6.    28 April 1795            


[to Mr Ring, Surgeon, Reading][ subsequently marked ‘April 95, Revd J Newton’]
 

My dear Madam
 
If I did not, in a measure, believe that the Lord overrules and times all events, I should say, that your letter which at first made me glad, afterwards made me sorry.
 
Within half an hour after it came, I received another, informing me that Miss Gardiner of Sleaford, whom we have long expected, will be with us next Monday evening. [1] Her Papa accompanies her to town, and though I am not sure that he will sleep at No. 6 – I am not sure that he will not. [2] At any rate we cannot now furnish you with a bed and a half, as I thought we could, when your letter first came.
 
We can offer you everything but beds, and shall be glad to see Mr & Mrs Ring and Miss Vinter from Morn till Noon, from Noon till dewy Eve, [3] while you stay in town.
 
Mr & Mrs Dupont, who keep the Castle and Falcon in Aldersgate Street, are very serious people and their house is as regular as a private family. [4] They are likewise my friends. If you could accommodate yourselves there by night – you would be very, very, very welcome to us, by day. I hope this turn will not prevent us having you for our guests, as much as you can. Glad should I have been if able to receive you ‘out and out’, as the saying is.
 
I pray the Lord to bless you, all, that Safety may travel with you on the road, and Peace may receive you at every door, where you may stop.
 
Dear B[Betsy], unites with me in love and best wishes.
 
I am your affectionate and obliged
 
John Newton
 
No. 6    28 April 1795
 

Endnotes:
 
 [1] Miss Gardiner is Sarah Myra Gardiner (1777-1801), possibly named Myra in memory of her ‘older’ sister Maria who lived only a year. Newton had been corresponding with her mother Sarah (of Westfield Farm, nr Leasingham and Sleaford) since at least 1776 and sent a birthday poem to Myra, Trusting that as you once were born, You shall be born again. In this Newton cautioned her:
The world will flattering baits present,
But 'tis delusion all,
And you can only find content,
By yielding to my call.
Devote to me your early days,
Can you too soon be blest,
And I will guide you by my grace,
To an eternal rest;
On 27 January 1794 Newton sent ‘My dear Myra, Miss Sarah Gardiner of Sleaford, a set of books published by a sincere friend of hers’ (his 2-volumed Messiah) inscribed:
Dear Lord, while Myra reads what I can write,
Thy Mercy, Grace & Glory to proclaim,
Assist her with Thy Holy Spirt's light,
That she may know & love, & trust Thy Name.
When I go hence, if a last thought of me
Shall from her eye draw forth a friendly tear,
A friend who cannot die, her heart to cheer.
The Gardiners hoped to send Myra to London to school, but the Newtons could not recommend one in town. Later, however, she did come to stay in the Newton household for some months. She married Newton’s nephew Benjamin Nind (1773-1867) on 14 December 1796 at St George’s in the Borough, with Newton performing the ceremony.
[2] Sarah Myra’s Papa was William Gardiner (son of Robert), born in Sleaford in 1735. His brother James (1738-1799) was the rector of Yardley Hastings, a parish adjoining Olney. Newton described James to John Thornton (1710-1790): ‘He is a sensible man, but a mere muck worm, buried in farming and seems not to have a thought beyond the present world.’ In contrast, he described Mama, Sarah, to Wilberforce in 1791 as ‘a lady of the first rank in the line of my acquaintance, for good sense, solid judgment, and true piety. I have had the pleasure of corresponding with her for more than 20 years.’ Three letters from Newton to Mrs Gardiner were published in Cardiphonia. Newton gave her total freedom to send whatever extracts she chose for the publication. Newton wrote to the Coffins of Linkenhorne on 24 July 1793 ‘We sensibly miss Mrs Gardiner’. Perhaps her death promoted the move of Sarah Myra to stay with the Newtons.
[3] John Milton, Paradise Lost, 1667
[4] Matthew Dupont (c 1746-1816). Dupont’s Castle & Falcon Inn was a popular meeting placed for Christian organisations (e.g. the founding meetings of the Eclectic Society, CMS and LMS). He was manager of Spa Fields Chapel and a trustee of the Countess of Huntingdon’s College at Trevecca, which moved to Cheshunt.


Acknowledgements:
Descendants of Sophia Ring
British Library
Lambeth Palace Library