The Collected Letters of Hannah More

Hannah More to William Hayley, 15 June 1815

To: Wm. Hayley Esqr/
Address: Flepham [In another hand is written] Carmarthen, June seventeen [and] Bognor [and] T. St. David’s
Stamped: None
Postmark: CARMARTHEN JU171815 o23 [unclear] and [partial] 19JU191815
Seal: Red wax
Watermarks: None
Endorsements:

None
MS: Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge: Henderson Album, p. 18
Published: Undetermined

Barley Wood
15 June 1815

My dear Sir

As I am writing to the Bishop of Saint David’s I would not lose the occasion of telling you that he is ‘the pious, learned and laborious Prelate’[1] to which you refer in your very obliging letter . He treats the Subject more at large in a little work against the Catholic Claims entitled ‘Christ the Rock and not Saint Peter’[2] . But I must recommend a more recent publication of his Lordship’s with a view to the Socinian[3] friend to whom Your verses are addressed[4] – it is called ‘The Bible and nothing but the Bible the Religion of the Church of England’ [5] addressed to the Socinians. It is I think an able refutation, and, (which I always think a good quality in Controversy) it is a brief one.

Adieu my dear Sir
believe me your much obliged
and faithful
H. More

This excellent Bishop has
just been on a visit to us

Many thanks for the trouble you took on [unclear] Mr. Cottrall’s Prayer [6] . Should he accomplish his Object, perhaps you will allow me to send your name as a Subscriber. It would strengthen his hand I dont know him. He is the faithful Porter of 6000 Souls. His Living £100 Pr Ann:

Pray pardon this erasure. By mistake I write it in your Letter, instead of the Bishop’s which lay open before me.

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[1]

More uses the phrase in her Essay on Saint Paul (1815) to describe the same individual. (Read online)

[2]

Thomas Burgess, Christ, and not Saint Peter, the Rock of the Christian Church; and Saint Paul, the Founder of the Church in Britain: a letter to the clergy of the Diocess of St. David's.- A Second Letter ... on the Independence of the Ancient British Church on any Foreign Jurisdiction (1814).

[3]

Socinianism, which had its origins in Poland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, rejected many doctrines held by the Church of England as central, including belief in the Holy Trinity and the divinity of Christ. This ‘Socinian friend’ was also mentioned by Amelia Opie in the Memoirs of the Life and Writings of William Hayley, edited by John Johnson, 2 vols (London: Henry Colburn and Co, and Simpkin and Marshall, 1823), Vol. 2, p. 204. (Read online.)

[4]

More perhaps refers to Hayley’s 1815 poem, ‘Epistle to A Friend, on the Divinity of our Saviour’. (Read online.)

[5]

Thomas Burgess, The Bible, and nothing but the Bible, the Religion of the Church of England: being an answer to the Letter of an Unitarian Lay Seceder [i.e. “A Letter to the Bishop of St. David's” by G. W. Meadley]: with notes and illustrations containing Schleusner's interpretation of passages of the New Testament relative to the established doctrines of Christianity: to which are added, a postscript on the anti-Socinianism of Newton and Locke: and a letter dedicatory to the Bishop of Gloucester on the Divinity and Atonement of Christ (Camarthen and London: Jonathan Harris, J. Evans; Rivington and Hatchard, 1815). Read online

[6]

It has not been possible to identify the publication mentioned by More here.

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