Files
Download Full Text (7.2 MB)
Content Warning
The Philander Chase letters were written in the 18th and 19th century and therefore may contain language that we understand today as harmful or offensive. You may encounter paternalist descriptions of Native Americans, racial slurs, or sexism. For more information, see our policy page.
Description
Long letter in which Lord Kenyon updates Chase on a number of things including the support for his cause in England, the health of Kenyon's family, and his hopes for Chase's continued success.
Date
2-24-1825
Keywords
Bishop of Oxford, Mr. Ball, Bishop of Bath and Wells, Mr. Davids, Mr. Gaskin, Mr. Wiggins, Adam Hodgson, London, Perl Hall, illness, Margaret Kenyon, Mrs. Chase
Recommended Citation
Lord Kenyon, "Letter to Philander Chase" (1825). Philander Chase Letters. 516.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/chase_letters/516
Rights Statement
Transcript
Portman [Lane]
My very dear Bishop,
On this day the anniversary of my deplored heartbreaking loss [two] years since of my Angel wife, I will begin my letter to thank you for your [needed] kindness, written on your birthday & which I received at Oxford. That I should then receive it was singularly gratifying as it enabled with the warmth of [July] in me excited by it to communicate to the Bishop of Oxford your grateful pious sentiments expressed towards his & venerated Alma Mater & my dearest [Lloyd] & Mr. Ball who had just [rec’d] your print sympathized also in gratification at [reading] your thoughts & pious wishes for his prosperity. May his prosperity & that of Ohio be perpetually & increasingly blessed, & the children be bred up in this faith of [?] & in this [?] charity. [?] from such faith [need] heartily do I pray. I lost no time in communicating your grateful acknowledgements to our [two] Primates who both seemed gratified. My valued friends the Bp. of Bath, Wells, & Mr. Davids continue as zealous & [affectionately] friendly to the cause as ever, & that Dr. Gaskin & Mr. Wiggin & Hodgson do so, you knew well. As well as [numberless] they [are] they are delightful in your [?] of yourself & family on your birthday; a day [?] to be one to be one of my best red letter days & one which which I am [?] to my precious [?] & they do not have [?] to [south] else where I hope we may enjoy together the [annexed] gratification of rejoicing annually in the [?] [prosperity] of your flock & [?] under your venerated parental guardianship. For [?] now undivided any minds of the hope that some further call of duty (nothing else we will know will do so) may had you again to visit Old England to be received on your second coming with the open hearts & [?] of all the attached members of our venerable church. My excellent friend Marriott is just [?] his Church & for the last 5 days I have been disabled from doing anything by a violent cholera [?] from which I thank God I can now call myself recovered & shall be the better for the [clarity] I suppose. [Happy] is the heart [sending] [?] with me, it was that of the [?] my happiness in my [visit] with my Angel Wife, & that of my losing [?] my own [?] sake that ever [mend] precious of earthly blessings. To God’s will I owed the loss as well as blessing, & will know all His will is founded on mercy, & from the hour of my visitations daily since bless [Him] [?] His [nerve] to see who happiness is far more precious to me than my own. You teach me by your kind [affirmations] & [divineness] of your domestic [confines] & falling [that] increase the [infamacy] of our sympathetic affectionate [?] in my own. & I know that by God’s blessing the [?] of my own affections have [viably] contributed to enable me to be [?] otherwise wd. have overwhelmed me. I hope when [Larth] comes that we shall be able to [?] and a [perfected] [?] of free progress at Ohio in such mode as to convince all but the willfully blind how unequivocally praiseworthy your cause is, & how it has pleased God to bless it by His support. I will take care there by nothing of controversy introduced: facts of the success aftd. [fruits] of the support rec’d. & such other matters as may be acceptable to the annual supporters here, & when signed as I hope to get it by all the trustees I hope it will be valued by friends to the good cause in America. At least we will try what we can do, & I know that by for my very revered friend the endeavour will be kindly accepted. I have been so busy since I left London I have been enabled to [converse] as I’d have liked with good Mr. Wiggin, but it delights me to feel that in gratifying myself in seeking intercourse with that good man I am also gratifying your feelings, which is an inexpressible delight to me. My clerical friend at Perl whom you inquire after is Dr. Allen, than when you have few warmer well wishes, or more [thro’] confidently finds. It was not for his own conviction but for the conviction of others [present] or about, that he tried the Bishop’s Churchmanship at the ancient garden at Perl. I bless God that I can continue to send good tidings of my venerated Aunt at Perl. Her continued good health now at no fear at all, is indeed one of my most valued blessings. That of my precious [Margaret] for who I was so long so grievously alarmed can only be more precious to me & I do bless God from my heart for her apparently [costly] increasing strength. Such indeed is the account she gives me of herself, & her dear sisters & brothers in health & proceedings [given] she only compared, for which I daily bless Him from whom only blessings flew. By illness I was prevented from attending a Clergy [orphan] dinner on Tuesday last. I saw all the dear [orphans] when I came to London, & their looks, & care taken of them are delightful. Your journal & [?] are most precious: & our delicacy in noting only the merits of the excellent departed Bowdler is most approved, & thought highly characteristic of you. They who plan to read the journal & see the security given for the soundness of your seminary, cannot but be more than satisfied, even if every collateral circumstances were not without that proof sufficient to convince all reasonable minds that such was the fixed purpose of your mind. My precious [Margaret] gives her grateful thanks for your kind letter. She has so much however of this filial love for you, that I shall at hard not discourage her writing to you again from time when she can either express to you the [true] & kind wishes of her own heart & communicate anything likely to interest you. Mrs. Chase I am sure I know will be pleased also at such an increased link of attachment by [?] the age only in duration but slowly thinning by an increased tie of affection & [learned] piety & everything truly admirable. And now my dearest Bishop heartily praying for God’s obvious blessings on yourself your [?] & your fold, and [confidently] on the [continuation] of such prayers for your hallowed [life] towards my too highly valued self and others most precious to me I am your most obliged & affectionate friend,
Kenyon
I am likely to remain in London till the middle of June