Maria Grace Saffery, Bath, to Anne Whitaker, Bratton, Wednesday, 12 January 1825.

Bath  Wednesday Morng  Jany 12th

   Do my dear Anne come to a sick man, in good winter Quarters.  Your Brother could not have had your attentions at Salisbury without danger to your own health, but now if you will help his melancholy wife to entertain him and stay with him a little while, after she is gone, it will be a pleasant kindness indeed.  Pray bring Anne the second with you as beside our lodging consisting of a very comfortable sitting Room, & Chamber there is an excellent sleeping room, that can be added if we choose. I shall be leaving early next week, and I wish to see you.  So pray do not write but come to No. 3 St James’s Parade.  The poor invalid gentleman is weak and nervous, but certainly a little better. He has ventured to taste the waters to day, but he has no Physician which is another plea for your coming to give advice gratis.  Our united love that is if you do as you are bid –

                                 Ever your’s

                                             Maria

Now pray do not spend the week in thinking

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed.,  Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, p. 399 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, I.B.3.(25.), Angus Library. Address: Mrs Whitaker | Bratton Farm |nr Westbury | Wilts.  Postmark: Salisbury, 12 January 1825. John Saffery did not recover from this illness, dying on 9 March 1825.  F. A. Cox inserted the following tribute to Saffery in his History of the Baptist Missionary Society 1792-1842 (vol. 1, pp. 287-8), noting that he

manifested the deepest interest in the mission nearly from its commencement, and had never ceased to render his valuable aid in advocating its claims. He was a native of Hythe, and originally united as a member of the church at Portsea, under the care of the Rev. Joseph Horsey. Soon after being called to the ministry, he was invited to settle at Salisbury, and continued as pastor of the church during a period of thirty-five years, amidst growing usefulness and the undiminished attachment of the people of his charge. The proximate cause of his death was an accident by which he was thrown out of a gig, while travelling to collect for the mission in Dorsetshire. He afterwards repaired to Bath, under the advice of a physician; and though evidently in a state of progressive debility, he continued to exert himself for the mission by making applications to its opulent inhabitants and visitors for its support. As life advanced to its termination, he suffered much pain; but his agonies were endured with the utmost patience. His mind was stayed on God, and he left the world, in the midst of his sorrowing friends and family, with heavenly composure of spirit. He was a plain but powerful advocate of the mission in the pulpit, but still more so in those private appeals by which he induced many to afford their assistance who were before ignorant or averse from its claims. As a member of the [BMS] committee, his counsels were highly estimated, being the dictate of a judicious mind and a deeply interested heart.