William Steele, Yeovil, to Mary Steele, Broughton, [Saturday] 27 May 1775.

Yeovil May 27th 1775

   My Dear Polly’s affectionate Letter which I rec’d this morning gave me great pleasure as it afforded me an instance of her ready compliance with my desire & at the same time informed me of the Welfare of those who are so dear to me, and yet as you observe Pleasure & Pain are so nearly allied that we find it difficult to ascertain where the one ends & the other begins.  I cannot but commiserate the distressing Situation of your Aunt, her Afflictions are indeed very great. O may a good Providence give her that support under and deliverance from her sorrows which none else can give.  I was much distress’d about the Children’s Cough when I wrote last to your Mother occasion’d by some being so bad here so that your telling me they are better gives me much satisfaction.  The 3 Children that died in the Smallpox belonged to Mr Rawlings a Wheeler I don’t know whether you knew them.  I don’t remember any that you knew are dead in it.

   Thomas is so well as to be able to go every day up the hill to keep birds or break the Clods or any thing that he supposes he gets his bread by. I hope your Mo will this time direct to Yeovil else I shall not hear from home Monday, if it should be on the Road it will be sent on to Exon.  We propose setting out very early Tuesday Morning to get to Exon in the Evening and must stay some time at Honiton, Miss Peckford is to ride with me in the Chaise & M Winsor to go on horseback to Axminster & from there in one of the Stages, perhaps may meet Coz Wm there.  I shall hope for a Letter from Mama or you every post while I am at Exon, my next will I suppose (Providence favoring) be from thence.  M Winsor desires her kind Love, my tenderest regards await every One of my beloved Family, and may the blessing of God, the God (as Mrs Rowe says) of our pious Ancestors ever attend them prays My Dear Daughters ever affectionate Father

                                             Wm Steele

On looking over the above I find I have said nothing of self – the little Hero of each tale – thro’ Mercy I still continue in good health & have reason to hope the Journey will be beneficial to me.

Text: Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols.  (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 3, p. 265 (annotated version); STE 4/5/xliv, Steele Collection, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. No postmark. Address: Miss Steele / Broughton near / Stockbridge / Hants.

According to Mary Steele’s spiritual autobiography, at the time of the above letter her two half-sisters were innoculated for the smallpox, with no severe repercussions. Other references above include William Wakeford of Andover; and a quotation from a letter from Elizabeth Singer Rowe (1674-1737) (a writer who had a distinctive influence upon the Steele circle of poets) to her mother-in-law, Sarah Rowe, in ‘The Life of Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe’, found in Poems on Several Occasions (London, 1759), p. 33.