Maria Grace Saffery, Salisbury, to Anne Whitaker, Bratton, Friday, [11] October 1805.
My dearest Anna,
Company repeatedly thro’ the day, & unexpectedly to tea, sup, & sleep, forbids anything more than a line of mere information I bless God this will be of the more desirable kind dr Alfred is well & has been a good Boy today. The dr Child would write if I cd give him an hour to dictate but this is now impossible I have left my company to tell you all this. Indeed I am sorry to be so bad a correspondent but my engagements are my excuse dr S & the Children are well &c thro much mercy am yr very very tenderly attached
& anxiously expecting friend & Sister
Maria Grace Saffery
Salisbury Friday Night Oct 10th 1805
Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, p. 205 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, 1.B.1.(19.), Angus Library. Address: Mrs Philip Whitaker | Bratton Farm | to be left at ye | Red Lion | Warminster | Wilts | 10th Octr 1805. Letter is misdated: should be 11 October.