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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Letter from Nathaniel Duckenfield to Edmund Gibson
Duckenfield, Nathaniel
July 14, 1724
Volume 02, Pages 530-531

[From North Carolina Letter Book of S. P. G.]
Mr DUKENFIELD TO THE BISHOP OF LONDON

Scion College July 14 1724

May it please your Lordship

Since I am engaged to address the Honble Society on behalf of the Province of North Carolina the being destitute of those blessed & most inestimable privileges & means of Grace that is so conducible to their present comforts & their future Salvation which all the Isles and Provinces around here are so happily furnished with, would be a culpable error in me should I neglect the most Honoble methods of endeavoring to obtain those agreeable helps that is so much wanted & it is most earnestly desired by them Therefore under my apprehension I know of no one that I can more suitably apply to, with the appearance of a necessary success than your Lordship & the more so as she is within the verge of your Lordships Diocese. & I hope will be as immediately under your Lordships protection. Amongst all the Isles & Provinces within your

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Diocese. There is not any at this day can be more aptly stiled the little sister that has no Breasts. But as she is now spoken for. I would submissively hope that your Lordship will suffer this to animate your concern, so eminently for her, as may be productive of some ample & valuable provision. How encouraging it must be when so Honble a patron appears at the head of so glorious a design as the propagating of the Gospel in that distant part of the world & how happy the prospect of its success when the inhabitants thereof do manifest their longing desires for such a blessing, the last Missionary that was sent was the Revd Mr Newnam & he lived but half a year amongst them, but in regard to the Honble Society's great favour, they gave the Widow not only the whole years salary being £60 but the assembly gave her £40 out of the public treasury. The Parishes in that Province are exceeding large & yet contain too few people for the Present to afford their Minister a handsome maintenance. Independent from the Honble Societys bounty. however I most humbly conceive that if the most noble Society, would be pleased to allow them 3 Misys & a salary of £50 per annum each, would be better than allowing so large a sum with one as they have the wont to do. & that £50 together with their allowance established by law being £50 per ann. their money with other considerable advantages they generally have would make a comfortable living & such as with good & frugal management, something might annually be laid up by them & I presume to believe that such 3 being allotted in this manner. viz. one for Bath County another for that part of Albemarle County, being to the westward of little River. & a 3rd for that part lying to the eastward of little River. the Division would be near equal & tho' they resided chiefly in one part of the Division, yet by frequent visiting the rest, they might give abundance of satisfaction & receive large gratuities for such visits & I know they are a people that would do all the good offices that lay in their power & are always ready to assist & encourage a laborious pious & faithful Minister. I need say no more & since the nature of the subject has constrained me to run this length it would be absurd should I attempt to make any apology Especially when I consider that so good and so necessary a work will not be deemed troublesome by your Lordship but to conclude may your Lordship be the happy Instrument of establishing the Glorious Gospel in that remote & dormetary part of the Universe and that it may be truly glorified amongst them shall be the prayer of

Your Lordships most humble & most
obedient Servant
N DUKENFIELD