Maria Saffery, Salisbury, to Anne Whitaker, Bratton, Saturday, 30 March 1805.

Sarum  Saturday Eveng –

March 30th 1805

   The receipt of my Dear Anne’s letter @ 2 hours since has indeed excited my anxiety in no small degree & tho’ I cannot help hoping the dear little patient is on the recovery shall be extremely desirous of fresh information  do send of it be only a line as early as possible  you know we love the little fellow very much & besides this know how to estimate the outlook of the still more beloved Parents. May the Lord preserve you from injurious solicitude abundantly sanctify & speedily remove the dear childs affliction – We have cause for thankfulness here that it is so well with tho we have an invalid in the family our poor Sarah is yet very weak & laid aside from service on Wednesday she cd not leave her Bed & is still forced to make much use of it.  She has had considerable fever, cough & pain of the Chest.  Mrs French says she is better to day but purposes to continue medicines – many Children &c have been ill Mr Penny’s four youngest (except ye infant) with the scarlet fever – two of them are still bad – particularly little Jane.  All of them I believe have had cough & general affliction of the Chest indeed coughs are very prevalent.  I mention these particulars partly to encourage you but have not in ye smallest degree enlarged on that accnt  I thank you for the Work &c & I hope my haste has not given you any needless trouble the articles were I acknowledge sadly wanted – perhaps we had better send the sheets to get them washed & so on  you know what I said to you on that subject – but my principal concern just now is to have tidings of my little Josh – let us have a letter the first post.  I need not tell you how poor a Creature I am when any thing afflicts you & that I can scarcely enjoy the health of my own Children when yours are sick – I bless God however that I can communicate to yr happiness by saying the sweet babes are well with their dr father & myself – time will allow me to add nothing more this Eveng than an assurance of ye affectionate concern with which I subscribe myself,

         Yr anxiously sympathising Fd

               M G. Saffery

my dr S– unites in my expressions of tender anxiety – To Miss A wd be kindly remember’d –

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed.,  Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 198-99 (annotated version); Reeves Collection, Box 14.4.(c.), Bodleian. Address: Mrs Philip Whitaker | Bratton Farm | Westbury | Wilts.  Postmark: Salisbury. References above include Joshua Whitaker (1801-64) ("the dear little patient"), Maria Saffery’s future son-in-law; and one of her boarders ("Sarah") in her school.