Maria Grace Saffery, Kingston, to Jane Saffery Whitaker, Bratton, [Friday], 1 November [1844].

         Yes my ever dearly beloved Child, I did receive the tender expression of your filial love from Kingsland – and since then I have your little notice of inquiry which accompanied the Bridal cards for both of which you would have received an immediate acknowledgment but for wanderings in this beautiful neighbourhood, which interfered with post office convenience – even now I must write hastily to secure your getting this assurance to morrow – sometime in the next week, I propose leaving Kingston but neither the day nor the mode can be stated till the arrangement is more fully made.  Adieu my Jane – forgive the brevity which haste imposes on the full heart of one, whose prayerful love abides unceasingly with thee, and thine

                                                         Maria Grace Saffery

Kingston

Friday Novr 1st

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, p. 448 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, I.B.5.b.(6.), Angus Library. Address: Mrs Joshua Whitaker | Bratton | near Westbury | Wiltshire.  Postmark: Westbury, 2 November 1844.