From Bristol [postmark] to Mary Fletcher. March sees from the newspapers that Fletcher has lost her brother [William Bosanquet], which means that Fletcher is the last survivor of her immediate family, ‘but the Lord had work for you to do.’
March’s nephew the Anglican minister Henry Berkin was here last week. He is busy with preaching and visiting the cottages in the Forest of Dean. His heart is in his work and ‘he sees the pleasure of the Lord prosper in his hand.’ Henry and his family find that Julia [Grovenor] is a great help as she keeps his wife company when he is away. Julia is happy with them and is ‘in the way of becoming an useful being in society, & taught also to fear God, & seek his Kingdom, my sister [Mrs Berkin] kept her too much in the stile of high life.’
The oldest son of March’s brother [Thomas March-Phillipps] is at Clifton with his wife, near death with consumption. The ‘affliction has been sanctified to him, and she looks to the Lord for salvation, and hopes in his mercy. She feels the trial of leaving her helpless babes, three in number, but my sister Phillipps will take them and bring them up as her own – and they have all done well in childhood, youth, and manhood. My brother’s son is a clergyman, a converted young man, and has been a blessing to all his family, they all turn to the Lord and seek his face, and aim to do good, teaching in schools, feeding the poor, relieving the distressed, this hath God wrought. My 2nd neice [Sophia March-Phillipps] is married to Mr [Henry] Ryder, Dean of Wells, a serious man.’
Fletcher’s second letter arrived safely, delivered by Henry Berkin.
March’s sister Mrs Berkin ‘was much alone with the Lord, & in prayer in her last sickness. Did not choose to see hardly anybody, expressed expressed herself a saved sinner. She was deficient in looking unto Jesus, looked too much to her own defects, got thereby dismayed, and did not strive enough to overcome pride & passion. I remember two of Mrs [Sarah] Ryan’s sayings – “O that people did but know the blessedness of coming to Jesus as a sinner” and “I am a Jerusalem sinner.” March thinks that Mrs [Sarah] Crosby had the most gifts and Ryan, had the most grace.
She supposes that Fletcher’s nephews [The sons of Fletcher’s brother Samuel Bosanquet.] will now take care of her business, as her brothers [Samuel and William Bosanquet] did while they were alive. Is Mrs Bosanquet [Eleanor, widow of Samuel Bosanquet] still alive?
March finds that her mind is calm and peaceful, free from all disquiet and temptation, ‘but not very joyous.’ She wants more fervent love of the Lord Jesus and a deeper sense of redemption, together with a heart more engaged in prayer and thanksgiving. She has lately been more blessed in reading than prayer and has read [Edward] Young’s Night Thoughts all the way through - the contents of that books are sublime and enlightening, ever new.
Fletcher mentioned that she will be 73 next September. March always thought from childhood that such was the case, making Fletcher her senior by three years. However, some years ago, Fletcher wrote to her that she was in fact four years older, but that was probably a mistake. ‘However with us, the day is spent, the night cometh…’
Mrs Ewer is starting to recover and Mrs Mills is better. March had a letter from Mrs Mortimer a month ago.
They have had a second missionary meeting and collection in Bristol for the clergy sending missionaries to Africa and the East. The donations have been large.
March is grateful that [Mary] Tooth has acted as Fletcher’s scribe at times when she herself has [through poor health] been unable to write.
Notes
- William Bosanquet (1747-1813) was the son of the son of the wealthy Hugeunot merchant Samuel Bosanquet of Forest House in Essex. His sister was the noted Methodist preacher Mary Bosanquet who subsequently married the evangelical clergyman John Fletcher of Madeley. Bosanquet was a member of a successful commercial family. His brother Samuel was Governor of the Bank of England while William was for many years a governor of the Royal Exchange Assurance Company. He was unmarried and little more is known about him. He died at Forest House on 3 March 1813. Source: Gentleman’s Magazine 1813 (113), 388, and Fletcher-Tooth collection.
- Charles March-Phillipps, oldest son of Thomas March-Phillipps, was married to Harriet Ducarel who died in 1813. Their children were Ambrose-Lisle-March, Charles-Lisle and Augusta-Jane-Lisle. Burke’s Landed Gentry 1853
- Henry Ryder (1777-1836) was the third son of Lord Harrowby. He was educated at Harrow and St John’s College Cambridge. In 1800 he was appointed to the family living of Sandon in Staffordshire and the following year became Rector of Lutterworth in Leicestershire. Ryder was appointed Canon of Windsor in 1808, Dean of Wells in 1812, Bishop of Gloucester in 1815 and Bishop of Lichfield in 1824. Ryder became an evangelical through his friendship with Thomas Robinson and his reading of such writers as John Newton. He instituted family prayers and scripture readings and was active in the British and Foreign Bible Society and Church Missionary Society. Ryder was the first evangelical to become a bishop. As bishop of Lichfield, Ryder erected thirty new churches in the diocese and was generous in donating to their costs. Ryder’s wife, Sophia March-Phillipps was a niece of the Methodist Jane March, one of John Wesley’s correspondents. Source: Dictionary of Evangelical Biography 1739-1860, edited by Donald M. Lewis (1995) and Fletcher-Tooth collection (MARC)
- Edward Young (1683-1765) was educated at Winchester and Oxford. After his hopes of a parliamentary or professional career were thwarted, Young took Holy Orders, and became Rector of Welwyn in 1730. Young was a poet and satirist of note, whose most famous work was the Night Thoughts, which appeared between 1742 and 1745. This work was highly regarded by Charles Wesley and formed part of the reading matter for his daughter Sally. Source: Dictionary of National Biography