The reduction of postage should make
our letters more frequent !

Bridport Jan. 27 1868

My dear Mr. Douglass,

I find that my wifeCarpenter, Mary Browne

Mary Browne Carpenter (c. 1824–98) was the wife of the prominent Unitarian minister Russell Lant Carpenter (1819–92). They were married in Bridgwater, Somersetshire, in 1853. She was one of four daughters born to William Browne, a wealthy Unitarian merchant, and his wife, Mary. William Browne served as mayor of Bridgwater in 1854. In addition to her support of the antislavery effort, Mary Browne Carpenter was also deeply involved in the woman suffrage movement, belonging to one of the more radical suffrage societies in Bridport. She also supported the animal rights and temperance movements. 1841 England Census, Gloucestershire, Bristol, 22; “England and Wales, Christening Records, 1530–1906,” FamilySearch.org; “England and Wales, Death Index, 1837–1915,” FamilySearch.org; “England and Wales, Marriage Index, 1837–1915,” FamilySearch. org; “England and Wales, Non-Conformist Records Indexes, 1588–1977,” FamilySearch.org; Elizabeth Crawford, The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey (New York, 2006), 161, 169.She has not been identified by name. has been writing you a letter, which I hope will meet a better fate than her last: tho' perhaps you may tell us that it will has turned up right at last after all. As she says, I have not felt mood to write on American affairs for some time. I fear we must expect a little reaction: now especially as the North has never yet treated the colored men as it demands that the South should treat them

I think the plan of a Normal School for colored teachers, which was advanced here last week, a good one. I have been interested in what I have read, from time to time, of schools in the South; and I sent 5$, as a small trifle to aid them, last year. We should like to know for to what newspapers you chiefly contribute. I see no American paper, regularly, but the Christian Register. The editor of the Inquirer, however, sent me a fortnight ago some numbers of the Antislavery Standard, which I supposed to have been given up. They contained some interesting things. A stray number of the Tribune, which has reached me, intimates that Mr. W. Philips's denunciations of congress of Grant &c are likely to be of service to the reactionists; but this was what was always said of the Abolitionists: who made their mark notwithstanding!

We are on the move here in Engl'. and the Reform Bill, which does credit to no party, is likely to be followed by some Educational measures, which may we hope be creditable to all parties. What with Fenianism, the outrages of some of the trades' Unionists, and the prevalent distress, things are not in a very cheerful condition with us. Still I have lived long enough to have seen down some dark times before

I have been reading lately some of Mr. S. J. Mays Antislavery Reminisences in the C. Register, and

also his Farewell sermon—an autobiographical discussion of very great interest. One seldom meets with a man at once so fearless, so enlightened, and so charitable.

If ever you visit Canada, I hope you will find out my brother—Dr Philip CarpenterCarpenter, Philip Pearsall

Philip Carpenter (1819-77) and Mary Carpenter (1807-77), the children of British reformer and Unitarian minister Lant Carpenter, were both social justice activists. The youngest in the family, Philip trained at the University of Edinburgh and the University of London. Ordained as a Unitarian minister, he served congregations near Manchester and later Warrington. Also an avid naturalist, Philip Carpenter collected specimens and made a catalog of marine shells for the British Museum. In 1865 he moved to Montreal, Canada, where he pursued his scientific study of conchology, gaining respect for his knowledge and publications in the field. His eldest sister, Mary Carpenter, began operating a girls' school in Bristol in 1829 with the help of her mother, Anna Penn Carpenter. Finding the care of poor children her life's calling, in 1835 Mary formed the Working and Visiting Society and in 1852 opened her own reformatory for boys. In the 1850s and 1860s she lobbied for industrial schooling in Britain and opened two schools of her own. In her later years she traveled widely and lectured in Britain and India on education and penal reform. Jo Manton, Mary Carpenter and the Children of the Streets (London, 1976), 18-30; Jennifer S. Uglow, ed., The International Dictionary of Womens Biography (New York, 1982), 94; ACAB, 1:531-32; DNB, 3:1068-70, 1071-72; DAB, 1:561. , at Montreal. He has bought a lot there: and intends to build in the summer. Like others of us, he has met with losses in the bad times: and so has found the necessity of earning a living, instead of working for nothing. He keeps a school. The wife of my Assistant Minister has been reading your Bondage &c. She was so much excited by it, that her husband had to remind her that it was all over now: that you are in comfort and freedom! Please to remember me to Mrs. Douglass, and then me very truly yours,

Russell L CarpenterCarpenter, Russell Lant

The Reverend Russell Lant Carpenter (1816-92), a Unitarian minister, spent his childhood in Bristol, England. He attended Bristol College in preparation for a life of ministry, continued his studies at Manchester and York Colleges and was one of the first to graduate from London University in 1840. Carpenter became intensely involved in the temperance movement and subsequently quit his pastorate at Bridgwater, England, since part of the church's endowment came from taverns selling liquors. In August 18-19 he journeyed to the United States, where he spent a full year preaching from Montreal to St. Louis to Boston. His father, Dr. Lant Carpenter, was a well-known teacher whose Unitarian writings were already known to the antislavery men of the day. Thus, Carpenter became acquainted with Garrison, Douglass, and others. Having returned to England, he married in 1853 and continued his ministerial work there until his death. His works include Memoirs of Lant Carpenter (1842), Discourses and Devotional Services (1849), A Monotessaron (1851), and a biography about his brother, Philip, Memoirs of the Life and Work of Philip Pearsall Carpenter (1880). Carpenter also contributed frequently to the Inquirer and to other periodicals. London Inquirer, 30 January 1892.