William Steele, Broughton, to Mary Steele, Bradford, [Wednesday] 10 February 1773.

Broughton Feb. 10th 1773

   We have not rec’d any Letter from My Dear Polly since that to her Aunt, we expected one this Morning but the Boy has not been here.  I hope Will will find one at Stockbridge when he goes with this.

   I doubt not but you are agreeably amus’d at Bradford with Visits &c, but does not home begin to be uppermost in your Mind; your Absence has made a great Gap in the Family & we begin to want you to fill it up.  I cant think of any better way than to send the Chaise for you, if so, you will have some one or other of us to accompany you.  Your Mama & Miss Scott talked of it but I am afraid your Aunt cant spare the former so long, but this point must be settled next Letter.  We are all thro’ Mercy now in good health except your Aunt who is not so well as she has been for some days past her fits being return’d.  Yr Mama has been ill of a Cold & sore throat but tis quite gone as I think Miss Scotts Rheumatic pain is.  The dear little Rioters are as noisy & saucy as ever & want their Tissy to countenance them in it.

   I hope Mr & Mrs Head are perfectly happy in each other, is Miss Jenny come back from Bratton? I think tis hard on you to lose her so soon. I suppose Miss Scott has wrote to you on a certain subject.  John proposes to accompany her if he meets with the Approbation of the Church as I make no doubt but he will as all who know him think him truly religious. Hope the kindness of providence preserves my Dr Girls health does not this very cold weather affect you how do your feet escape?  I fear you are troubled with Chillblains, let me know every thing in yr next.  We all join in affectionate Compts to your Host & Hostess and the best Wishes of Paternal Love always attend my Dr Daughter whose I ever am in the dearest ties

                                 W Steele

The dear little prattlers send their Love & a Bundle of Kisses to their dear Tissy & [illegible word]

Text: Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols.  (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 3, p. 226 (annotated version); STE 4/5/xiii, Steele Collection, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. Postmark: Salisbury. Address:  Miss Steele / at Mr Geo: Head’s / Bradford / Wilts. It appears that Mary Scott had proposed going to Bradford to see Mary Steele and Marianna Head, accompanied on her journey by Mr. Steele’s servant, John. Whether the young man was romantically interested in Mary Scott is uncertain, but the fact that two unmarried young persons would have traveled together without a chaperone required considerable prior screening by the church and families involved.