Bagillt
May 31, 1850
Dear John,
I received your letter on the 11th of May, being
date on the 12th of April and the first post mark was on it was
Wellington ___. What was the reason for
that I do not know and both myself and your mother was very uneasy about your
being so long as twelve weeks without hearing from you, but however we were
very glad to hear that you were both of you enjoying good health as this leaves
us just the same as well, but I keep very lame and we are very glad that you get to see one another
comfortable now and then and more so that you are both doing well.
Mr. Gleave informed me on his last letter that you was going
to shift further into the country about 40 or 50 miles but you have not
mentioned nothing in your letter to me, and Dear John I expect that you are not
going to break any of your promises that you made to us before you went away
for you sent in your letter before the last that we must try to get money for
to pay our rent ourselves, but however I have been trying some of those
attorneys and they will have nothing to do with this and as for putting them in
the small debt court it is of no use at all for I have been enquiring about
that, people paying money in there for
to get their debt in and at last the debtors pay their debt in to court and the
creditor is in debt to the court at last, and indeed if you need to know how
sorry it is at Bagillt at present you would be sadly impressed for all those
smelting works has not been working only three and four days a week now these
six months now all of them, and then the collierys they are worth nothing as you may say for the Colleshillt Company
has bought the top hill colliery and then they have the whole management of
Bagillt all together, and then you may think how it is with them, they are
obliged to take what they please to give them and indeed it is likely as to get
worse still if possible, for they are
___ of making turn outs now for to bring coal along with the railway for the
smelting works all together and if possible it will make the place worse, and
indeed I do not know what will come of people in the place, and indeed John if
you do not believe me you can write to any one in Bagillt, to William Parry, or
any one as you please, they can tell you the same, for the oldest person in
Bagillt never knew it to be one fourth so bad as it is at present and we are
surprised that you do not send to William Parry before this and he cannot think
what is the reason himself how it is that you do not send to him and he cannot
think what he has done, and both himself and all the family sends their kindest
repsects to you and that they are all well, excepting his brother Thomas Parry
has not been, but with his ___ from two to three months since been unwell and
comes but very little better, and their brother James Parry has got married to
John Jones the Carpenter’s daughter as was keeping the travelers rest
about three months back, and a very
drunken wedding there was with him and every one as was there but no one of the
family was near there at all, and to inform you that your sister Sophia has
been confirmed of a boy about the 15th of April and she is getting
on but slowly and she got scalded and that kept her back. Scalded her leg and it has not got well but
it is getting better a little and they have christened the boy John, he was to
be for some time after he was born, John Benjamin Williams, but however he was
not called so, and I have to inform you that we have gotten a very nice young
man for a curator (?) here. He is a
south man the same as Mr. Jones and he has taken to give us a call now and then
and I had a great discourse with him in the parlour one day last week, and I
should think by him that he had got to know from Mr. Jones about you and I told
a good deal about you and I sent him a couple of your newspapers and very glad
he was to have them. Mr. Jones sent here
some time back for your address for to write you and I took it to the church
for him and I have never got to know whether he sent to you or not, and dear
John we are very sorry that we have to complain so much to you but it
really is very sorry here as I have explained it before to you, for we do
not know what to do, for we only scrape a small ___ and that not as we ought to
have it, but thank God for the small bit we do get, but the ____ rates is
gotten so heavy that people cannot pay them at all and they are out with their
summonses every month, and they have gone so hard on the poor in the union at
present that they have set them to eat
barley bread and upon nearly half the quantity of everything else as they used
to have, and there is the governor as used to be there he has given his place
up, he could not think of serving the poor as they wanted him to do.
Therefore dear John
about our rent we do not know what to do about it at all. It will be due on the 1st of July and another thing the twelve months will be up
with the assinees now directly and when they come and us not having them ready, we shall be __ away immediately and then I do
not know what will become of us, for you complained in your letter that we kept
draining you of your money that you could never get on, but I hope that you
will pray to God for grace, health and strength and that you may prosper in all
cases, that is your mother and myselfs prayers
for you both night and day, and we hope the Lord will bestow his charity
upon you at all times and grant our request, and we believe that what we did
get from you, that if it is anything better with you now than when you was at
home, it would not of harmed you in the least, but however we were very
thankful for it when we did get it, therefore I hope the Lord will keep in in
your heart and mind that you will not forget your poor father and mother while
they are, if it lays in your power.
Another thing you do promise to send a long letter different
times. It is a long time in coming and
again you have never sent to us what place of worship you have to go to and what
distance you have to go for it. We shall
wish to know very much.
So your cousin Jones and family sends their kindest respects
to you and that they are all well and I told him about you going to send your
picture and he is begging very much for to see it when it comes and I have
promised him that he should, for he draws so much himself now. So your brothers and sisters and all
enquiring friends sends their kindest respects to you all, and to Thomas Price likewise,
and should like to hear from him at any time.
So no more from your dutiful father and mother,
Robert & Sarah Benjamin
Your mother says as this, think of me . Here is your mother’s mark *SB + Mary Ellen Benjamin
No comments:
Post a Comment