William Steele, [Broughton], to Mary Steele, Yeovil, [Thursday] 12 September 1772.

My Dear

   M Winsor came hither last Night to light her Candle she has scarce time for any thing else being just going for Sarum with Miss Waters. Miss Ash Mr Frowd & Nancy and I just give you a Line by her to acquaint you we are thro’ Mercy all well except your Aunt who is we hope something better has had no fits to Night & has slept this Morning.

   I have bought a Bay Mare for you this Morning (which I think is very promising & fit for immediate use) of a traveling Tinker. She is as gentle as a Lamb having been us’d for two Years to carry his Children Bedding &c, in Company with two Asses, the Residence of the Family is now in my Barn at the Lower Farm.  I wou’d not have you entertain a mean Opinion of the Mare because of her Alliance, for I gave Ten Guineas for her & the Tinker says she came of good blood as the Breeder told him, there’s for you now.

   Miss At – r has at last condescended to surrender at the time desir’d by her Swain about Mickelmas, the Ceremony must be performed at Bodenham, as there will not be time to do it here, I suppose you will like to be present at the time. – M Winsor thinks your Uncle will come up with you, if so you will know it soon.

   May the best of blessings rest on my Dr Girl is the ardent Wish

                                 of her affectionate Far   W Steele

19th Sep 1772

Text: Steele Collection, STE 4/5/xix, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. No postmark. Address: Miss Steele / Yeovil.  For an annotated text of this letter, see Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, vol. 3, p. 223. References above are to Molly Winsor, a close friend of the Mary Steele and Mary Scott. Others mentioned are Elizabeth Ash, John Thaine Froude, Anne Steele, Jr., and Sr. Since she was having some second thoughts, Marianna Attwater wedding was postponed for several months, finally occurring on 21 January 1773, with Mary Steele in attendance, an occasion for which she composed a poem, “To a Friend on her Marriage, January 1773,”  in Whelan, Nonconformist Women Writers, vol. 3, p. 85.