Dedham, Mass
United States
America
February 10, 1851
My dearest Elizabeth,
In reply to yours of the 17th inst., I beg to say
that it gave me very great pleasure to hear you being in the full enjoyment of
good health, as I am happy to say that this leaves me quite well at present,
thanks be to God for it. Your letter
only came to hand last Thursday. It had
been delayed at the home of the post officer here for two or three days after
the arrival of the steamer. You will ere,
this I dare say, of received the last letter I wrote to you from Bridgewater
previous to my leaving there for Dedham.
Your letter that you wrote to me before this last one I have not
received, as I suppose it will be in the steamer Atlantic , which sailed from
Liverpool on the 29th December, and has not arrived here yet, and
there is great anxiety respecting her.
Some thinks that she is lost, and others think, which is the most
likely, that some accident has happened to her machinery and that she has to
sail the best way she can. If so, it
will take her a long time to make the passage as steam packets cannot sail as
fast as a sailing vessel can.
I must needs say that it affords me very great pleasure to
hear of the generosity of your brothers.
I do assure you that they will at all times be most highly esteemed by
me for their kindness towards you, although if I recollect right I have never
had the pleasure of the personal acquaintance of only one of them, that is your
brother Joseph. For all that, their
good will and noble actions will be most
highly thought of by one who is personally strange to them, & one who is
casted on to the broad world like themselves to fight his way through the
trials & troubles of this present world to obtain a living in the most honest
and upright way possible. Please to
present them with my warmest respects & my many wishes for their welfare.
Since I last wrote to you I have wrote home to acquaint them
of your intention to come out to the country in the spring. The letter I will have no doubt but what they
have believed on this, & perhaps that they have made mention of the same to
you. If not, you can say something to
them on the subject. I shall write to
them again soon as I expect an answer from them to the same letter in a week or
two. I have no doubt but what father
would afford you any instructions as to the best way for you to obtain your
money from your uncle, that is, if you only say a word to him about it first.
I have to inform you of my ___ to Boston the other day to
make enquiries about the sailing of the ships from Liverpool for Boston closing
this year and have got a list of them, but must defer telling you at present by
which ship you ought to come for want of information on the part of Mr. T.
Price from South Wales, which he expects to get in about two weeks from this,
as the letters he should of received
with particulars from these is supposed to be in the missing Steamer
Atlantic, but he has wrote to them again and he expects an answer in another
fortnight from this. In the meantime,
you can hold yourself in readiness as I have told you before that Miss James
(Mr. Price’s intended) has to dispose of the property she was left her after
her father and mother’s deaths. I
suppose she will sell all by auction which will be the best way for her to turn
it all into money as soon as she can.
As regards your bringing anything with you on the weight allowance,
I believe it to be half ton measure.
____ in this country is a cheap as in England or cheaper, but chinaware
are a great deal dearer. Anything that
you think may be useful, you are at liberty to bring with you, for the officers
of the custom house here are not so particular as they are at Liverpool. When we landed here they never asked to see
our things at all, only asked who they belonged to. I told him that they were ours & then he
asked our trades. When I told him, he
said you can pass, and that’s about all that passed between us. Anything they think you have brought for your
own use I believe that they don’t object to anyone bringing such things with
them, but if they think a person is going to make a trade of such things, they
at all times detect them & they inflict a fine upon them.
I shall again write to you shortly as I expect an answer to
my last letter to you before I left Bridgewater, which I hope you have
received, when I shall let you know more what to bring. At the same time, I don’t think it a very
wise plan for you to lay out your money for anything but what you can really
not do without. Anything else that you
may have by you and can conveniently bring in without it being too much trouble
for you.
As my paper is getting short I must draw to a close for the
present. The papers I have sent regular
with the exception of one week when I sent you instead the Brother Jonathon,
which I hope has come to hand. I sent
for you last week enclosed in the newspaper a bill of fare for a most splendid
supper that was given to the fire department of this town last week when my
friend T. P. and myself was invited & we enjoyed ourselves. First note, there was about two hundred
gentlemen __ ___. Mr. Price desires to be most kindly remembered
to you and hopes to see you soon, and believe me my dearest dear to remain
yours most affectionately,
John
Plans for Elizabeth's journey to America are heating up! Will she EVER get the money from her uncle?
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