1785 May 27

Jane Attwater, Bodenham, to Caroline Whitaker, Bratton, [Friday], 27 May [1785].

Bodenham  May 27th

My ever dear Sister,

   It seems long since I had ye pleasure of receiving a letter from you & I cant help being anxious to be informd you have resumed your usual health & spirits   I should have write before but have been waiting for ye bows to be sent & now I write at an uncertainty as I am not certain wither they will tomorrow but I am willing to be in readiness –  & it being a very windy day I spent my morning at home – last day we had a Mr Pope preached at our meeting a good plain well meaning man in ye Eveg I heard Mr Blackenberry at the Methodist meeting our texts were first what shall I do to be saved? Believe on ye Lord Jesus Christ & thou shalt be saved – the last was “the Son of man to save that wch were lost” – both was very Incouraging discourses to those who are convinced of their need of a Saviour & where is there any sensible sinner who is not thus convinced? Was ye most perfect Christian left to depend on what they can do for Salvation how deplorable their Situation! How insufficient & vain would be ye superstructure of hope built on such a tottering foundation blessed be almighty goodness we are not left thus to a fruitless toil but there is laid in Sion a Stone a rock of Foundation wch if we build thereon will never be overthrown No the storms of Affliction & adversity the keen blasts of Temptation & the waves of tumultuous fears & horrors may rage against it but it will not injure the solid basis for it standeth forever sure neither time nor Incident can prevail against it to remove the Eternal promise heaven & Earth shall pass away but not the word of our God wch standeth forever – & Allmighty mercy is able to support the weakest saint nor will the bruised reed be broaken any more then the most lofty Cedar – may almighty goodness e’er this time have dissipated your gloomy fears whatever they may have been & calm tranquility & peace now resume its place & diffuse joy & chearfulness thro your Mind. I lately hd a discourse from those words “why art thou cast down O my Soul & why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is ye light of my Countenance & my God” & if we dilligently enquire into the cause of our depression we shall oftentimes see yt it is groundless & oweing to the suggestions of Satan in order to distress those he cant destroy – we see ye psalmist eminent as he was in holiness was dejected & tis true every Christian have reason for the deepest humility & self abasement before God but whenever we take a survey of our own hearts & actions we must endeavor also to adopt ye resolution & example here before us & pray for strength to reduce into practice to hope in God in a well grounded assurance derived from ye precious promises of unerring truth that we shall yet praise him who is ye Light of our countenance & from numerous past Evidences we must confess to be our God –  & if God be for us who or what can prevail against us –  May humble Faith & filial Confidence be yours then I trust you will be inabled again to go on your way rejoicing be assured my dear Sister there is a need be for every trial & if by all we are purified & made meet for heaven we shall have no reason to repine at last at the methods divine wisdom saw fit to use but with one heart shall unite to acknowledge the wisdom & mercy of him who hath loved us & washed us from our Sins in his own blood ascribing ye whole of our salvation to him & to God the Father Glory & praise forever.—

   In ye mean time whilst we are sojourners here let us be diligent to promote each others welfare & comfort encourage each other in our journey heavenward & by precept & example animate to take to ourselves ye whole armour of God to resist our common foe with constancy & rigour –  & maintain a constant combate with every Sin & may Almighty grace crown our feeble Efforts with success & inable us to come off victorious thro’ Jesus ye Captain & author of our Salvation –  I should have rejoiced greatly to have seen you & had it not been so far should have gladly come but situated as things was I could not with any degree of conveniency – & now I hope you will come to Bodenham as its still more Inconvenient for me to leave home being just upon ye move to Nunton adjusting our little matters here &c &c we seem very near taking possession of our new habitation. Cousin Thos as he will inform you has already become its nightly Inhabitant – & I go up there most days to accustom myself to it – he will inform you likewise particularly of our Welfare – I am very anxious about Sister Head we hear nothing from her except wt we hear from Cousin Philip I have wrote 2 or 3 times since I hd & have sent some black lace wch she ordered but have had no Intelligence wither she recd it how she is but silence reigns my love to her & beg her to write I wish you & her wd contrive it to come up next week I think you may if Inclination serves – as its quite a leasure time with her & I suppose not any think Extraordinary calls your attention now beg you will think of it & put it in practice – poor Sarah Flasket is at length removed from her State of trial & is I doubt not a happy partaker of a blissful Immortality there is none only Cousin Abigail wch you have to think of here & she is in no Immediate necessity at present as she seems pretty well & kindly enquired for both my Sisters & your family’s last Sunday I mention ye death of ye poor good woman above not as a matter of gain to you or myself but that we may transfer that charity we used to bestow on her to some other object worthy of such regard “for ye poor ye have always with you” & it’s a pleasure as well as duty to do them good –  my most affecte love & best wishes await my dear nephew thanks many thanks for his kind letter I wish he wd write often long free Epistles it wd afford me great pleasure & I hope be a pleasing entertainment to him when he has a leasure hour its certainly one of our greatest enjoyments in life to converse with our friends & if providence so orders it yt we cannot personally talk surely we should not be silent & be so doing render our absence the more painful – may I not hope you will now indulge me with one of your welcome letters its long since you thus favord me pray write very soon my love to each of my dear cousins accept the same yourself with the earnest wish that every blessing may attend you both temporal & spiritual wch may be productive of your present & future welfare & be assured I am with sincere affection your friend & Sister

                                             J Attwater

I will send this tho its some time since I wrote it to convince you I was not unmindful of you tho apparently silent

Text: Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 8, pp. 156-58; Attwater Papers, acc. 76, II.B.3.(c.), Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford.  Address: Mrs Whitaker | Bratton Farm. No postmark. 

In the spring of 1785, a year after the death of her mother, Jane Attwater, now living alone in the family home in Bodenham, decided to purchase a house and some land in nearby Nunton, where her brother lived. She would live there until her marriage to Joseph Blatch in late 1790, after which she would live briefly at Radfin and then for the remainder of her life at Bratton.  Given the reference to the recent acquisition of the new property, the letter is most likely from May 1785. George Head, Marianna Attwater Head’s husband, had recently died, which explains the referencer to "black lace." Reference here as well to the Methodist lay preacher, Robert Carr Brackenbury.