Thus, through wretched Richard Taylor, Miss Bosanquet found herself in a most serious entanglement. At the first, she felt she was not bound to pay Taylor’s debt; but Taylor’s wife, big with child, came to her wringing her hands, and entreating her to save her husband from being sent to prison. The result was, Miss Bosanquet paid the debt, by accepting the offer of a loan of £600 from Mr. ——, who became a partner with her in the farm and malt-kilns, and took the management of the whole. This, however, did not end her anxieties. She writes:—
“In my deep troubles, a thought occurred to my mind. ‘Perhaps Mr. Fletcher is to be my deliverer;’ but I started from the idea, lest it should be a stratagem of Satan. We had not seen or heard from each other for more than fifteen years. Besides, I was now (in August, 1777), told that Mr. Fletcher was dying. As I was, one day, in prayer, offering him up to the Lord, these words occurred to me,—‘The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.’ I thought if the Lord should raise him up, and should bring him back from Switzerland to England, and he should propose to marry me, could I doubt its being of God? I felt an unaccountable liberty to ask,—1. That Mr. Fletcher might be raised up. 2. That he might be brought back to England. 3. That he might write to me on the subject before he saw me, though we had been so many years asunder, without so much as a message passing on any subject. 4. That he might tell me, in his letter, that (marrying me) had been the subject of his thoughts and prayers for years. It also occurred to me, that, should this take place in the end of 1781, it would be a still greater confirmation, as Providence seemed to point me to that season as a time of hope.”
Miss Bosanquet’s troubles were continued. Her new partnership was disastrous, and Mr. ——’s management a failure. He had told her she would receive £100 a-year towards paying off the debts she owed to himself and others; but the farm, instead of yielding a profit, was worked at a loss. The interest she had to pay so reduced her income, that it became impossible to keep more than half her family with what remained. She writes:—
“As to the kilns, I had neither money nor courage to work them. I strove, I worked hard, I prayed; and, at length, I proposed to the members of my family to disperse, and learn some little business; and I would allow to each of them what I could. It was a most painful thing; but I saw there was no way but first to sell the place, and then disperse.
“Just at this time, a gentleman proposed to buy the place, stock, lease, and everything. He was a man both of fortune and of honour, and really wished to help me out of my difficulties; and the price he offered would bring me through all, and leave me a good income. The bargain was in part made; but, alas! he took a fever, and, in a few days, died. I now saw but one way—to advertise Cross Hall, and sell it for what I could; and, paying the purchase money away as far as it would go, strive yearly to lessen the remaining part of the debt by my income, reserving only £50 per year to live on, and to help my friends. But I recollected that I might not live long enough thus to pay the debt by my income. I then proposed to myself to keep only £20 per year; nay, I thought, how can I have a right even to twenty? Justice is before mercy. One day, as I was standing at a window, musing on this subject, I saw a poor man driving asses laden with sand, by which he gained his bread. As I looked on him, I thought, I am perfectly willing to take up the business of that man. If I can preserve unsold one of the freehold cottages, the asses might graze on the common, and I could follow them with something to sell. There were but few trades which my conscience would suffer me to follow; and my abilities were equal to still fewer; but to anything in the world would I turn, that was not sinful, rather than remain in debt.”
“The 7th of June, 1781, was the day that began my fourteenth year in Yorkshire. I saw difficulties, as mountains, rise all around me; but the very next day, June the 8th, I received a letter from Mr. Fletcher, in which he told me, that he had, for twenty-five years, found a regard for me, which was still as sincere as ever; and, though it might appear odd that he should write on such a subject, when but just returned from abroad, and more so without seeing me first, he could only say, that his mind was so strongly drawn to do it, he believed it to be the order of Providence.”[[532]]
Thus began Fletcher’s courtship, which ended five months afterwards in his marrying Mary Bosanquet.
The foregoing is a strange story. Of set purpose, nothing has been said of Miss Bosanquet’s earnest piety, gospel labours, and spiritual successes, both in the south of England and in Yorkshire. The object has been to show to what straits a young lady of fortune was brought, by injudicious generosity, by foolish advisers, and, perhaps, it may be added, by crafty mendicants. Eighteen years before this, in a letter to Charles Wesley, Fletcher confessed that he regarded Miss Bosanquet with admiration;[[533]] and that Miss Bosanquet regarded Fletcher with equal admiration the foregoing extracts amply prove; as does also a letter, which she addressed to Wesley, nearly six years before her marriage, and from which the following is taken:—
“Cross Hall, February 7, 1776.
“Rev. Sir,—I thank you for your kind favour of January 27. It yielded us much satisfaction; for never before could we get any account to be depended on.