| Sender Location | Lake Winnipeg, later Cumberland House [Canada] |
| Transcript or Index | Lake Winnepeg 6th June 1825
Cumberland House 16th June. All well.
My dear Mrs Flinders
I hope my Sister Hannah fulfilled her promise of writing to you in my behalf or you must have considered me very negligent and indifferent to your kindness in sending me Mrs [?] Brine On Prayer – a work which I so highly cherish. It is possible however that as my House was at the time of its receipt- a House of mourning Harriet might not have had leisure to put her intentions in practice but I am sure the receipt of this letter will remove away unfavourable impression from your friend, if any were entertained. I fear short days brought the awful scene we were then witnessing to its close, and it pleased the Almighty to remove my dearest wife from this transitory world. I had been obliged to leave her a week before the event, and at the time of my departure I had some hopes of her recovering from the favourable change in her illness that had been exhibited two days before. You can judge then of my deep distress- of receiving a newspaper in which her death was mentioned, two months afterwards, and at the time I was in the act of arranging my men to commence our voyage on the following day. It was indeed a heavy affliction to sustain and my only relief was in the assurance that the dispensations of the Almighty are ordered in infinite wisdom and mercy. Hers had long been a life of suffering which she bore with Christian resignation and I have reason to believe she was for sometime previous to her last illness, striving to detach her thoughts and hopes from this perishable scene and fix them on those beyond the Grave, and I cannot sufficiently praise the Lord for his mercy in drawing her to the awful moment of death, by such gradual approaches, that she felt the event to be certain, and therefore was lead to contemplate with the deepest intensity and delight in the blessed hopes and promises set forth with the Gospels. Hers was a powerful mind, the whole force of which she applied to these delightful occupations and it could not fail to give me and all those who surrounded her bed, the greatest possible joy. To hear that she trusted for forgiveness entirely to the redeeming love and mercy of our Saviour, whose power was infinite; and that she earnestly bewailed her past sins – and hoped the Almighty for Christs sake would pardon them. She was entirely resigned to his will and left her dear little girl, once the cause of her most anxious solicitude with the fullest hope that she would be under the watchful Providence of the Most Gracious God, and through his blessing be educated by Mrs Cracroft and my other Sisters in the paths of true religion. Such my dear Mrs Flinders were the consolations I received even up to the hour of my losing my dearest wife, and I have no doubt such hopes and prospects encouraged her to the last moments, though I have not received any account. We ought not therefore to mourn as men without hope for them that sleep with Christ as I humbly trust my departed wife now does, but rather strive so to follow their good example, that this life ended, we may join them in the mansions of eternal bliss. The many deaths our family have been called to lament in the short period of one year ought surely to weaken our attachment to this unstable and unsatisfactory condition, and cause us to fix our thoughts and desires on the never fading blessings of Immortality. I pray fervently to God that I with every branch of our family may make a right use and improvement of these and all his mercies and dispensations.
I should almost fear from the tenor of parts of your letters that you half blame me for undertaking the services on which I am engaged, and more especially in Mrs F’s delicate state of health, if so let me endeavour to remove any impression upon which your blame may be founded. I presume you are aware that my poor wife was to the fullest extent as warm in the prosecution of these Northern Discoveries as myself, and that she had studied the matter in every bearing, and to the last moment was anxious that I should go upon it. Though her health was delicate at the time the voyage was first arranged, yet there was not the slightest ground for apprehension, and she looked forward with the greatest pleasure to my return, that whether successful or otherwise we might together retrace every step of its progress. She was sanguine also of its success as well as that of Parry’s in which she took almost equal interest. Before her illness had assured any alarming symptoms, many of the stores and men had gone out, and the arrangements were in that state of progress that had there been the inclination they could not have been stopped, and as they were entirely put in course by me and no other person was fully acquainted with their whole bearing and details, it would have been very difficult if not impracticable for another person to have followed up the measures with advantage, and in consequence those men who were gone forward might have been exposed to much danger. These considerations … would have determined me on going out, had no other, but when my own strong desires were cherished and encouraged by my dearest wife to [?] her last moment. I could not but embark on the service, even though I left the object of my dearest affection in such extreme danger. However almost her last words to me were ‘I would not for any consideration that you remained behind. Go and may the Lord bless your endeavours in the accomplishment of your object. The issue of this as well as every other event is in the entire disposal of the Almighty, who is the God of the wilderness as of the City, who alone can protect and preserve us, and may I beg that your prayers may be added to mine for his watchful Providence and mercy on our behalf, and mine shall be offered in return for his blessing on you and your dear child and relations.
I am very anxious to see your daughter who by the time of my return will be almost a grown girl: pray offer her my very sincere good wishes and also to your Mother and Sister.
My little girl (who by the way is as like me as possible) is agreable to my poor wife’s desire and my own, put under the charge of my Sister Isabella. I assure you that I feel every consolation from that circumstance. The manner in which her own little family have been brought up delights me much and my fondest wish is to have my little Eleanor Isabella instructed as they are in the fear and love of God. I hope it will please God to spare my life that I may return and witness her improvement in this and her future course of education, but if my life should be required on this service I have the comfortable reflection that my child is surrounded by an affectionate family, who will sedulously attend to her instruction and health.
Miss Appleton an intimate friend of my wife’s and more, who keeps a Ladies School in London and who has written a good work on Early and practical Education, and begged that she might have the care of her after six years, to which I have consented as I have the highest opinion of her religious and moral sentiments as well as her system of education, so that I have endeavoured to make every arrangement in my power for the happiness and welfare of this tender pledge of our affection whose life is indeed irreparable. You see my dear Mrs Flinders I have written to you in the [?] warmth of affection and sincerity that I have ever felt for you and I assure you it would give me comfort and relief to hear from you. If you would favour me by writing and send me the letter under cover to Mr Garry Esq. at Hudsons Bay House, Fenchurch Street, London, in the months of March or May it would be forwarded to me. Believe me most faithfully
John Franklin.
June 1825 – For Mrs Gell with Mrs Petrie’s kind regards
[Addressed to] Mrs Flinders 18 Dowry Parade Clifton
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