Maria Grace Saffery, Salisbury, to Anne Andrews Whitaker, Bratton, [Saturday], 4 January 1800.

   In sitting down to address my dear Anne on Saturday I seem as if I were about to publish a Gazette extraordinary happily however there is no cause of alarm to render it needful; nor indeed anything to give eclat to its appearance at Bratton.  Mr Rowe has promised to be ye bearer & of course this will sufficiently accnt for ye publication of a Saturdays paper  I think it is not more then two hours since we received ye welcome Letter ye recent indisposition of my dr Bror & ye description of yr feelings relative to yr tender care especially in a moment of complicated distress arising from ye Sickness of both necessarily affected me & were it not for ye assurance of your relief in their recovery I shd notwithstanding my partial ignorance be exceedingly uneasy.  May kind providence of God preserve to you these beloved Objects of maternal & conjugal solicitude for after all we must acknowledge with Hayley as to our pains & pleasures. 

Each interwoven with so nice an Art

No power can tear ye twisted threads apart.

But I fancy I must banish sentiment as I recollect a variety of Incidents wh I must endeavor to introduce we have had letters from Portsea wh have in some good measure alleviated our anxiety Sarah is in a state of convalescence but extremely weak & low – poor E has had a sad fall down stairs but no material injury was sustain’d my dr S. as I think I told you preach’d last Sab. at Shrewton where alas! I am inexpressibly pain’d to learn a putrid fever threatens more of our dr friends.  Benjn Sainsbury is dangerously ill & several others much indisposed is it not very melancholy?  We have had an instance of mortality less to be regretted tho’ I am persuaded you will feel as we do sensibly affected poor Mrs Hanford left ye wilderness for Canaan last Lords day – she had been poorly in her way for some little time but was unusually happy in her Mind – we spent a day with her @ a fortnight since when she was pretty well – our dr Mrs Long has had a violent seizure ye week we dined there ye day before & she entertain’d us with her usual gaiety. I was talking with her in her Chamber ye Morng & was really charm’d with ye spirituality & unaffected acquiescence she discover’d  she is getting better  their Bror at Shrewton is near dissolution to all human appearance.  Mr Jay fulfil’d his engagement of preachg here last Wednesday Eveng  I was a good deal pleased & wished for you  I must not pass over in silence my opinion of Mr Rowe last Sab: with all my former prejudice against his oratorical abilities I was certainly pleased – I suppose you will expect something said @ our Wedding Day &c will then you are to understand that on Thursday Morn we sallied forth to ye amount of six persons by different paths to St Thos Church where my dr S gave away the bride ye Bride in due form & ye solemn contract was perform’d even to Amazement after ys we walk’d or rather slid home to Breakfast as ye thaw put us all in danger of assuming ye attitude of Quadrupeds  our party encreased by dinner time making in all @ 11 persons – who also favor’d us with their company to sup – I believe ye satisfaction was pretty general even tho’ little Mr Jolliffe was of ye number for I endeavor’d all I cd to participate [in the] exciting festivity but was extremely enervated by the exertion – I saw Mrs M– just now she bade me assure you of her happiness & begged suitable remembrances – you will see I am tired of writing if not of conversing with you ye letter seems almost impossible but my head & hand are both weary of ye former. Adieu my love,

         I am most tenderly yours

                     In indisoluble ties

                                 Maria Grace Saffery

love to our dr Bror & each of your dr Relatives

Saturday Night 10 oclock

Janry 4th 1800

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed.,  Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 175-76 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, I.B.1.(13.), Angus Library. No address page. Individuals mentioned above include Sarah and Esther Horsey of Portsmouth and the Independent minister William Jay of Bath.