Maria Grace Saffery, Weymouth, to Anne Whitaker, Bratton, Friday, 8 July 1815.

Weymouth  Friday  July 7th 1815

My dear Anne

   It is quite time we had exchanged letters on those Subjects which we have been trusting for some time to the lips of various messengers & that we had communications on others, not so readily confided, and perhaps never so eloquently expressed by the intermediate person.  Since our separation I have continually regretted the various disagreeables to which you were exposed during a visit which I fear was neither recreative nor salutary, & from which you returned to scenes of relative distress, & domestic encumbrance.  Of the dispensation at Bradford I know not how to speak, there is a dumb sensation that still occurs with every reflection on it, and when I first thought of writing to you on the occasion.  It seemed utterly impossible to accomplish the design.  I have felt much for the chief Mourners and much for those who will not be ranked among these but of whose exquisite feelings I had a powerful impression  May the sanctifying influences of the holy Spirit enable the most disconsolate to say

“When the wounds of woe are healing

When the heart is all resigned

’Tis the solemn feast of feeling

’Tis the Sabbath of the Mind”

I came hither on Thursday, with my little fellow travellers in something more than six hours.  In one corner of the Chaise bearing his proportion of the expense was a barbarian Sailor of the trading cast whose place as we drew near the Sea I wished occupied by you, since the breeze of it has blown full upon me I have as earnestly desired, you were here supplying mine.  But cannot you come too? Mrs Rowe is urging it with all her heart & I am quite sure there would be an inconvenience to her by the addiction to her party.  Rowe is yet in town, but his return would not all interfere with the arrangement. Come then & bring little Anne to partake the benefit few opportunities may occur in which it may be as inexpensively procured for her.  I hope my dear Marianne might rather furnish you with a facility for leaving home than be an impediment then there is Edward for George even if Fanny should be poorly.  I have been looking in Mr Whitakers face ever since I ventured on this proposal. I see ’tis a little expressive & fancy I could compose the appropriate speech but let him send it hither by you that I may compare it with my cogitation perhaps will prove that there is no such witchery in my opinions, & that he is very obligingly disposed to let you leave home.

   You will see Mr S. & the boys for a day or two.  Present my love  I wrote to the former by the first under the pressure of a distracting headache which hardly allowed me to look on the paper.  I believe I did not mention this circumstance but I have some apprehension that he might have suspected indisposition & I had no time for explanation as the letter was called for before I had closed it – if you get this while he is in your neighborhood tell him I am pretty well & that I will try to make the most of Weymouth which is not I fancy so suited to my taste as some far less celebrated places for you however to whom the sea air is so important I would earnestly recommend it.

   Write if it be but a line immediately [upon re]ception of this & let me learn your decision – your little nephews ask me to speak for them what I desire they may one day largely feel, the tender sentiments of relative affection.  Mrs R. begs love & is I believe very anxious for my success indeed I think Weymouth will please you better than it does your melancholy Sister.  Come then & judge for yourself.  Adieu my dear Anne – May every good and perfect gift that can enrich your present store descend on you from the Father of Light!

         Yours faithfully & tenderly

                     M. G. Saffery

Speak for me to yr whole Circle especially to my dr Bror

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed.,  Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 345-46 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, I.B.2.(23.), Angus Library.  Address: Weymouth July 8th 1815 | Mrs P. Whitaker | Bratton Farm | nr Westbury | Wiltshire.  Postmark: Weymouth, 8 July 1815.  Weymouth is situated on the coast of Dorset, on the English Channel, where Maria Saffery had taken several of her children with her for a seaside vacation. Poetic lines above taken from the hymn, ‘The Joy of Grief,’ by James Montgomery (1771-1854), first published in The Wanderer of Switzerland, and Other Poems (London: Vernor and Hood, 1806), pp. 100-04. Other references above include the itinerant Baptist preacher, William Rowe and his wife, close friends of the Saffery and Whitaker families;  Edwin Saffery, aged three; and George Whitaker, the future Principal at the Universith of Toronto, aged four.