26 September 1749

11. Philip Doddridge, [Northampton], to Joseph Parker, 26 September 1749.1  

Dear Sir

            I heartily thank you for your kind care in packing up & finding the Books & advancing the Money for me for wh I send you a Draught on Mr Jackson. The whole affair was conducted in that obliging prudent exact manner which I know you have long been remarkable for which made you so great a Blessing to that honoured Master whom the Lord has taken away from your Head & I may say from mine & which makes you so much esteemed & beloved by many & I am sure by me. I have sent a large Letter of thanks to ye good & generous Mrs Ashurst which I enclose & tho I have not Time to write to my other much honoured Benefactress Miss Abney this Post I hope quickly to do it. Next Thursday is a Day of Prayer when neither she nor my other Friends of the Family whom it has been so great a mercy to me to know will I trust be forgotten I heartily sympathize wh you in your Concern for your dear Childs eye &^ pray that the best Blessings of Providence & Grace may descend in you & yours. I beseech you to present my most respectful Services to good Lady Abney in whose advancing recovery we greatly rejoice & to Miss Abney not forgetting due Salutations to their attendants much happier in their humble Stations of Service than most others in Superior Stations & ample Possessions. But I am obliged to break off. Grace & peace be with you

                         I am

                                    very affectionately

                                                dear Sir

                                                             your obliged Friend & Servant

                                                                         P Doddridge

Note on last page (in another hand): The Revd Dr Doddridge | Sept 26. 1749 | No 25 [letter number it appears]

1 Simon Gratz Autograph Collection, Case 10, Box 38, Folder 49, Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Geoffrey Nuttall (Calendar, 314) notes that the endorsement on the copy of the letter residing in Dr. Williams's Library, London (MS 12.71/8), states that "the original was given to Dr. Sprague of America," where it resides now in the Gratz Collection, transcribed here for the first time. Nuttall provided only the following summation of the letter: "Is grateful for books from Mrs. Ashurst and Miss Abney." It appears he did not receive a copy of the original from HSP and thus did not enter the letter in his Philip Doddridge: Additional Letters (2001).