Maria Grace Saffery, Portsmouth, to Anne Whitaker, Bratton, Friday, 16 August 1805.

Friday Eveng   16th Augst 1805

My very dear Bror & Sister,

   I have my Watch before me & positively only time to say it all quite well  dr Alfred if it did not sound like vanity was I shd say improving.  He gives but little trouble, is regularly in the School, & docile there begins to bow better & so on I took him yesterday to Wilton House you may conceive of his curiosity tho’ he was a little dismay’d at the figures.  Here & there accept his duty & love  he is now comfortably asleep.  Last night I had a short interview with Wickenden & Mrs Birt the latter spoke of you with strong affection & begged me to remember her. I have just written to my dr. S– I have a parson waiting for me below Giles of Portsmouth, so that I can only add begging a letter & some instructions @ Alfred’s hat 

   that I am

               Yours most affectionately

                                             M G Saffery

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed.,  Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, p. 201 (annotated version); Reeves Collection, Box 14.4.(d.), Bodleian. Address: Mrs Whitaker | Bratton Farm | to be left at the Red Lion | Warminster. Postmark: Salisbury. The references to "Wickenden & Mrs Birt" refer to individuals connected with the Baptist meeting in White's Row, Portmouth, once pastored by Joseph Horsey, who had been a close friend of both Maria and Anne during the 1790s. Wickenden may be Joseph Wickenden, at that time a member of the Maze Pond congregation in Southwark but formerly a member of the Portsmouth congregation; Mrs. Birt is most likely a member of the congregation.