Bagillt
May 1, 1852
Dear John & Elizabeth,
We are sorry that we have to trouble you so much as we are
both as we are obliged to do it in hopes to find you in perfect health as this
leaves us just the same, but your brother Edwin is getting a little better than
he has been, and as for Elizabeth’s uncle he would not have nothing to do with
anything as he has had, and as soon as he read the last note he comes out to me
and tells me that that was of no use to him atall for it was the same as he had
had before and that he would not pay the money atall without a stamp receipt
from Elizabeth’s hand, and that I must get a receipt for the 30 pounds as he
has paid to Joseph ___ before she went away, that he had nothing to show for
them, and then if I would get the both receipts and send them to America for
Elizabeth to sign them and when they would return then he would pay and not
until then, and Mr. Maurice has told me that he told him on the street one day that he would pay me the
money when the receipts would come, and when I went to him with the note he
told me himself that he had told Mr. Maurice that he would pay the money when I
could produce the receipts for the 30 pounds and the 20 pounds, likewise, and
have them signed by Elizabeth herself , therefore the hope that neither of you
will take it unkind on us for being so troublesome, for this place has gotten
so sorry that we cannot do nothing now and cannot afford a shilling for to pay
the one letter now, and it troubles us about that very much but we cannot help
ourselves at the present, and you were talking of Sunday for your brother Edwin
to come out, he is very willing any day or any time as you would think proper
for to send for him, for he sees that he is sadly being put upon, for they got
but a very little trifle for what they are doing, for there is your brother
James he getting a very good lad according to what your brother Edwin tells me
himself, for he has got to his work that he does not care whether they set him
to turning work or sawing, and all the men in the place likes him so well that
they want to get him one from the other, and he is at sawing now and they only
allow him 6 per day the same as another lot of lads as is sawing, and Edwin
tells us that your brother James can saw as much as any two of them almost
every day, and it is so very slack in the concern at present that they dast not say
anything, and when I was reading your
letter to the both last night he James made an answer that if in case that you should
send for Edwin that you should send for him likewise, that he was the boy for
America, and they mean to write a letter to you in my next and then you shall
see they done with the night school at present, for them as was keeping schools
has given them up, your brother James is
thriving uncommon now, lately is very little short of Edwin only Edwin
is shorter a good bit but we believe that he will be, if God sends that will
get his health that he will be a taller man than his brother according how he
has growed [sic] lately, and about Robert Jones is coming when I read the part
of the letter as you sent in your last,
he said that he would prepare to come
out as soon as he could for there is three of them working together on the line
and the three means to come together, and there is one of them has a lot come
as he wants to sell before he can start, and that they think in about five
weeks’ time, and they mean to make an enquiry from now to then where would
their best place for to make for, and if you could give him any information about
his own that is in the wool trade, where would be the best place, he would be very glad, and as you was talking
of the English the both has better English than you would think of for the both
is talking English every day, and about your mother to, I do not know what to
think of her, she wants to come to America altogether and wants me to make a
sale on everything and she cannot sleep at nights but thinking about America
and she keeps telling everybody and every day that she would go next day if I
only would say the word start, you would
not believe and says that she is sally bent that she could not come over in
time for horse tending, for she worse after this last letter than before after
hearing that she was to be a grandma there in America.
Hope for you to write as soon as you can. Your brothers and sisters sends their kind
respects to you both and accept the same from your father and mother,
Robert & Sarah Benjamin
Now John's mother, Sarah, wants to come to America. And......she is going to be a grandmother!!!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteBob -
Interesting insight into the possibility that our ancestors were bilingual (the comment about the boys speaking English every day, also Elizabeth's comment to John in an earlier letter regarding John's 'forgetting his Welsh'). Only in the twentieth century was Welsh given official recognition; these days, all road signs, etc. in Wales are bilingual, and families can choose to send their children to schools where all the instruction is given in the Welsh language (actually the preferred schools in Wales, as their students tend to score higher academically than those attending the English-language schools in Wales!)
What a loss to us that this ancient (500 years older than English!) language was not kept as a 'family heirloom'!!
Diolch yn fawr (thank you very much)
Joan
PS: Sorry, but speaking as a linguist, monolingualism is one of my pet peeves!