The Minor Family of Somerset

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Document: Letter of Philip Reading to James Reading, on the ev
e of his departure for Pennsylvania
Author Philip Reading
Title: Leathes CorresPondence
Publisher unpublished manuscript
Date 9 May 1746
Details: Bolingroke Manuscripts
Archive: NRO BOL 2/1/2, 739 x 6
Contributor: Dr. Andrew Hopper, 2000
Comments: Reading describes his appointment as missionary in Pen
nsylvania and what he expects to find there.
The Reverend Mr. James Reading at Woodstcok nearOxford
By way of London.
Antelope at SpitHead
May 9th. 1746
Dear Brother,
I wrote you my last from London, the same/Day that you wrote m
e yours from Oxford. I should have been/glad to have seen you o
r heard of your welfare, itis now I / fear too late for either
; on this side of the water, since we expect / to sail under Con
voy of a man of war in a few Days. I am / appointed aMissionar
y in the lower parts of Pennsylvania / near Maryland, and have t
hree Churches under my Care at /60 pounds perAnn. the extent o
f my Parishes, Itake to be about /40 or 50 Miles in Circumferen
ce: A very heavy charge! and/not be executed but by great car
e and application. You/may perhaps wonder why I <chose> choos
e to cross the Seas a /third time, when I might by enquiryhav
e found sifficient/employment in England; but to me, the Wester
n world seems/far preferable to any part of Europe, that part, i
n particular/ for which I design is remarkably plentiful for al
l manner/of provision, and abounds in the choicest and most deli
cate/fruits: to instance but one in particular, peaches are so p
lenty that our farmers ordinarily make use of them to fatten/the
ir hogs. A yet stronger inducement is, the temper and beha:/:vi
our of the people, among whom, especially the better Sort/we exp
erienced that affablehumane disposition, to which/some magister
ial folks at Oxford seemed to me tobe entire/strangers: I woul
d not as yet have it known where or in/what station I am; the se
cret must shortly come out, but I would
(page break)
leavethe discovery to time and chance. Me Nevile gave me a ver
y/kind lesson on the Office of a missionary, he informs me tha
t my/father had once a design of going abroad in this way; we ca
n find/no such hints from his papers-I will take care to write t
o you/from America, and let you know how to direct. In themea
n time,?I am, with many thanks for your late Assiduity in my Aff
airs
Your affectionate Brother,
Philip Reading
Mr Thomas Reading at the
East IndiaHouse
in LeadenHall Street
London.
Apoquiniminck. Oct 10th. 1748.
Dear Brother,
Yours of the 23d. of April came safe to hand, together with a ve
ry kind/ and acceptable present, for which I sHall be ready o
n all occasions to return my grateful acknow: / :ledgments- You
r Pacquet found me in bed about thelatter end of August last ve
ry ill of an / intermitting fever, but upon the receit of it I w
as so far revived, that I could not forbear sitting up / to tr
y on the wig; and when you have a mind to divert yourself wit
h a Coxcomb extraordinary, / you may tell Wilding that he has pe
rformed his part Alamode Paris, and fitted my Head to a / tittle

• I likewise received Sister Anney's Band, which as you observ
  e is a mere curiosity. When / it was taken out of the Box, ther
  e were sitting by my bed:side, a Physician, (by religion a Papis
  t)/ the Widow of the late Missionary (my Predecessor) and a Tav
  ern:keeper's wife; who all formed their / judgments of it in pro
  per Character, as you will find by the sequel. The Papist was po
  sitive that / the pattern came from Rome,and was exactly the sa
  me as the Pope wore, when he performed / High Mass. TheMissiona
  ry's Widow imagined that it was an honorary Badge, newly inven
  ted to distin: / :guish Missionaries from other Clergymen. But t
  he Tavern:keeper's wife, with great accuracy, / supposed, that w