To [Mary] Fletcher at Madeley. It has given Johnson pain not to fulfill her promise which she very much wants to do. She would be grateful to hear from Fletcher if she knows of any ‘safe conveyance’.
Johnson thinks that she is safe to say that [John] Wesley is to visit Fletcher in the ‘fall’[?]. He was ‘greatly assisted’ while at Bristol and the preaching profited many. His health and strength has been astonishingly well. ‘It does me soe much good to see his horey hairs crowned with honnour & ye hearts of ye people seems glowing with love to him’. Johnson has had the pleasure of Wesley’s company at her house. They have also been rejoicing in the recovery of their dear King [George III].
The work of God is spreading very much in Bristol but does not seem to deepen – ‘there is not a soficient apprehension of ye necessity of dying to self & sin yt prevents ye growth of ye new man being soe lively within’.
Many of the Methodist friends have died recently and most if not all, have testified to their feelings of peace. Spiritual matters are discussed.
Johnson feels that age is now making great inroads into her constitution, but God does not condemn her for her weakness and infirmities. She finds that she has difficulty in remembering the names of people who she has not seen for some time and this sometimes makes her seem cold.
In a postscript, she asks that her regards be passed to Sally [Lawrence]. Reference is made to Mrs [Mary] Gifford ‘sweetly losing her all & sinking in to him. I preceive in her ye dayly death’. Miss [J. C.] March has taken [lodgings] in the house of the society steward Brother [Thomas] Roberts – this may prove a step towards an introduction. March visited her lately and has been more open – she likes Johnson’s honesty and expresses pleasure in remembering Johnson when they are apart. Poor Miles is in a mess – reduced to great poverty and illness and would have starved had it not been for Mrs Ewer , the neice of Mrs Flowers.
She has been unexpectedly able to get a cheese for Fletcher. It would not have been her first choice but it was suddenly procured.
Notes
- Mary Gifford (1743-1828) was born in Lewes, Sussex. She was converted at the age of twenty and moved a few years later to Dorking in Surrey where she first heard Methodist preachers. Gifford married in 1773 and moved to Salisbury where she was appointed a class leader by John Wesley. After some years, the family went to live in Bristol where she was a prominent member of the society. During her later years, she was subject to severe unspecified domestic afflictions. Source: Arminian Magazine 1828, 716-717]
- Miss J. C. March (fl. 1760-80) was described as a ‘lady of fortune and piety’ although despite her long correspondence with John Wesley, which began in 1760 and ended in 1777, comparatively little is known about her. She was a frequent visitor to Bristol where she moved in Methodist circles. March appears to have attended the Conference of 1774 as an observer. Source: A Biographical Dictionary of 18th century Methodism by Samuel Rogal (Edwin Mellen Press 1997)
- Thomas Roberts (1745-1837) joined the Methodists in 1763 and enjoyed a long close friendship with John Wesley. For many years Roberts, who was a man of considerable private means, was an important Bristol Methodist and occupied the office of steward of Kingswood School and of the Bristol Society itself. After Wesley’s death, Roberts, who was also a devout Anglican, was one of those who left the Methodists in protest at the administration of communion in chapels and the holding of services in church hours. Despite this, Roberts for the remainder of his long life proved a generous friend of Bristol Methodism, donating large sums of money to support its ministry. Source: Methodist Magazine 1837, 798
- Mrs Ewer (d. 1824) was probably a native of Bristol. She was converted at the age of fifteen and within two years had been appointed a class leader by John Wesley, an office which she was to hold in the Bristol society for more than fifty years. Source: Arminian Magazine 1824, 647