From Alscott to Mary Tooth. They arrived home safely a little after dark and contrary to her expectation did not experience the slightest anger [from her family].
She is sorry that their class money was such a small sum and hopes that it will increase in the future. Jenkins has been careful to take an account of all the people who are willing to give. Indeed, she has ventured to remind some of them how far behind they are in their payments, although she does not like to be ‘urgent’ about money matters, for some might think that she cares more about their money than their souls. She loves the dear, sacred cause of religion, and it is her constant delight to pray to God to revive his work. For her own part, she does not keep so much as a farthing, as she has kind parents who provide for her every want. Jenkins’s intention is to give her pocket money as ‘Mr [John] Wesley observes, not all I can spare, but all I have, in the cause of God’. She thinks that she speaks for some others as well, but Tooth knows how poor they all are.
Miss [Fanny Brown], Jenkins’s sister [Jane] and brothers [John and William] all send their regards. They feel the blessed effects of the Love Feast still. Her brother John forgot his magazine – Tooth should send it if she gets the opportunity.
She supposes that she shall not have the opportunity of seeing Mrs Smith and Mrs [Ann] Jordan when they visit Tooth unless they come to Alscott, which she humbly hopes they may. She wishes that it were in her power to make them all comfortable at her home, as Tooth does for her and her friends.
Her regards should be passed to her Birmingham friends [Smith and Jordan] and Tooth’s sister [Rosamund].
In a postscript, she mentions that she has enclosed C. Jones’s missionary money for the last quarter.
Tooth should send her some more copies of the Christian Pattern as there are three already spoken for.
Note
- Ann Jordan (1788-1852) was born in Birmingham. A pious child, she started attending Methodist class meetings at the age of thirteen and was converted within a few months despite much opposition from her family. Jordan became a Sunday School teacher at the age of eighteen and a class leader two years later. 'Her time. . . was almost entirely occupied with devotional and benevolent exercises, meeting classes, attending prayer meetings and visiting the sick and poor. . . '. Jordan had very close links with other notable Methodist women such as Mary Fletcher, Mary Tooth and Sarah Boyce. References in the Fletcher-Tooth correspondence indicate that she may also have preached. Her home became a focal point for Methodist activities in Birmingham and she influenced several men who later became ministers and missionaries. Jordan was bed-bound for two years before she died on October 5 1852. Source: Methodist Magazine 1855, p. 662 and Fletcher-Tooth collection