To James Madison from S. Underwood, 2 April 1816
From S. Underwood
Bristol—England, April 2nd. 1816.
Respected Sir,
I have a desire to leave my present situation for America. I was educated under the patronage of the late Countess of Huntington1—have been a Dissenting minister for more than thirty years—have also been in the habit of instructing Youth nearly for as long a term—and understanding that ministers, & teachers of Youth are much wanted in America, induces me to turn my thoughts thither. I am fifty Years of age, have a Wife, and four Children, two only of which would be dependent upon me. If you, Sir, could point out any suitable situation the Ministers here would afford you every satisfaction. I am, with the greatest respect, Your very Humb Sert
S. Underwood
RC (DLC). Cover marked “Pr. Brigg Cashier fr. Boston”; postmarked at Boston, 27 ⟨Feb.?⟩; docketed by JM.
1. Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon (1707–1791), was an active patron of the Calvinistic wing of the Methodist movement in eighteenth-century England. In 1748 she engaged George Whitefield as a chaplain, and she sponsored missionary activities in the American colonies, particularly in Georgia (Boyd Stanley Schlenther, Queen of the Methodists: The Countess of Huntingdon and the Eighteenth-Century Crisis of Faith and Society [Durham, England 1997], 5, 39–40, 83–95, 172).