1788 March 29



29 March 1788
 
My dear Madam,
 
Though I must defer my answer to your obliging letter which came to hand this morning, to a season of leisure, one point in it requires me to write immediately.
 
Miss Owen [1] has given up her school at Highgate, not to a successor, but the school is at an end. Mrs Newton who ought to know more of the qualifications of a good school, than I can pretend to, would be very glad, if she knew one in London, that she could recommend as likely to answer your wishes – especially as she should then hope for the pleasure of accommodating Miss Gardiner [2] at our house, in the vacations, if you would permit her to stay some time with us.
 
Mrs Trinder keeps school at Northampton. [3] She is a friend of mine, and I have a very good opinion both of her and her school. We kept our child there while we lived at Olney, and for some time afterwards, about three years and a half in all. And I believe we should not have removed her, till we had taken her quite home, but that the distance was inconvenient and unpleasant, when we came to live in London, and we therefore chose to have her nearer to us. I thought I would mention this.
 
I need not tell you what London Boarding Schools generally are, and though there are a few, professedly, upon a better plan, Mrs Newton does not know one, to which she would choose to send a child that was under her direction.
 
As the variety of winds and weather, exercise and manifest the skill of a pilot – who could not show himself to advantage, if he had no difficulties to encounter – So in the voyage of life, the Lord permit storms, squalls and adverse blasts, to try the faith and patience of his children, and to show to others that he has given them a wisdom, which the world cannot teach – and for want of which, others bring upon themselves great mischiefs and often double their own troubles. The Lord’s Mariners are taught when the wind is against them to be content with keeping as near the point they have in view, as they can – and when the wind blows too strongly, to moderate their sails in proportion, and to wait his time for a more prosperous gale, and fairer weather.
 
I commend unto you a portion of Scripture which though you well know, I will refer you to, because I have not time to enlarge, and because it contains in two verses, more than I could say in as many quires. It is written Proverbs 3:5,6. [4] May the Lord write it on your heart and mine!
 
Mrs Newton is mercifully relieved from her very troublesome and dangerous cough. But she is not yet quite well, nor is she yet released from her confinement. She has not been at church since New Years day. She returns you many thanks for your kind present of eggs – and I ought to join her, as I am a friend to pudding.
 
With our respects to Mr Gardiner, and best wishes for your comfort,
I remain
Dear Madam,
Your most affectionate and obliged servant
John Newton
 
No. 6
29 March 88
 
Mrs N_ says – there is a genteel and good school at Lewisham in Kent about 6 miles from London, to which she thinks if she must send out a child, she should give the preference. Mrs Favel [5] the Governess, has kept it long, with great character. Morality is well attended to, and some things better calculated to qualify the Misses for domestic life, than are usually regarded in such places. As to religion I can say no more, than that the Minister of the Parish Church is deemed a Gospel preacher. [6]
 
[franked: Henry Thornton]
London twenty-ninth March 1788
Mrs Gardiner
Sleaford
Lincolnshire


Endnotes:
 
 [1] Miss Owen ran a school in Highgate which Newton’s adopted niece Betsy Catlett had attended. On 10 August 1785 Newton wrote to his wife that ‘Miss Owen is changing her plan, about to part with her former school, and to take only twelve parlour boarders, at £50 per annum each.’
[2] Sarah Myra Gardiner (1777‐1801) not only stayed with the Newtons for a while but married his nephew Benjamin Nind jnr (1773-1867), with Newton conducting the ceremony at St George’s in the Borough on 14 December 1796.
[3] Martha Trinder (née Smith) (1736–1790), ran a girls’ school in the Market Square in Northampton. She married Thomas Trinder (1740-1794), a deacon at John Ryland snr’s (1716-1798) Baptist Chapel in College Lane, where she was a member.
[4] Proverbs 3:5,6 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
[5] Mary Favell/Flavell kept a school in Dartmouth Row, Blackheath, Lewisham, but died in 1785. She was assisted by her cousin Miss Mary Halsey (A Mary Halsey of Camberwell, whose will was proved 15 January 1805, left a legacy to her maidservant  Hannah Beardmore).
[6] If this does refer just to Lewisham, the vicar was Wiliam Lowth (1707-1795), brother of the Bishop of London Robert Lowth (1710-1787) and chaplain of Lord Dartmouth’s Chapel in Blackheath.

Acknowledgements:
Morgan Museum and Library MA 733.38
 

28/05/2026