Anne Steele, [Broughton], to her nephews, Billy and Sammy Wakeford, Andover, c. 1761.

Tho’ I have not wrote to my dear little Boys before, I do not forget them. I thought I should have had the pleasure of a Letter from my Billy; from Sammy I do not expect it ‘till he has learnt writing a little longer. Your happiness my dear Boys, has a share in my kindest wishes. True happiness flows from the favour of God, and is attained by a saving acquaintance with the great Mediator and Redeemer Jesus Christ, whom to know is Life Eternal. Let His Knowledge be the chief Object of your wishes, and the Subject of your daily prayers.  Your Pappa & Mamma (who as they love you dearly long to see you happy) have parted with you for your good.  Let your dilligence [sic] in learning every thing which may be for your future advantage give them a pleasing prospect of seeing their hopes & expectations in due time fulfill’d. Learning is desireable not only as it will recommend you to the notice of esteem of the wise and good, but as it will, if rightly improved, under the divine Blessing, tend to your advancement in the best knowledge, and promote your usefulness in the world. Perhaps what I say may be above the common apprehension of Children at 7 or 8 years old; but you have had the advantage of early instruction; it is not new to you, and I hope you will not only understand, but remember these hints with some degree of serious attention  I hope you will continue to love your Bible; there you will find early Piety recommended, encouraged, rewarded  I hope also that you will endeavour by your dutiful and obliging deportment to yr Master and all about you to deserve their kind regard. And let me add a word of advice to you as Bro.rs I believe you love each other, let that love be exprest by a constant, obliging behaviour, & all the little kind offices in your power, let not Billy tieze or vex Sammy, nor Sammy be in a passion with Billy.  Remember that you are Brothers; – that name comprehends all that is kind & loving.  If you, my dear Billy, shou’d learn faster than your Bro.r do not assume any insulting airs, consider that you are older than he is, and endeavour to encourage and assist him as much as you can.  And let not my little Sammy envy his Bro.r for being forwarder than himself but endeavour to learn as fast as he can and hope that as he grows older, he may overtake him.—Perhaps you may be ready to say “Pappa and Mamma told us all this before,” but little Boys want often to be put in mind of their duty, and I wou’d have you think that while you are observing your Pappa & Mamma’s instructions & endeavouring to answer their wishes & hopes, you are likewise giving pleasure to your affectionate Aunt

                                                                     A. S.

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 2 (ed. Julia B. Griffin), pp. 315-16 (edited version); STE 3/11, Steele Collection, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. No address page. If William is eight and Samuel seven, then the date of this letter is some time after April 1761. The two boys have just arrived at boarding school at Warminster, an occasion that has provoked the letter from their aunt; it may have been sent to them at school, rather than at home in Andover. Samuel died at Warminster in 1767. Steele's two nephews, as well as her niece, Mary Wakeford, would be the subject of several poems in Steele’s Verses for Children (1788).