Bagillt
Oct 3, 1850
Dear John,
According to your request I am writing to you as soon as
possible I can. I received your letter
on Tuesday and went to Holywell on Wednesday and I got everything all right,
only paying the same as usual, and we are very glad to hear that you are
enjoying good health, but indeed these few lines leaves us but very indifferent
. Mary Ellen has been very ill indeed,
but thank God she is getting a little better by this. We never saw Mary Ellen so ill in her life
time and I am still very lame and also your mother is still very bad with her
head. She hears nothing hardly sometimes. She is very bad today. She hears nothing hardly and that makes her
very downhearted when she is that way, and about Thomas Price, you say that you
got him for a shop mate we were very glad to hear, for we shall be thinking you
both more comfortable a good deal, and we are glad to hear that he is well
likewise and also you were sending about your brother Edwin’s wages, what he
gets is from three shillings to four shillings for a week, and I was talking to
Mr. Gleave some time back about him concerning his wages, that it was so
little, and what he told me was that his wages were less upon account of him
changing his work so often, but it is really so little so I said I would rather
take up a little less and for him to learn to do a little of my thing for he
turns sometimes buttons, sometimes gimblet heads, and now he is turning boxes
and so on. I believe that the lad does
learn pretty well by the account of the lads to me when I go there for chips. They told me that Edwin was getting quite a
taper with the gimblet head, sometimes he is at tops and __ and when he is
working day work they will only allow him three shillings & six pence per week,
and indeed John we have not had one penny from him this many a month, for we
got a very large stock of firewood from them some time back. They were short of timber there and they were
casting lots of old stuff as they had in yard, and let us to have about twenty
tons of stock by us, and therefore Edwin is obliged to leave his nights there altogether,
therefore it ____ him to be very experienced to ___ as you know it must, and he
is growing now very much and getting a strong lad now and he must have some
clothing. He has altered very much since
you saw him and they have been very badly off this season. They have lost a deal of time by that, and
hear’s the money as you have been so good as to send. We are very thankful to you for your
kindness towards us for you certainly have been very good but as for the two
pounds we shall be short in making the rent up.
The Lord knows we have not one shilling towards them and we do not know
where they are to come from for it is shocking poor here, for we can hardly
scrape a might of meat and pay, for it growing still worse here alltogether and
we do not know what to do for the best, and your mother is alltogether wanting
me to make my mind up and sell all as we have in the next spring and come over
to America for she is quite tired of this country altogether.
I have to inform you that there is three men gone from here
to South America for Columbia to a smelting works there. They started there three weeks last Friday
from here to Southampton to go by mail from there. They were John Williams, Tailor Trunan, and
Ishmael Jones & family, the queen of Trumps (his wife) as lived by the
Bagillt gate, and William Hughes & wife, son to __ Hughes as married Nelly Cash. They got £10 per month and agreed for six
years. I hope they will arrive safe to
their destination, poor fellows for they
have taken a long leap and I hope that they may prosper. They say here that
they were going to a very hot place, and about William Jones Downey, you wanted
to know, there came a letter from him the same day as yours came here, and he
is in the same place, and he says that he is very comfortable at present, and
he is working in a brimstone quarry, and he is a gaffer there I believe.
William Pary and family sends their kind regards to you all
of them and am very glad to hear that you are enjoying good health. Likewise your cousin John Davies of Caerwys
was here within these three weeks. They
desired to be kindly remembered to you all of them and that they are all well
and likewise John Hughes, Boot and Shoemaker Walk, wishes to be kindly remembered to you and
wishes very often that he was somewhere near you in America. Your sister, Mary Ellen, desires me to tell
you that Jane Pary has gone too high to follow her now, for she cannot afford
to get nothing to dress herself gay enough to follow her. Michael Toms desired me very much for to be
kindly remembered to you and that you are well and that you may prosper, that
is his wish.
I have to inform you that Mr. Jones, the parson, is going to
leave Bagillt in about five weeks. He is
going to some part of south Wales. I
have not got to know what part not yet, and Mr. Edward Jones, brother to Mr.
Jones of Holywell, he is in Birkenhead at Liverpool at present. We can let you know more in our next. He is coming to Bagillt instead of Mr.
Jones.
So your brothers and sisters send their kind regards to you
all of them and that they are all well at present, but Robert Jones was at home
last week all week. He had a very bad
cold and it caused a great swelling on the side of his neck and it broke on the
inside of his mouth, but he is at work this week. Likewise Mr. Jones the watchmaker and family
sends his kind respects to you for I saw them yesterday and they very well in
health. All of your __ and friends desire
to be kindly remembered to you and glad that you are well and wishes you
well.
So no more at present from your dutiful father and mother,
Robert & Sarah Benjamin
You must give your kindest respects to Thomas Price and we
wish you both well and that you may prosper well.
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