1793 January 22 (Maria)

Maria Grace Andrews, Salisbury, to Mrs. Elizabeth Saffery, London, [Tuesday], 22 January 1793.

My Dear Friend,

Since your tenderness prohibits me the use of Madam, I chearfully accept the privilege your indulgence offers; & address you by this more endearing title; which tho too often consider’d as a mere convenience, to preface an Epistle, is now I entreat you to believe, intended to convey, sentiments of y^e sincerest gratitude, esteem, & love. –

I think I need not say, how gladly I welcom’d dear M^r Saffery’s letter; it relieved me in some good measure, of my fears; and I hope I was not unaffected, with the tender Mercies of the Lord, whose kind providence, conducted you in safety. O how sweet is it to realize the guardian hand, of a Covenant God! – Our d^r Friends, express a variety of concern for you. Some are much dissatisfied, with y^e air of L—n, on y^r acc:^t but tho I do not enter into their views, as it respects the effect of it on y^r health, I am ready to reply, in the language of D^r Watts to their Solicitude,

“Isr’el is safe; the poison’d air,

Grows pure, if Isr’els God be there.”

I confess however, y^t my anxieties are not dissipated by M^r S—y’s letter. You were very poorly on the Day in which he wrote. O my dear Friend! I long to see you, as I trust I shall, restored by the healing hand, of the great Physician! – M^rs M—h desires me to write, y^t she may hear from you very soon –

I was at Fisherton on Monday; and admitted to the Chamber of our dying Friend. With what sublime delight should such a scene, fill y^e bosoms of Zions Travellers! what Music is there in the voice of an expiring Saint, proclaiming the Conquest of a dying, & an ever living, Jesus! what more than mortal beauty, in the Countenance of such an One, array’d in Smiles, of triumph! Ah! my beloved M^rs Saffery, with what contempt must this our dear Sister, (Alas! I hardly dare call her name) look on the lying vanities of time, a sense she brings to my Mind, a striking similitude, used by the Poet speaking of y^e good Man, even superior to y^e World; he says,

“As some tall Rock, projects its awful form,

Swells from y^e wave, & midway leaves y^e storm;

While on its breast, the rolling Clouds are spread,

Eternal sunshine, settles on its head.”

So while the cold, & stormy, wave of death, is beating on y^e mortal part of our Friend, her Soul removed, “above y^e storms, y^t tempest human life”; is warm’d with the smiles of divine Complacence – I told her of y^r earnest wish to see her, before y^r departure for L—n. She sends love to you & d^r M^r S.–

We sustain’d a disappointment on Sabbath Day; a letter which inform’d M^r Smith of M^r Mile’s illness, remain’d by mistake, at M^r M—h’s, till Saturday Night. M^r S– sent a message to Downton, in y^e Mor:^g. M^r Baine preach’d in y^e Aft:ⁿ in y^e Even:^g we heard M^r Adams. I sh^d have said, y^t M^r S– fill’d up y^e time in Morn:^g, by reading an excellent Sermon of M^r Whitfield’s on walking with God. –

Our poor weeping friend M^rs Houghton talks of you with great affection, & longs for y^r return. I am charged with so many messages of love, y^t I must forbear a Catalogue. M^r Roberts bids tell you of an addition to his Family. M^rs R– & her little daughter are as y^e nurses phrase it, as well as can be expected. M^r & M^rs M—h, J—h, a M^rs Lodenburg, beg their love. M^r & M^rs H—g w^d I suppose be remember’d also. My respects if you please, to M^r & M^rs Shoveller, & love to y^r dear little Neices –

Adieu my beloved Friend, I think you will condescend to write to me, when you can. I am very desirous, thus to enlarge y^e debt of obligation, I have already contracted. –

Y^rs with y^e tenderest Esteem,

M. G. A.

My affectionate respects to M^r S—y when you < > I am uneasy at his Cough.

Text: Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, I.A.11.(a.), Angus Library. Address: M^rs Saffery, | M^r Shoveller’s, | N^o 19 Upper Newman Street | Oxford Street | London | Jan^ry 22d. Postmark: Salisbury, 23 January 1793; for a fully annotated text of this letter, see Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 46-47. Thomas Marsh was a grover and chandler in Salisbury and prominent member of the Brown Street congregation during the tenure of John Saffery.