7 February 1791

Elizabeth Hopkins, Alcester, to Rebecca Hopkins, at Mr. Sings, Jun., Lower Town, Bridport, 7 February 1791.

Alcester Feb 7th 1791.

               I am fearful my dear Rebecca will think herself slighted by a silence which has however been quite involuntary I fully design’d writing last Thursday & have announced the Events of the preceeding day but was prevented Friday & Saturday tho some but to day I am determined if possible to remove your apprehensions & assure you of my continued Remembrance—Wednesday we attended your dear Sister & Mr P. to the Altar of Hymen & compleated their present Felicity may the Return of that day & every succeeding one be replete with Happiness to them & their Friends is the sincere wish of every friendly Heart—& of none more than mine—but you will probably expect a more particular Account of the Events of the Day we meet before eight Mr Rookes attended in due Time & after drinking a Cup of Chocolate proceeded to Church as little Noticed as could be wish’d the important Ceremony ended we return’d to Breakfast & about half past 10 set out for Mosely your dr Father & myself truly happy in the pleasing Prospect of the future Felicity of the young People went to the Portway & after partaking of Cake & Negus with our best wishes took our leave & return’d to dinner your Brother & cousin Joshua accompanied them to Mosely where our Common Frds Mr & Mrs Harwood received them with every Mark of affectionate Friendship & about 4  oclock attended them to their destined Habitation in Pauls Yard & here my detail must end as we have heard only that they arrived in Safety but are favor’d with no Particulars since.—

               Our dear Mrs Sings Letter & yours since removed a considerable Degree of Anxiety from our Minds by the pleasing Account of her dear Sophias better Health   we hope every unfavorable Symptom is removed & with that the Fears & apprehensions of the tender Parents if the Cough shd still continue I hope Mrs S will be prevailed upon to try changes of Air when the weather is better   I cannot but hope a Journey to Alcester will not only be agreeable but beneficial to both & I shd be happy to see them at any Time we look round as in vain for our late Family Circle which is greatly reduced indeed, Eliza & Joshua alone remain we regret your Absence most as the Occasion was a painful one but that removed you will I hope enjoy much Pleasure in your Sisters society had you been at home the painful Account I have recd of the state of my dr Steele’s Health who is now at Bath would have induced me to wish to visit her as I much fear I shall never see her more in this World but as Circumstances forbid I endeavor to reconcile myself to Absence from one so very deservedly dear to me. Oh may infinite Goodness avert the dreadful stroke & still spare her valuable Life   I expect to hear again to day how she is the last intelligence evinced the most tender alarms—excuse my mentioning this it is a subject which Occupies my Mind nor can I wish [to] quit it till Hope with balmy wing extends her salutary Influence & awakens more pleasing Ideas—your dr Father unites with me in kindred Love to your dr Sister & Brother & the sweet little Sophia let me hear from you soon & be assur’d  

I am yours affectionately

E Hopkins

Uncle Aunt Cousins Brother & Sister desire Love to each

Text: Pearce Family Collection, MS. F. P. C. D55, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. The opening part of the above letter recounts the marriage day of Samuel Pearce and Sarah Hopkins on 2 February 1791. Elizabeth Ash Hopkins (1752-?), the writer, was the second wife of Joshua Hopkins of Alcester. She was the daughter of John Ash, Baptist minister, teacher, and lexicographer at Pershore. When Ernest Payne discussed some of the letters involving the Pearce family in the Baptist Quarterly in 1959 (he later deposited them in the Angus Library), he was unaware that "E. Hopkins" was indeed the second wife of Joshua Hopkins and the daughter of John Ash. Joshua Hopkins's first wife and the mother of Sarah Hopkins Pearce was Anna Head, and not the daughter of John Ash as S. Pearce Carey suggested in 1913 in Samuel Pearce, M.A., the Baptist Brainerd.  Rebecca Hopkins was the sister of Sarah Hopkins Pearce and thus the step-daughter of Elizabeth Ash Hopkins. The “Steele” mentioned above is Mrs. Martha Goddard Steele (1734-91) of Broughton, Hampshire, second wife of William Steele III and Elizabeth Ash Hopkin’s aunt. Mrs. Steele would die on 31 May 1791.  See S. Pearce Carey,  “Love Letters of Samuel Pearce,” Baptist Quarterly, 8 (1936-37), 96-102; and Ernest A. Payne, “Some Samuel Pearce Documents,” Baptist Quarterly 18.1 (January 1959), 26-34.  

John Harwood (d. 1792) was a deacon in the church at Cannon Street, Birmingham; he operated at grocer’s shop in High Street.  He was originally from London where he was a member at the Baptist congregation meeting at Grafton Street, having been received as a member on 17 November 1767 (see Grafton Street Church Book, 1766-1774, Angus Library, Regent’s Park College, Oxford, f. 41).  Harwood moved to Birmingham in 1778 and soon became a deacon at Cannon Street.  Like Joshua Hopkins, he too was a grocer and chandler, operating a business in High Street under the name of Harwood and King (see Universal British Directory, [1791], vol. 2, p. 222) (Thomas King of Cannon Street as well, who became treasurer of the BMS in 1796).  Also like Hopkins, he was married twice: his first wife died in 1782 and he remarried not long thereafter. The Harwoods remained members of the Cannon Street congregation although his house in Mosely was frequently used for preaching. Harwood also appears in the following letter by Elizabeth Hopkins.