Lord Kenyon

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Lord Kenyon writes to Chase on the second anniversary of their meeting before Chase went back to America. He tells Chase that the other board members in England and likely to agree with whatever plan he puts forth and that he will pass along Chase's messages to them. Kenyon also discusses the well-being of his family and assures Chase of their continued support for him.

Date

7-15-1826

Keywords

King George III, Bishop of London, Mr. Moore, Mr. Pratt, Timothy Wiggin, Dr. Gaskin, Lord Gambier, Knox County, Lord Nelson, Parliament, G.W. Marriott, Bishop of Salisbury, Bishop of Bath, Bishop of Wells, Bishop Hobart, Bishop Stewart

Transcript

Hoy Lake

July 15

1826

My dearest Bishop,

I cannot let this second Ann’y of the day, on which you blessed us all on the eve of your departure for your dear Ohio, pass by, without sending a line to say that we do not less pray for or value the good cause to which your life is devoted, or less love & venerate yourself, than we then did. Strange indeed wd it be & disgraceful to our hearts if we did not more & more love a man & a cause which 2 add’l [?] of compassion with other men & other causes must advance in our estimation. Such happily is the face of truth & it effects its perfect work when it writes the heart & understanding in its behalf. I think I have told you by word of mouth as well as by letter a sentiment which I highly estimate of our late excellent King Geo III’rd “I have no opinion of any man whose heart does not go before his understanding” Into that sentiment I entirely enter & believe that where good principles are carefully instilled in youth this heart will seldom if ever mislead. [Desperately] wicked as we know it is called in [SS], & as we must therefore believe in our own experience also did not convince as of its being so, still when [?] by God’s grace, (& considering by its aid what should be loved & what should be done,) it seems to me, to be a beautiful part of God’s spiritual Creation that the human soul should have such a [compassion] to aid & invigorate & enliven the understanding. Such an inherent property within us it is that confirms us all in an attachment to our beloved Bishop & his cause. Your letter from the venerable Bishop which I have communicated as I have your message to the 2 Archbishops & Bp of London. There has not been time for me to receive any notice of my communication. If I hear anything worth forwarding to you, you shall be sure to hear it. I am sure that you may depend on any agreement which you please to make respecting the land at Knox County being acted upon here. Poor Mr [Moore] is I think not quite what he was, but Mr Pratt Mr Wiggin & good Dr G as well as Lord Gambier will I am sure concur in adopting whatever you determine on, considering you as the representative of the wishes of the Church in Ohio. How rejoiced we shall be to hear of the building being commenced & the Seminary actually established if I am to [?] to hear of so great a blessing being obtained by your dear Diocese. What a blessing to as it would be if we could build churches at 10 times your expense in so doing. As one of the Church Comm’y for building churches in England & Wales to whom 1,500,000£ has been granted I perceive by our last report which I signed that [?] [?] as just only finished 64 Churches, & that as [?] we dare not undertake that we shall be able to build more than 105 in the whole with that sum; & taking the 64 already built as the [interior] of accommodation for 99,000 persons we can only extend accommodation to about 255,000 for such a sum, & that (reckoning that in our Country abt [1/4th] of the population can regularly attend divine service) will only accommodate about one Million of our four Millions which require it. With less than a tenth of the means our Society for encouraging the Engagement of Churches has done nearly half as much: so good dear Lady Rosse has with her £100 enabled you to do far more than with our high [?] or Society enables us. I heard yesterday a good account of the exalted Bishop of Limerick who was in Liverpool but I did not see him. He was inspecting the Institution there wh. I am told is very well worth seeing. I was with my 3 precious girls seeing some friends, & a [Sham] Vessel building for a Captn who was once [headshipman] for Lord Nelson & was very civil to us all last year. We are wondering how the season is beyond the Allegheny mountains, as here, &, as we learnt the other day, at New York, there never was known so dry a season. In our Eastern districts better things are reprinted, but in all the Western districts the spring [corn], that is barley & oats, is sadly defective. Our wheat promises well, & we trust rain has [come] in time to save the potatoe [sic] crops. Our Elections now are over, & we have thank God, we trust got a more Protestant Parl’t than the last. I have been most anxious on the subject of Catholick [sic] Emancipation as it is already called for above twenty years, & have always [observed] that when the true Protestant cause has been in danger it has pleased God to allow some insurmountable obstacle to be [?] to it which has secured the good cause from such a calamity; & if we but do our duty I have nor dear but the little protection will mercifully be continued. G Marriott will communicate your kind messages to the good Bishops of Salisbury & Bath & Wells. He is now on his way as Chancellor of the Diocese of N. Davids to visit that Diocese & he hopes to be of use there to the Church establishment & in some degree by proper regulation to improve his own income and character. He is thank God got quite stout, & I hope he is [more] likely to obtain another appointment of a Magisterial character wh. will safe for his health & lucrative and honorable to him. His dear excellent wife keeps well & all his children as well as can be helped considering their number & confinement in London. The continuance of their attachment to you, & the same with the good Wiggin endears them much to me. The day before yesterday I heard of Bishop Hobart thro’ a Captain of a Packet who had dined with him and met our new Bishop Stewart of [?] at dinner. Our Bishop became duly sensible of your valours & praiseworthy exertions before his return to N America & I trust it may so happen that you may meet. He is very zealous and a highly meritorious character I believe, but at one time had a wrong bias as to Ohio. May it please God to extend His [choicest] blessings to you & yours & to your cause prays your ever most affecte and grateful friend

Kenyon

Letter to Philander Chase

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