Mildred Smith Dudley to Eliza Jacquelin Ambler(1780)
Transcript
York, 1780
Mildred Smith [Dudley] to Eliza Jacquelin Ambler.
When you left our dear little town, I felt as if every ray of [comfort?] had fled. Oh my dear loved Betsey, (now what would I give if you had a name a little more romantic) how shall I exist without you? life seems a dreary waste since deprived of your loved Society. the girls here are charming and very fond of [me?] but they are all so much my Senior, and besides there is so much freedome and levite almost amounting to indiscretion in their conduct that I often blush for them [and] certainly can never repose that confidence in them that I have long been accustomed [to] place in you, perhaps however this removal to Rd [1] may be to your advantage—[if] it prove so, I will not be selfish enough to regret it— May I tell you dearest [girl] without offense, that the influence of Rachael [2] over you had become so powerful th[at] I began to fear the effects of her example; not that I could for a moment suspect [a well] bred girl of practising indiscretions such as hers, but to one of your artless u[nsuspi]cious temper, admiring her as you have always done, and flattered by her attentions, without ever once suspecting her of making an improper use of your credulity; I [do] not, but beleive [sic] that your removal is fortunate; as at a distance you will have [it] morein your power to estimate her character truly, and continue to love her without [illegible]ing by her enchanting conversation, certainly she has more bewitching talents for seducing a guileless heart then any human being I have ever known.
With me, however, they have had no effect—that cool dispassionate temper [illegible] that I possess, and which you have so often complain of—but which by [for] is better both for my self and for my friends, who sometimes required that [illegible] should be a little more thoughtful than themselves, has and ever [shall? make] me unfit to be the chosen friend of _____. Nevertheless She is much to be pitied; when we reflect upon the disadvantages both herself and [sister have?] labored under, in being deprived of parents at least of a Mother [at a] very early age. What the plan of education adopted by their Father was before they came here, neither of us can remember, but certain [it is the course] pursued by their present patrons is a very erroneous one— Appearance, and effect is every thing—and really between ourselves it would seem as if every solid virtue was sacrificed to these, but I will not be censorious. fain would I cast a veil over their frivolities but really their late conduct has been So extraordinary that all eyes are fixed upon them— You well know what it was, with our own Officers but since the arrival of Le Fenden and Le Fier Roderique [3] commanded by the Viscount and Capn M____ [4] their heads seemed turnd— [A] thousand have I said that it is well for my loved Betsy that she removed from these scenes of amusement and dissipation, her giddy brain would also be turned were she here. there is something so flattering in the [att]entions of these elegant french officers, and tho’ not one in them of them can speak a word of English, Yet their style of entertaining and their devotion to the Ladies of Yk. is so flattering that almost any girl of 16 would be enchanted. — but you know how little effect they can ever have on me nor w’d [I ex]change one rational hours conversation with my Solid english B-d for all the bagatells these sprightly Frenchmen lavish daily in the town— Apropos of poor B—d he has abjured his own country and got a commission in our army. I really and truly beleive [from] principle— but my Aunt and Uncle still look coldly on him—alas I must endeavor to do so too— What prospect have I of ever having it in my power to reward his constancy—none, for as my Aunt says poverty and dependence must be the portion of those who marry a stranger without a Shilling— My own weak heart, reluctantly—consents to the truth of the observation— Many of our Townsfolks talk of leaving [th]is place should the French Ships leave the river if they do, my Uncle [will] probably repair to R—d his profession there will [illegible]. [How?] delightful the thought of being again in the arms of my first [and] best of friends, how do I look forward with delight to the period [when] our infant attachment shall be ripened into maturer friendship [illegible] that the mutual advantages we shall derive from [illegible] shall be lasting as our lives— as soon as the bustle & fatigue [of] moving is over I shall expect a long letter from you I am all impatience to hear your description of Rd which they tell me is enchantingly beautiful— You must not for the w[orld] draw any comparisons between it and Y.k— we lowlanders cannot yet make up our minds to give Rd credit for any thing so vexed are all our Old Folks at the removal of the seat of G.—t— [5] to us it is pretty much the same—
God bless you prays
your affec
M
Notes
- “Rd” and “R—d”: Richmond.
- “Rachael”: Rachael Warrington. To learn more about her see Catherine Kerrison’s article, “By the Book: Eliza Ambler Brent Carrington and Conduct Literature in Late Eighteenth-Century Virginia,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 105, (Winter 1997) pp. 27–52 and Robert Selig’s “Lauberdiere’s Journal,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal, Vol. 18 No. 1 (Autumn 1995) pp. 33–37.
- Le Fenden and Le Fier Rodrique: Two French ships docked in Yorktown. Le Fier Rodrigue was a warship purchased by French playwright Pierre Caron de Beaumarchais to protect merchant ships that would bring gunpowder to Virginia and leave with cargoes of tobacco. Jefferson mentions in a letter to Philip Mazzei from Williamsburg dated April 4, 1780 that the Fier Rodrique was to sail in about three weeks to Nantes, France. The ship was still at Yorktown at the end of May when Jefferson wrote another letter to Mazzei. For more information see Morton, Brian and Donald Spineli, Beaumarchais and the American Revolution (Lexington Books, 2003).
- The captain of Le Fier Rodrigue was Charles Montaut.
- “G.—t”: Government.