Anne Steele, Devizes, to Anne Cator Steele, Broughton, 22 September 1740.

Hon.d Mother

         The good news of your health, together with the kind concern you express’d for me, gave me a great deal of pleasure, but it reciev’d [sic] a very sensible allay by the melancholy apprehensions which fill’d my mind on account of the fatal distemper so near you.  I am under a continual anxiety for fear it shou’d reach my dear parents or brother, alas how soon do past troubles vanish, or seem trifling or imaginary at the approach of new ones, which appear real and weighty: while I can hear frequently that all at home are well  I am very easy abroad, but now I am full of fears for you and can hardly help fancying that some of you are sick. I expect a Letter from home to morrow which if I do recieve my uneasiness will certainly increase. 

         I have had a pain in my head two days but at present am tollerable [sic] well, my Sister enjoys a good share of health, I join with her in presenting duty to my Father and your self and am Hon.d Mother

                                 your ever dutiful and obedient Daughter

                                                                     Anne Steele

Devizes  Sept.r 22 1740

I don’t know what we are to think of our return home but if we stay here any time shou’d be glad if you wou’d please to send me the y.d of reddish Persian in my drawer to line a Pilloree which you may do the same way you send Letters –

Please to give my Love to Betty Knight and tell her she shou’d write to me  my Love to Martha Molly joins in both

Mr Truman is lately dead which I suppose you may have heard the small pox is hot at Trowbridge and they say there is a malignant fevour [sic] there

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 2 (ed. Julia B. Griffin), pp. 267-68 (edited version); STE 3/7/vii, Steele Collection, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. Address: To M.rs Anne Steele | [illegible word].