From the Humanym archive

Samuel Johnson to Lucy Porter, 1759

Johnson writes to his stepdaughter, grieving that he cannot make up to his late mother for how he treated her while she lived.

23 Jan. 1759.

You will conceive my sorrow for the loss of my mother, of the best mother. If she were to live again, surely I should behave better to her. But she is happy, and what is past is nothing to her; and for me, since I cannot repair my faults to her, I hope repentance will efface them. I return you and all those that have been good to her my sincerest thanks, and pray God to repay you all with infinite advantage. Write to me and comfort me, dear child. I shall be glad likewise, if Kitty will write to me. I shall send a bill of twenty pounds in a few days, which I thought to have brought to my mother; but God suffered it not. I have not power or composure to say much more. God bless you, and bless us all.

Why this letter

Sarah Johnson, Samuel Johnson's mother, died in January 1759 at the age of ninety, in Lichfield, while her son was in London and unable to reach her in time. Lucy Porter was Johnson's stepdaughter from his marriage to Elizabeth Porter and had been caring for Sarah in her final illness. This short letter, written the same day Johnson learned of his mother's death, is full of regret that he was not a better son to her, and encloses money toward her funeral costs; tradition holds that Johnson wrote his novel Rasselas that same week to help pay for it.

Provenance

Author: Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
To: Lucy Porter, his stepdaughter
Written: 23 January 1759
Source: Selected English Letters (XV-XIX Centuries), arranged by M. Duckitt and H. Wragg (1913)
Rights: Public domain — Samuel Johnson died in 1784; this text follows this edition's transcription of the letter.

This text follows Selected English Letters (XV-XIX Centuries), arranged by M. Duckitt and H. Wragg (1913).