William Steele, Broughton, to Mary Steele, Bradford, [Wednesday] 11 September 1776.

Broughton Sep. 11th 1776

   My Dear Maria’s two Letters to me and her Aunt came together Monday Morning, the fault that your Aunt was not rec’d first was not at Stockbridge as I sent thither to enquire Saturday, I rejoice to hear you are so well pleas’d with your situation & your rural excursion & hope you will have more of them.  Your Aunt has not followed the Advice of Dr. B nor did I expect she would.  I think she could not bear the Issues and Dr Jay has given his Opinion of ’em & he says it is the worst thing she could have done, she continues much as usual sometimes better sometimes worse.  John has had a blister on his Arm & an Issue & instead of being yet better is much worse as it threw him into fits & is so feverish that he cannot keep the Issue open.

   Your Mo has a little place broke on her Leg tho’ not yet very bad but I fear we must send for Dr Pearce.  The rest of the Family are thro’ Mercy in good health & I hope I shall soon get quit of my inveterate complaint.  And now My Dear I have a Piece of intelligence to inform you of concerning my Daughter which is that I have a very genteel Letter from Mr W Wilkins junr of Cirencester expatiating on her amiable Qualities mental & religious & desiring my Approbation in paying his Addresses to her & hopes that on my being acquainted with his Views Connections Character & Circumstances they will not appear to his disadvantage, and that as a Subject of this Importance requires deliberation, I will when duly considered give him encouragement to visit Broughton &c.

   And now My Dear I must leave it to your deliberation and hope you will seek the best directions in every consideration of this kind, that if ever you should alter your Station in Life you may have reason to expect it may be for your happiness which I need not tell you is inseparably blended with that of your affectionate Father

                                 Wm Steele

I have not mention’d above that Dr B did not send any Opinion of what he thought of your Aunts Disorder but only a prescription. – Let me hear from you soon as your Letters are a Solace to my mind which nothing foreign to my dearest friends can equal. – Our best Compts to your Host & Hostess – Patty tells me I must send her love – I saw Nancy Saturday last she was quite well & in good Spirits continues to like School very much – Adieu

Text: Steele Collection, STE 4/5/xlix, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. Postmark: Salisbury. Address: Miss Steele / at Mr Geo: Head’s / Bradford / Wilts.  For an annotated text of this letter, see Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, vol. 3, pp. 273-74. 

Mary Steele's suitor was William Wilkins, assistant minister at the Baptist meeting in Bourton-on-the-Water, at that time led by Benjamin Beddome (1717-95), who was both a minister and hymn writer and, many years earlier, a suitor to Mary's famous aunt, Anne Steele. Wilkins came from a family of devout Baptists in Cirencester. He studied for the ministry at Bristol Baptist Academy and in Scotland prior to commencing his work at Bourton (1777-95). Wilkins had three sisters, two of whom married two sons of Beddome, Boswell and Samuel; the third married the business partner of Samuel Beddome, Hewitt Fysh. All had settled in London by 1797 and were members of Baptist congregations there.