Gateshead on Tyne

Dec^er 12^th 1873-

My very dear friend,

I cannot but feel grieved when I think of the length of time that has rolled away since I received your last letter - I was to shocked & distressed to hear of the fire & the great loss you had sustained, that, at first in truth, "I knew not what to say!"- and then came great surprize that you could have allowed so long a period to elapse without telling such an old' friend as I am "all about it" as we say, in England!! - I cannot ealize you & yours any where but on "the hill", & I was so fond of that dear habitation & did so hope to see it again one day that to picture it as razed to the ground was, at first most painful to me - you know I never put up to being a philosopher, so, I gave way

and allowed myself, for some time to feel very sad at heart. But you seem to be reconciled & I trust are now in your Washington home to keep Christmas - where I trust this will reach you ere long. & find you & your's well. Well! My dear old friend time is thinning the ranks of my oldest friends rapidly. Two of the "Bluberys" (a name you will remember) have passed away this year. & many, many other & younger friends. My wonderful AuntGriffiths, Mary Powis

Mary Powis Griffiths (c. 1789–1877), with whom Julia Griffiths; her husband, the Reverend Henry O. Crofts; and three stepdaughters (Elizabeth, Saley, and Martha Crofts) were sharing their home in both 1861 and 1871. 1861 England Census, Halifax, Yorkshire, 110; 1871 England Census, Gateshead, Durham County, 41; Janet Douglas, “A Cherished Friendship: Julia Griffiths Crofts and Frederick Douglass,” Slavery and Abolition, 33:265–74 (June 2012). yet lives, just now confined to bed with a bad cough - I have very hard work to realize how old I am - have not you? I feel very thankful to be able still to fly about very quickly - but no doubt my dear friend, we should, on meeting, see each other much altered. Do send

me a recent carte & I will send you a new one when I get it - Were all the books burned I sent you from England? Was nothing saved? It is a mercy the family escaped. My kind love to Mrs. Douglass, Rose, Louis Fredk, & Charles. Should I know any of the juniors? How many wee ones are you grandpapa to? I have heard "the Jubilee Singers" three times, with great delight. Oh, how the old memories welled up during their lovely singing! They have been received with great enthusiasm everywhere - their singing is wonderful & they seem such nice creatures - so simple & unaffected.

MrRichardson, Henry

Henry Richardson (1806–85) was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, attended Ackworth School in West Yorkshire, and graduated from Darlington College. He entered his father’s mercantile business upon graduation. As a young man, Henry joined the local Essay Society and the Newcastle Peace Society, and published papers promoting peace. Henry and his wife, Anna, were active members of the Society of Friends and the Anti-Slavery Society. The Richardsons orchestrated the purchase of Frederick Douglass’s freedom from Hugh Auld for £150. Henry and Anna also served as delegates to the General International Peace Congress held in Paris in 1849, and promoted the development of the Ragged School in Sandgate, an industrial school for boys and girls from poor families. The Richardsons maintained an active interest in the Newcastle Bible Society, an organization established by Henry’s father in 1809 to promote the distribution of Bibles, and ran the operation out of the family business. It is estimated that under the direction of Henry and his father, nearly 569,000 Bibles were distributed by the society. Henry and Anna remained in Newcastle following his retirement in 1858, when they began to promote The Bible House, a new business venture that merged the distribution of Bibles with the sale of other “pure literature.” Thomas Pumphrey and Emma R. Pumphrey, Henry and Anna Richardson: In Memoriam (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Eng., 1892). & Mrs Henry RichardsonRichardson, Anna Atkins

Anna Atkins Richardson (1806-92) of Newcastle-upon-Tyne married Ellen Richardson’s brother, Henry Richardson, in 1833. A Quaker, she was active in several reform causes but was particularly dedicated to antislavery activism. A member of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, she alienated British Garrisonians by continuing to support Douglass after he had severed ties with Garrison. With her husband, she helped lead the free produce movement (a boycott of goods derived from slave labor) of the 1850s in England; she was responsible for securing the black lecturers Henry Bibb and Henry Highland Garnet to publicize the cause. From 1851 to 1854, the Richardsons published The Slave, a penny newssheet promoting the free produce movement. [Mary C. Pumphrey], Ellen Richardson: In Memoriam, 1808-1896 (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1896); R. J. M. Blackett, Building an Antislavery Wall: Black Americans in the Atlantic Abolitionist Movement, 1830-1860 (Baton Rouge, La., 1983), 120, 122, 134; Temperley, British Antislavery, 245. were close to me at their first concert. We all shook hands & spoke kindly. Well! when I look back on

life it seems divided into
various epochs -- but it has
always been a busy one -- &
I expect will always be so --
we now have a large day
school. & I never can leave
home between the holidays --
& then I am always away --
Dr C. came here in Oct & I
expect to reach him & his
Manchester home about 23d
Dec'r for Christmas & its
holidays -- Lizzie stays there
always -- the youngest
daughter MattieCrofts, Martha "Mattie" Nichol

stays with
me -- we have a French
resident governess here &
My Aunt - Jane is married
very well indeed &
lives in our street -- When
the Doctor needs to rest from
his preaching -- he labors now
incessantly, he & LizzieCrofts, Elizabeth Ann "Lizzie"

will
join us here & the ministerial
income is so narrow
that my only error was in
supposing it could meet even
modest requirements without

considerable supplementing.
Do dear Frederick write to
me as soon as possible after
you receive this -- address
here -- & the letter will be
forwarded to me at once
if I have not returned to
Gateshead. Do you
know Mr. Moody and
Mr. Sankey of Chicago?
They have been staying
in Newcastle & Gateshead
holding revival services
it has been the first revival
I ever got completely
into -- thousands have
been converted- & thousands
more have truly been
revived. I have enjoyed
their services immensely.
Mr. Sankey sings sweetly.
He took the chair at one
of the Jubilee Singer's
concerts. Do tell me
news of dear Geritt Smith
& family & others

Did you ever print your
lecture on "William the
silent"? How many
times I have begged
you to send it to me.
Please remember & do so.
Do tell me about any of
the dear coloured friends
I used to know -are they
all dead? - what of
Mr. George Downing - and
Remond &c. is Mrs.
Remond a grand meilliur
in Paris? I saw the name,
there. I spent last
midsummer holidays among
my London friends: -
Fishers- Ganns- Smiths &c.
Doctor met me after
conference & then absolved
me for not going to Manchester -
very good of him
was it not? Were he

here he would send his very
warm regards to you -
well my dear old friend,
I find myself often now
thinking of that "happy
land" which does not
now seem so "far away"
as it used to be. There
will be neither "sea" nor
separation there - our
darling little Annie has
long been an angel there
has long beheld "the king
in His beauty" & entered
into that "rest that remaineth"
All here is change- then all will
endure. It may be &
I pray that we may be
in God's providence permitted
to meet again
in this life - but if this
be not permitted, may

we make sure of a more
blissful meeting where
farewells are never said.
I remember how much you
dear Frederick dislike sermons
but- but- let me say, for
myself that I never found
my dear Savior so near nor
so precious as now. Amidst
the many trials & heart rendings
& disappointments I
have gone through I can
realize that "all things"
must win & are working
together for good- & when
we reach yonder glorious
city, we shall dear dear
friend, be enabled to "look
back on all the way the
Lord our God has led us to
humble us- & prove us".
May our loving Heavenly Father
bless you for ever prays
your ever faithful and
affectionate friend
J. G. Crofts