Papers of the Winthrop Family, Volume 4
1643-04-29
Haueinge Receiued your letter and heareinge that you are not yet gone I make bould to wright these few lines vnto you wherin my wife and I desire to present our Seruis to yow and all soe to be thankfull for all those many vndeserued kindnesses we haue from time to time receiued from yow. Loueing Sir these are to let yow vnderstand, that the Lords hand hath laine very heauy vppon my wife euer since I came into England, but especially since I came from London that now she is in such a weake Condition that I much Question whether she will liue tell this letter come to your hands. She hath a stronge Consumtion with an extreeme Cough of the Longes, and a great feaver that she is worne away to nothinge but skinn and bonnes, that if yow should now see hir yow would wonder it is now att the rightinge hereof 12 or 13 nights since she tooke any rest. I knowe the Lord is able to raise hir vpp againe, but in the Judgment of men there is but smale hopes she hath beene vnder the doctors hands, and he hath giuen hir vp what the Lord will doe we know not as yet. the Lord helpe vs to submitt to his Chastisinge hand with patience, yet I blesse2 the Lord she wants nothinge, that canne there be gott for hir Comfort. att first indeed when she tooke hir bed 375it was somethinge hard with vs, that we was faint to sell our flocke bedd and other thinges to make mony to helpe vs, but then I entered in to Corronall Finnes Seruis, which is only a messengers place for the City, to runne of messeges for him and the Counsell of warr and that hath beene my subsistance and is at this present. all the helpe that I could heare of both by phisicke and other meanes I haue had for my wife but I cann see noe amendment at all. I intreat yow Sir to let my freinds vnderstand our poore destressed Condition, and intreat them, if they euer did intende to be helpfull to vs to shew it now in Contributing to our necessety, for it cannot be in a more seasonable time, and for our goeinge to New England this yeare it cannot possible be expected, though we desire to giue yow humble thankes for your Loue and kinde profers in that respect, and in the meane time we shall desire your prayrs to god for vs, desireinge the Lord to guide and prosper yow in all your vndertakinges and rest Your poore servant to command
I pray yow let vs heare from yow once more before you goe: direct your letter to Mr. Abele Kelly:
W. 1. 155. The writer of this letter has not been positively identified. He may, however, be the Richard Storer whose widowed mother married Robert Hull, father of John Hull. After having served some years as an apprentice to a London goldsmith, Storer came to Massachusetts with his mother and stepfather in 1635. The latest positive evidence of his being here is in November, 1639, when the town of Boston granted him land in what is now Braintree. Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, II. 43. At some subsequent time he returned to England. Hermann F. Clarke, John Hull, A Builder of the Bay Colony (Portland, Maine, 1940), 30–31.
The spelling in the original manuscript is “plesse.”