Anne Steele, Ringwood, to Anne Cator Steele, Broughton, 29 June 1739.

Hon.d Mother

         This week I heard with pleasure the agreeable news that my Father & Mother were well but it gives me some mortification to find I am not likely to see my Brother as I expected to morrow yet I am not without some hopes of it because he talk’d of being here when M.r Miller preaches which M.r Bound tells me he has wrote to inform my Bro:r will be next Sunday—the time is already elapsed that we talk’d of staying here, but my Cousin desires you will give us leave to stay with her till M.r Manfield returns from Lond.n he sets out next Monday with both his clerks and stays 3 weeks  I have agreed with my sisters Master to continue teaching her as long as she stays here for 2 shillings a week—M.rs Manfield advises me to work a Brussels handkerchief and Miss Goss is to teach me to do one like hers which I think is the prettiest I ever saw—M.rs Manfield waits for me to go out with her  and I hav’n’t time to write any more then to inform you that we are both well and present duty to our parents Love to Brother & Service is due  I am, Hon.d Mother

                                                         Your ever dutiful & obedient Daughter

                                                                     Anne Steele

29 June 1739

P.S. the news of my Unkles death though ’twas no more then I expected was very mournful  I am concern’d for my Aunt and want sadly to hear how she does—If my Bro.r does not come I beg the favour of a line or two from home next week—

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 2 (ed. Julia B. Griffin), p. 266 (edited version); STE 3/7/v, Steele Collection, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. Address: To M.rs Anne Steele | at Broughton. Mentioned above is Henry Steele (1655-1739), uncle to William Steele III and Anne Steele’s great-uncle, who served as pastor of the Baptist meeting at Broughton, 1699-1739, after which he was succeeded by Anne Steele’s father.