Mary Steele [Dunscombe], Broughton, to her half-sister, Martha Steele, Abingdon, [Friday] 12 September [1803].

Broughton   Septr 12th

   It is so long my Dear Sister since I wrote to you that I feel an inclination to address this scribble to you instead of Anne tho I have little to communicate save the tidings of our approach, we mean if Providence permit to leave home Saturday Evening, Mr Esdall having engaged Mr D to supply for him & hope to be with you on Monday.  Our stay can be but very short & we depend on Mr T & Annes returning with us you too my Dear Martha will soon I hope fulfill your promise tho I regret that the leaves will be fallen & the Sunshine passd probably before you arrive yet but Friendship

 “With fairer charms shall flourish round ye year

Nor with the changing Seasons lose a charm”

I should have written before to you but my exemption from my habitual complaints was of no very long duration, – the slackend nerve, ^the^ chilling tremor again unfit me for the employments & enjoyments of life; however its visitation is not so extreme this morn & I will trouble you with no more of it – You must all of you miss our Dear Mary very much.  I long to hear of her it will ^seem^ strange at Oakley without her. I suppose Mr D mentioned our taking William Parkes to school – it is a trial to his mother.  She was very much gratified by your visit which she mentioned in a Letter to me – I have very little intelligence to send you from your native shades – We hear of wars & rumors of wars but as yet Peace smiles around us & the rage for volunteering seems subsided – never surely was there a ^more^ beautiful Harvest. The Sun has shone with unclouded Lustre & universal nature seem’d to shout the Praises of its Creator – Oh how can Man deluge with blood plains as verdant, vallies as fruitful as those which I have contemplated & call it Honor, call it Glory – I am sorry to hear of our secret Expedition our former ones have generally ended in open disgrace – I am half a Quaker only I am for defensive but not offensive warfare.

   We have been unusually engaged so that I have not found time to read scarcely anything of late, at least however I have begun the Botanic Garden & where I can comprehend it I am more pleased than I expected – tis true [paper torn] are scatter’d too thick & his flowers sometime dazzle by their brilliancy but his Imagination astonishes by its fertility & not unfrequently elevates by its greatness – but I forget that it is so long since you had this work that my chit chat will be uninteresting as an old Newspaper.

   We are likely to have our small number at meeting rendered still smaller by the Death of Wilm Brice who is thought to be very near the last.  He will be a loss to us.

   We have had Mrs Steadman & her children here – Mr S is in London & expected here in his return.

   On Friday Evening we had our Home Harvest Supper – & had 40 People – I enjoy’d it much to see so many Labourers resting from their Toil enjoying a comfortable meal & relaxing in harmless mirth gave me more pleasure than a Table cover’d with dainties & surrounded by elegance could afford.  Lucy is tolerable, begs her Love as does also Mr D, mine to Anne, Mr T  & the Dear Children.  Adieu  Adieu my Dear Martha  Ever Yours

                                 M  D

Excuse this Mr Sturgis has waited – Mr D talks of reaching Oakley by dinner but you must not worry a single moment as it is uncertain

Text: Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols.  (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 3, pp. 354-55 (annotated version); STE 5/12/xiii, Steele Collection, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. Postmark: Stockbridge, 13 September 1806. Address: Miss Steele / J Tomkins Esqr Oakley House / Abingdon / Berks.

References above include Erasmus Darwin’s The Botanic Garden (1791); William Brice, who joined the Baptist congregation at Broughton in 1773 and died on 15 September 1803, three days after the date of the above letter (see Broughton Baptist Church Book, Angus Library, Oxford); William Steadman, former pastor at Broughton, and his family; and Thomas Sturgis (d. 1809), who was admitted to the Baptist church at Broughton on 7 May 1758 (see Broughton Baptist Church Book, Angus Library, Oxford).