William Godwin: his Friends and Contemporaries
Ch. VII. 1759-1791
Mary Wollstonecraft to Everina Wollstonecraft, January 1784
“Sunday Afternoon January 1784].
“Your welcome letter arrived just now, and we thank you
for sending it so soon. Your account of B. does not surprise me, as I am convinced that, to gratify the
ruling passion, he could command all the rest. The plea of the child occurred
to me, and it ![]()
![]()
was the most rational thing he could
complain of. I know he will tell a plausible tale, and the generality will pity
him and blame me; but, however, if we can snatch Bess from extreme wretchedness, what reason shall we have to
rejoice. It was, indeed, a very disagreeable affair; and if we had stayed a day
or two longer, I believe it would never have been effected. For
Bess’s mind was so harassed with the fear of
being discovered, and the thought of leaving the child, that she could not have
stood it long. I suppose B. told you how we escaped; there
was full as much good luck as good management in it As to
Bess, she was so terrified, that she lost all presence
of mind, and would have done anything. I took a second coach, to prevent his
tracing us. Well, all this may serve to talk about and laugh at when we meet,
but it was no laughing matter at the time. Bess is
tolerably well; she cannot help sighing about little Mary,
whom she tenderly loved; and on this score I both love and pity her. The poor
brat! it had got a little hold on my affections; some time or other I hope we
shall get it. Yesterday we were two languid ladies; and even now we have pains
in all our limbs, and are as jaded as if we had taken a long journey . . . All
these disorders will give way to time, if it brings a little tranquillity with
it; and the thought of having assisted to bring about so desirable an event,
will ever give me pleasure to think of. I hope you sent the letters I enclosed
to you, as Bess writ a few very proper lines to
B. I am very glad you are in town, as I depend on you
for keeping Ned firm.
B. would make a more determined person flinch. This
quiet portends no good; he will burst out at last, and the calm will end in the
usual manner. Tell my brother that Bess is fixed in her
resolution of never returning; but what will be the consequence? And if a
separate maintenance is not to be obtained, she’ll try to earn her own
bread. Write to us an account of everything; you cannot be too particular. She
carried off almost all her clothes, but we have no linen. I wish you could
contrive to send us a few changes at the first opportunity, it matters not whom
they belong to. We have neither chemise, handkerchief, or apron, so our
necessities are pressing.”
Meredith Bishop (1753-1835)
Rotherhithe shipwright who in 1782 married Elizabeth Wollstonecraft; they separated in
1784.
Edward Wollstonecraft (1757-1807)
The son of Edward John Wollstonecraft and brother of Mary; he was a London
attorney.
