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West Malling | Maidstone
March 21. 1865

Revd Sir,

In the number of the “Church Times”, {1} which I take the liberty to send you, you will find a notice of a work on “the Christians of St Thomas” by the Rev. G. B. Howard. As the review contains a very offensive allusion to my late dear & revered father, I am of course anxious to do anything I can to vindicate his memory from so grievous a slur as is there thrown upon it. You will doubtless remember the circumstances referred to, & if you can kindly give me authority to say that your opinion of my father’s conduct is not that of the reviewer, I shall be indeed obliged to you.

I am, Revd Sir, | Yours faithfully
J. W. Doran, | clerk, M.A.

The Venerable | Archdeacon Robinson | DD. | Master of the Temple.

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{1} 18 March 1865.

{2} The Christians of St Thomas and their Liturgies (Oxford and London: John Henry and James Parker, 1864).

{3} One passage in the review records that the last days of Bishop Heber were employed in an attempt to heal a dispute between two candidates for primacy among the St Thomas Christians, ‘a design defeated by the carelessness and sloth of his chaplain Doran, whom he had selected to convey his letters of counsel to the rival prelates’.

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Private

The Precincts. {1}
March 29th 1865.

Revd & dear Sir,

Your letter, being addressed unfortunately to my empty house at the Temple, has only just reached me at this place, together with a copy of the “Church Times”.

I have carefully read the Article in that Journal to which you refer, & have no sympathy with the language there used with regard to the Ch: Missionary Society, its Missionaries in Travancore, & our Indian Bishops.

I remember your good Father with affection & respect, having been Chaplain to Bishop Heber, when His Lordship invited your Father to join his party in travelling from Madras to the South; & I do not wonder at the pain you feel in reading the reviewer’s mention of his name. But I am bound to say to you in all truth, as I said publickly to the world many years ago, that I exceedingly deplored his withholding the two letters which the Bishop entrusted to his care. addressed to Mar Athanasius the legate of the Patriarch; which had they been delivered, would have saved the unhappy consequences of his imprisonment & banishment. Bishop Heber was empowered by the Governor of Madras not only to prevent the dismissal of the Legate, but to assign him a salary for his maintenance in the Diocese of Malabar, as Archbishop with the two native Bishops as his suffrages. {2} His Lordship was most anxious to preserve unbroken the dependance† of the Syriac Church in Travancore on the Patriarch of Antioch, both on the ground of clear & undoubted justice of claim, but for the great value of the connection among their heathen neighbours.

It was my duty to detail the circumstances of the failure of his endeavours to the Patriarch after his death, & at the same time to the Archbishop of Canterbury; & you will find the whole of the correspondence in “the last days of Bishop Heber” published in London in 1830. I believe it is quite out of print now; but if you will favor me with a call at the Temple (where I hope to be next week) I shall be happy to lend you the volume. You will see the impossibility of my altering my expression of regret at the course your excellent Father pursued; in deference, I have no doubt, to his seniors in the Mission, but unfortunately neutralizing the entire plan of our Bishop.

I would earnestly advise you not to notice the review at all.

Believe me, dear Sir, | very faithfully yours,
Thos Robinson

I am generally at home at the Temple till 12.

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Some abbreviations have been expanded.

{1} Robinson lived in the Cathedral Precincts at Rochester, where he was a canon.

{2} A slip for ‘suffragans’?

† Sic.

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Precincts. May 12th.

My dear Charlie

I received a summons early this morning & reached this at 1.30. we found a great change had set in; & I believe the end draws very near. Our dear Father appears to be in a sort of trance, perfectly unconscious of all surroundings & has neither opened his eyes nor attempted to speak since Saturday night. I gently hold his lips open while Mrs R. puts beef jelly or wine in, but half returns again. The Dr says he may rally from this stupor but I feel he will gently sleep away. his face is very beautiful, so that I feel fain to write life not death has set in. but it wears a settled calm look, & the eye shows no sign of vision. I am thankful dear Mrs R. realizes that this is the “beginning of the end” to day, & is able to fix her mind thro’ her great sorrow on the joy awaiting him.

You will understand I write for her. Yrs very lovingly
Mary

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Precincts. May 25th.

My dearest Mrs Wood,

Each day I have been wishing to thank you for your loving words of sympathy with our loss, & with my loved & honored Father’s gain. Who that knew him truly could fail to praise & bless our gracious Father for having called him into his immediate presence, indeed my thoughts seem for ever to dwell on his joy; I feel it must be so intense with the Saviour he so loved & all the loved spirits gone before with whom his was so perfectly in harmony. I am indeed thrice blessed in the love of such a Father & while the flesh & the heart grieve because of our weakness it is so happy to think of him now. & to see him beckoning us to follow into our true home. I quite realize the orphan feeling now the last link is broken, but we are not less a family because some are “gathered in” These are sad sad days & weeks dismantling the old home, so many & varied feelings arise in the 12 hours. I am staying on a little trying to do my part, & because I could not find it in my heart to leave poor Mrs R. while she needed me, She is familiarized with my presence having been with her in the earliest burst of her grief. that was a cold chilly early dawn on the 13th from two oC. till sunrise. but two that wept together then are fit to sojourn together yet a few weeks longer. Never did death touch more lightly, & tenderly any child of man, as if indeed he had no victory there. It was life not death that reigned on his face. & I was fain to say in my heart “Thanks be to God”—

I do indeed feel for Esther—I wish she could have looked on his dear face once again in life or in death, I think it would have robbed the King of terrors of the sway he has over our weak minds! I long to fly over to Esther at once—but I have a little work for others that must be finished first & if all be well August will be a sweet restful month for me. Glad indeed shall I be to see you in Town if we can so arrange it. I have rejoiced silently in your own recovery, & in your work for dear Margaret’s restoration last winter. I have been so blessed in recovering my strength before this trial of it came upon me, I should have been so useless to everybody a year ago.

I was threatened with a severe illness to my Ret {1} last week & we were very fearful for 24 hours—but that too was averted

How good God is to us.

My best love to you | Ever yours very lovingly
Mary Lightfoot

My kind love to Julia please

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{1} Reading uncertain.