obtain’d yt Morng.  To you I have no occasion to expatiate on ye pleasing reverse in my experience produced by ye subsequent accnt of my dr Anne “Ah how shall words, with equal warmth, the gratitude declare!”  I seem to day like a creature possess’d with some new powers  it is a rescue from such a Threaten’d Abyss of sorrow yt I scarcely know not how to express my own sensations – The sight of yr Bror ys Eveng a good deal alarm’d me but I am thankful this was causeless thank you my dr Bror for ye information you give of ye dr afflicted.  Yesterday I tho’t of being at Bratton to night & but for ye tidings wh have rejoiced me today know not how I cd longer have endured remaing at S–m now indeed my Mind is comparatively calm & my hopes in lively exercise I am persuaded you wd not flatter me & I do think there is substantial reason to think favourably – go on I entreat you to write often & very circumstantially  it is such an alleviation to be acquainted with ye particulars – I am glad to find my dr Sister recovers her fortitude & tranquility at intervals  I have been much distress’d at tho’t of her agitation because I know in some measure ye bitterness of such distress.  I trust ye worst is pass’d and am inclined to think it was ye Crisis on Saturday – ye sympathy excited yesterday from my appearance was pretty general I have been spreading good news to day ye Lord grant me encreasing Employment of this nature.  I was gone out a little way when yr Bror came & was so frighten’d at finding him on my return yt I fear it caused him considerable uneasiness  I am glad however yt he came as I think ye intelligence respecting this day peculiarly satisfactory I wish’d to know how it would be on ye bad day –  I have been writing to my dr S–y  he little thot on his departure to what he left me exposed but ye Lord has been all-sufficient & I doubt not but he will graciously appear & in due time heal ye dr afflicted & put a new song of praise & salvation in our mouths my tenderest love to dr dr Anne I will endeavour to obey her affecte request & be as easy as possible.

   You will think me a very incoherent writer but I can scarcely collect my tho’ts sufficiently for writings – however I am tolerably well my fatigues are great just now I have a new Boarder & 10 day scholars – but ye Lord gives strength sufficient for ye day indeed I seem to have no care now but at Bratton every lesser trouble loses its importance in ys interesting concern  kiss ye sweet Boys for me  I shd like to have ym with me till their Mother grew better.

   Adieu my dr Bror  may we all have a sanctified use of ye trial & be thereby furnish’d with fresh matter for rejoicing & praise & may ye restoration of our dr Anne be speedily granted in answer to ye earnest prayers of yrs with great Esteem & Affection

                                 Maria Grace Saffery

Sarum Monday Night

I am glad to find you are so constantly with my dr Anne there can be no nursing for her like you, but take care of yourself for her sake –

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 306-07 (annotated version); Saffery/Attwater Papers, acc. 142, I.A.15.(c.). Address: Mr Philip Whitaker | Bratton Farm. No postmark.  This letters concerns the recent death of Philip and Anne Whitaker's daughter, Emma, at the age of five. Quotation above from the hymn by Joseph Addison (1672-1719), beginning ‘When all thy mercies, O my God’. Consistently in Maria Saffery's letters, she refers to her husband as "my dr S–y [Saffery]."