Coneygar Villa,

Bridport.

Dorset

May 16^th 1879

Dear Mr Douglass

It is a very long time since we have written to you or heard from you, and I write now in hopes of provoking a reply. We really are very much in the dark about you, & do not even know whether you still hold office under the Government, as we have not heard to the contrary I conclude that you do,—& therefore that you have not been lecturing & holding meetings over the country this last winter as of old. I hope that your health is good–& that you can report well of yourself & of your family

generally. Our nephew Mr. William Lant CarpenterCarpenter, William Lant

of Bristol is on his way to the U.S. he has overworked himself, not only in his own business, but by the active interest he has taken in many of the Bristol Institutions, and the doctor ordered him complete rest & change as he has joined two other gentlemen who were just starting for a few weeks in the States–their visit will be a very short one considering the vastness of the country they go to, & we do not know whether they will go to Washington, but we have charged W. L. C.Carpenter, William Lant

if he does go there to be sure to find you out, & bring us news of you.

An article that I read in the Daily News yesterday leads me to write to you just now. It was

headed "The Negro Modus" & was from the New York Correspondent of the D.N. For some time we have been grieved at accounts of the sufferings of the nominally free negroes—& now it seems to have reached a point—too bad to be longer borne, & they are flying to Kansas. I should be so glad to know what you think of it all. Are the Negroes wise in taking Kansas for their home?—is there room there for so many? What is being done to help them?—I should like to send a trifle either to any fund that may be existing to help the fugitives, or to you if you would use it for their benefit as you think best.—& if it would not be troubling you but I shall wait—to hear from

you before sending any thing off. All these troubles of the colored people must keep you very painfully excited & anxious for a satisfactory settlement. It is hard that they cannot be left in peace to enjoy their freedom–and make their way up in the social scale. Do let me hear from you soon. We have just had a little visit from some old friends of yours Mr & M^rs John RobberdsRobberds, Elizabeth Blake

(of Liverpool when you knew them) now of Cheltenham; & this ev^g some of his old friends of ours & I think probably of yours too, (certainly warm friends of freedom) M^r & M^rs Thomas Huicks, are coming to us they lived at Leeds when you were last in England. M^r Huicks was our minister there–his health gave way & he has been obliged to give up preaching for many years.

We are now for the first time living in a house of our own, we bought it a little more than a year ago and find it quite answers our expectations. It is not large, but quite large enough for us, with a small piece of ground about it, & very prettily situated on rising ground, with pleasant views of hill & valley & garden—& peeps of the sea—when will you come and let us welcome you as the honoured guest in it? It would indeed be delightful if you would write & say that you were coming over this summer.

Mr 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. has been busy for some months preparing a memoir of his brother PhilipCarpenter, 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. –he has finished writing it & has placed it in the hands of friendly

critics hoping that they will give him suggestions for curtailing it, then will come the printing he hopes to get it published this year. I am thankful to say that he has passed this winter without an illness—he is obliged always to be very careful, & suffers from shortness of breath & throat attacks—he has not been out of the house at all of an evg through the winter. He sends very kind remembrances to you & wd have added a note to mine, but is rather pressed with writing just now.

Miss Amé-DrazAmé-Draz, Rosine

A Swiss national, Rosine Amé-Draz (c. 1816–?) first arrived in England on 11 July 1838, listing her profession as teacher. In 1841 she was teaching and living in the parish of Egg Buckland, Devonshire. After spending an undetermined length of time back in Switzerland, she returned to England in July 1848, this time listing her profession as governess. According to the 1861 English Census (where she was recorded as “Rosine Ann Davy,” a native of Neufchatel, Switzerland), she was staying in the home of Mrs. Elizabeth Read of Ecclesfield, Yorkshire. By 1871 she was serving as governess to the children of George S. Kemp, a wealthy Lancashire manufacturer. 1841 England Census, Devonshire, Egg Buckland, 11; 1861 England Census, Yorkshire, Ecclesfield, 56; 1871 England Census, Lancashire, Castleton, 1; “England, Alien Arrivals, 1810–1811, 1826–1869,” Ancestry.com. has been spending the winter in Bridport,—first visiting ourselves & other friends then in lodgings,—she brought a nephew from Switzerland (a bright lad of sixteen) to spend a year in England and learn the language he was in Bridport for some months—but now they have both left for London–Sheffield &c. I must end at once as M^r C. is waiting to take our letters–with kindest regards

Ever sincerely yours

Mary CarpenterCarpenter, 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. .