William Steele, Bristol, to Mary Steele, Broughton, [Tuesday] 16 July 1771.

Bristol July 16th 1771

   My Dear Polly and all the belov’d Circle at home will rejoice to hear that thro’ the guardian Care of Providence we arriv’d in good health at this place Saturday Evening before 8 o’Clock, as the Roads were good, the season the weather & the prospects round us very delightful, the journey wou’d have been extremely agreeable to us had it not been embittered by reflecting on the scene of affliction we left behind & on that to which we were proceeding.  Mrs Evans is in the Country at about five miles distance, we went thither with Mr Evans Sunday Evening, where your Mamma remains as she is desirous to be with Mrs Evans as much as possible, we are very apprehensive it will be the last visit in this world, as I find it is generally thought she will not be able to go through what is before her. Mr Evans is loath to give up his hopes of her recovery, his distress is very affecting & his prayers on her acct enough to melt a heart of Stone. She I learn is calm & resign’d to the Divine Will, & feels those gracious supports which God alone can give & which are an earnest of that happiness which is prepar’d for those that love him.  Mr Harris Brother in law to the late Mr Evans of Yeovil who I think you told me was at his Funeral, was a few days since kill’d by a Fall in going out of a ship.  Mr Evans Senr preach’d a sermon Sunday afternoon on the melancholly Occasion; Oh that such affecting awful Providence may awaken our Hearts to a diligent preparation for Eternity.

   I long greatly for a Letter from home but have not yet rec’d any tho’ I expect it today. Shall rejoice I hope with a grateful heart if it brings the good tidings of your Aunts being better & the rest all well.  I need not tell my Dear Girl that a tender regard for her Aunt will greatly oblige me, as it will, I doubt not, arise from a better motive, duty & Love to her.

   We propose if the news from home be favorable to go to Pershore Saturday. – Your Letter is just arriv’d with tidings tho’ not so good as my wishes yet better than my Fears & I desire to be thankful. I shall expect to have another Letter next post after which you will direct to Pershore & let me hear every post.

   My affectionate regards attend your Aunt, tell her I hope God will support & comfort her in her Affliction & in his own time restore her again to her former health.  My best service to Miss Waters & Miss Frowd & my Paternal Blessing to my Dear Polly, & my prating Nancy & my smiling Patty, whose happiness is the constant wish & request of their

                     affectionate Father

                                 Wm Steele

I am to fetch yr Mama to morrow morning to dine with her relation Mr Wrexhall, Thursday we are to dine with Dr Mason from thence to Mrs Evans in the Evening

Mr Evans desires his Service &c

Text: Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols.  (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 3, pp. 220-21 (annotated version); STE 4/5/xv, Steele Collection, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford.  Postmark: Bristol. Address: To / Miss Mary Steele / at Broughton / near Stockbridge / Hants.

References above include Sarah Jeffries, first wife of Caleb Evans, died on 7 November 1771, about two months after the birth of Benjamin Jeffries Evans on 3 September 1771. She was the only daughter of the Revd Joseph Jeffries (d. 1746), a General Baptist minister from Taunton. Caleb and Sarah were married at Pershore in 1762, where Miss Jeffries had been living for some time after the death of her father. During her time in Pershore, Sarah Jeffries became friends with Martha Goddard (the future Mrs. William Steele), formerly of Bristol and the Broadmead church but who had removed to Pershore after the death of her father to live with her elder sister, who married the Revd John Ash, Baptist minster at Pershore, in 1751; Peter Evans (1725-1771), Baptist minister at Yeovil from 1753 until 1771, was the nephew of Hugh Evans of Bristol (1712-81), pastor at Broadmead and President of Bristol Baptist Academy, 1758-81, and father to Caleb Evans. The church at Yeovil had between forty and fifty members at this time. As the letter reveals, Peter Evans died while Mary Steele was visiting at Yeovil (see Yeovil Baptist Church: Celebration of the 250th Anniversary (Yeovil, 1938); Hayden, Continuity and Change, p. 233); and Dr. Joseph Mason (1711-79), who established an asylum for the insane at Stapleton in 1738; in 1760 he moved the facility to the Fishponds, where its reputation grew considerably.  He was succeeded by Dr. Joseph Mason Cox (1763-1818), a friend of Joseph Tomkins of Abingdon and whose home at nearby Overn would be a frequent visiting place for Mary Steele’s niece, Mary Steele Tomkins.