Ann Taylor [Gilbert]

For a biographical sketch of Ann Taylor Gilbert (1782-1866) and comments upon her writings,  click here. 

Ann Taylor, Ongar, to Anne Whitaker, Bratton, [Wednesday], 17 June 1812.

My dear Madam,

   I should be ashamed of addressing you after what must have appeared an almost unpardonable negligence, if I were not persuaded that you would forgive it, when I assure you, that it has been equally unintentional and unavoidable:  I felt so much obliged and interested by your kind letter, that my wish was to have replied to it immediately; but circumstances which I need not enumerate, have prevented my doing it till I fear the delay must have seemed both impolite and ungrateful. 

   I need not say how deeply interesting to me were the contents of your letter. The object of it is one, who, as you well know, possesses a large share of our affections; his family was once most dear to us, but he does not require the influence of such a recollection to conciliate our regard; & his character is such as cannot fail to excite the tenderest interest wherever it is known, and every interview has unfolded to us more of the simple originality of his mind, the integrity of his principles, the liveliness and purity of his feelings, and the engaging nativeness of his manners; added to which, we have perceived, with great pleasure, during his last visit, many, and apparently satisfactory evidences of a genuine, pervading piety; should these, by their continuance and increase realize the hopes which they have excited in his friends, I trust my dear madam, that your solicitous fears are unnecessary; and that great as are the dangers to which the ardour and impressibility of his character expose him in an unprotected intercourse with the world, he will be shielded from them by an invisible arm, and conducted by a right way, however perilous it may appear.

   I cannot recollect the exact purport of my last letter to him, which you mention as having occasioned him some uneasiness; but fear that from a misconception of the precise state of his mind, I rather administered to, than counteracted, his morbid views. – I wrote much in the dark, but supposed that to speak generally of the subordinate affection and ready submission with which temporal blessings should be held, could not be inappropriate:  But my dear Madam, our young friend could have but little need to reject the inexpertness, or inability of some of his advisers, while surrounded by such friends, such wise and tender counsellors as it was his happiness to enjoy at Bratton: – I have often considered it as a token for good, that from a situation and connexions the most unfavourable, he should have been transplanted by providence, into the bosom of a family, of all others best calculated to remove the prejudices, and correct the distorted views, received from his early associates; – to disunite the ideas of vital godliness and irrationality; and to convince him, that such views of scripture truth as we call evangelical, are not necessarily accompanied with ignorance, illiberality, fanaticism, and defective practice: – It must even afford you the truest satisfaction that your family, my dear madam, has been honoured by providence as the means of effecting the happiest change in one so justly dear to you; and that to “compass and view the holy ground,” –  “the orders of the house, – “The worship of the court,” – “The cheerful songs, the solemn vows,” became an effectual antidote to those poisons which he had breathed for several years. – No consideration could so well allay the fears of his friends, as the knowledge of his being placed in such a situation; as, however little they might be able to do for him, they felt persuaded, that all which human friendship and vigilance could effect, would be done at Bratton. – I trust my dear madam that you have been instrumental in the growth of a principle, which if genuine, will form the happiness and the security of his life; – and such a reflection must more than repay the maternal anxiety which you have endured on his account.

   Your letter was certainly necessary to remove the painful suspicions which my knowledge of your disapprobation had excited.  I could not answer for the coolness of judgment necessary to decide upon character, in one, whose feelings were so ungovernably excited; and altho’, in other circumstances, he possesses a discriminating delicacy, and intuitive propriety of feeling, which might justify some confidence in his judgment, I could not but fear that their suggestions might be overpowered in the tumult of passion.

   The reasons upon which your objections were founded were certainly sufficient to excite your fears, and altho’ much is to be hoped, I cannot but participate in your anxiety for the event. – Joseph appears to require in his compassion, not the weakness which he must guide, but a strength of mind, and of principle, which might have become a support to his own character, and by which its waywardness, and restlessness, and excitability, might be soothed and regulated. If I may use the expression, he needs a husband, rather than a wife; – one at least, who, if she engaged his affections by the graces of her heart, would preserve and chasten them by the vigour and sobriety of her mind: – one upon whom he might lean, not only for happiness, but for support.  From the idea which your letter, and his descriptions give me of Miss Ryland, I should fear she is not exactly this character, but requires that stay in her companion, which it is to be wished he could have formed in her; – and I feel a fear, that sensibilities which have been depressed, not regulated, by circumstances, may regain an undue ascendance, when those circumstances are so suddenly and entirely changed.

   But I speak perhaps upon too little ground; and whatever may be the native weaknesses of her character, I trust that a principle of religion will evince its reality by supplying them with strength. – Joseph is happily indisposed to that dangerous kind of Society to which this connexion will in some degree introduce him; and I hope that before it takes place, he will be still better prepared to resist its influence; – one of his characteristics is a salutary fear; – he distrusts himself, and appears sensible, that to flee from temptation is safer than to encounter it.

   He expressed a wish while at Ongar to meet with some agreeable house in the neighbourhood, which would enable him to wait for a farm with less impatience; but I fear that such a step would not be altogether a prudent one; and Miss Ryland would probably be of the same opinion. – We have heard of, but not from him, since he left us, and are happy to find that he has met with the situation of which he was desirous before he went to Colchester; – I hope he finds it as agreeable as he expected. – When you write to him may I trouble you to remember us to him very kindly, and tho’ I might hint that a letter would be acceptable, I fear I must expect even less than ever from his dilatory  pen, now that it has so interesting and piquant an object.

   Allow me to express, my dear Madam, something of that respect and esteem which your conduct and kindness to our interesting friend have excited, in one who is personally a stranger.  The anxiety, the tenderness, the wisdom of the friendship with which you have favoured him, cannot but awaken the grateful regard of those to whom he is dear; and to such, it is no small satisfaction to see how fully and deeply he is sensible of the value of such truly maternal solicitude. – Accept my best thanks, dear Madam, on his behalf, and as warm an expression of esteem and respect as you will allow me use.

   For the favour [of] your long and interesting letter I am also much indebted, and if an opportunity should ever arise in which a word from me can in any way serve our dear Joseph, I shall feel additional satisfaction in the hope of your approbation.

   When casting my eye over what I have written I fear my idea of Miss R may be misunderstood – Both from your account and that of other friends I have reason to believe her an amiable character – I only fear a deficiency of mental strength which in a companion for Joseph would have been desirable.  I should be very sorry to appear to express anything more: and in this I may be mistaken –

   My Father, Mother, and family, unite with me in respects to Mr Whitaker, and yourself, and believe me, dear Madam, to be yours, with the truest esteem,

                                             Ann Taylor

Ongar.  June  17, 18

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed.,  Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 333-35; Reeves Collection, Box 15.1.(a.), Bodleian.  Address:  Mr P Whitaker | Bratton | near Westbury | Wilts | For Mrs Whitaker.  Postmark: Ongar, no date. 

The Taylors had just moved to Ongar, Essex, in February 1812, from Colchester, where Ann’s father, Isaac Taylor (1759-1829), served as minister to the Independent congregation and also operated a successful engraving business, one that employed Ann (1782-1866), her sister Jane (1783-1824), and brother Isaac (1787-1865). In 1798 Ann began to perform contract work for the London publisher, Darton & Harvey, contributing regularly to the Minor’s Pocket Book (using the noms de plume ‘Clara’ and ‘Maria’), eventually becoming the editor.  She and Jane were also employed in doing small prints for juvenile works. Isaac Taylor began supplying monthly portraits to the Theological Magazine in 1800, requiring assistance from both his daughters. All three children would become successful writers in their own right, with the two sisters composing many hymns and some of the most important writings for children in the early decades of the nineteenth century (Jane was the author of ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star’). By the date of the above letter, Isaac, who been working in London for about two years, was experiencing poor health. As a remedy, he spent much of the summer of 1811 in Devonshire taking miniatures of friends known to the Taylors who had moved there, and, according to Doris Armitage, became ‘acquainted with many families there’, one of which may have been the Whitakers. He returned to Devonshire, along with his two sisters, in the fall of 1811, spending the entire winter of 1811-12 at Ilfracombe, Devon. They returned to help their family move to Ongar, then returned once again to Ilfracombe for long stays during the next two years. However, the Whitakers of Bratton do not appear in Isaac Taylor’s Memoirs and Poetical Remains of the late Jane Taylor (London, 1825) or Josiah Gilbert’s edition of the Autobiography and other Memorials of Mrs. Gilbert (London: Henry S. King, 1874). It seems likely, however, that they did become acquainted with the Whitakers during their first visit to Devon, and as a result, may have recommended a young Joseph Stapleton of Ardleigh Hall, a member of Isaac Taylor’s church at Colchester, to live and work with the Whitakers in preparation for his becoming a gentleman farmer in his own right. During his time at Bratton, he met and fell in love with Lucy Ryland. His marriage proposal, however, has not escaped some criticism from his friend Ann Taylor, as the above letter reveals. For more on the Taylors, see Doris Mary Armitage, The Taylors of Ongar (Cambridge: W. Heffer, 1939), pp. 47, 56, 204-05; Leonore Davidoff and Catherine Hall, Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class, 1780-1850 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987).