William Steele, Broughton, to Mary Steele, Yeovil,  [Wednesday] 9 September 1772.

Broughton Sept 9 1772

  My Dear Polly

   Will I doubt not rejoice at a few Lines from a tender Parent tho’ he cannot (like her amiable Correspondents) fill every side of the paper with the affectionate effusions of his heart, and will receive the assurance of his continued Paternal love tho’ convey’d only in one plain Sentence with the same grateful sensibility as if painted in all the graces of Elocution.

   Mr Frowd came home with me from Knoyle and I had the pleasure to find all as well as could be expected except your Aunt who still continues very ill, but has had a good Night & is much better to day than she was Yesterday, her Affliction is indeed very great & were it not for better hopes than earth can give would be insupportable, but tho’ many are the Afflictions of the Righteous God will deliver out of them all.

   I hope Miss Scott is with you by this time otherwise your time must drag heavily along without Books or Company but her Society I know will make it pass very agreeably.

   Clemmy Lane came hither Monday to continue some time I wish she may do well, but am afraid she will find it difficult to submit to the Station of Life which Misfortunes have brot the Family to.

   Your Coat &c were sent to Sarum Yesterday & diverted to go by the Taunton Coach.

   Nancy was with me just now & tells me I need not send her Love to Tissy because Miss Waters did all about it & about Dear prattling Nancy  Yr Mamma’s Leg gets better apace & I hope she will be able to throw away her Stick soon.  Your Aunt desires her kind Love to you & is oblig’d for your Letter & hopes you will write to her again soon.  We join in our affectionate Remembrances of my Dr Girl & in due Service to your Uncle & am yr Lo. Far

Wm Steele

  Let us hear from you often

Mr D – d the Significant is to be here to morrow, if he should be at Yeovil to hold forth while you are there I would have you be as little in his Company as possible because your Uncle will be made uneasy by his significant insignificancies

Text: Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols.  (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 3, pp. 222-23 (annotated version); STE 4/5/xviii, Steele Collection, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. Postmark: Salisbury. Address: Miss Steele / at Mr Geo: Bullock’s / Yeovil / Somerset.  

Mary Steele was making her annual visit to Yeovil, where she would spend considerable time with Mary Scott.  Once again, Marianna Attwater was visiting the Steeles at Broughton, assisting in the care of Anne Steele during Mary’s absence. References above to John Thaine Froude, brother of Mary, Sarah, and Susan Froude of East Knoyle; Mary Scott of Milborn Port; and once again, Job David, the "Mr D – d the Significant" (see William Steele's letter of 2 July 1770). David's heterodoxy was not conducive to the more orthodox Calvinism of Mary Steele’s uncle or the Steele's in general. David, still a student at Bristol Academy, was apparently supplying the pulpit at Yeovil, now empty after the decease of the Revd Evans.