Bagillt
September 23, 1853
Dear Children,
I am for once more taking the pleasure of sending these few
lines to you in answer to yours of the 5th inst. and very sorry to
hear of you both been so bad with your hands, and in another instance very glad
to hear that you was all well in health, also that your brother Edwin arrived
safe and in good health, and also that we hope he will strive and do his best
to please both you and his sister Elizabeth, and that you will be well
satisfied in him with his work, and we was very glad to hear him say in his
letter that you was so kind as to prepare to meet him against he arrived at
Boston. We thought it so grand on you
for so doing and he ought to be very thankful to you, for I am sure that your
mother and myself is very thankful to you for your kindness towards him, and we
hope that he shall be able before long to pay you a good recompense for so
doing, and we hope that he has told you how he stood in the world that is with
us at home, that is how expensive it was to start him from home, and as I have
to inform you that Mr. Faulks has got settled about this home and he has paid
the money, and now we are in a sad state with repairing the house, and we was
exposed to the open air for about four or five days last week by having the
roof off the house, but thanks be to God the weather favored us well through
the whole time and we are having a thorough good repair at last. He says that he will make it the first house
in Bagillt and he is going to make the front up with cement and going to
ruffcast all about the back part, and going to get some large pots from Buckley
and the Chimleys all, and with all things there will not be such a house in the
whole place as it will be, and he is making it into a public house and giving
us the privilege of keeping it he says if we can purchase a license and prepare
everything as required, and that he shall do his best for us ___ and that he
sees that we have hand reared our family now and that he thought that we might
do as well as anybody in the place and pay for it to, and there was a
respectful person with him in the shop last week making enquiry about the house
and saying to him that I did not work at all, how did he expect to have his
rent from me, and I was told by a friend that he must make an answer that I
paid my way to everybody and why could not I pay him as well, but howsomever
that he would try me, and everybody in the neighborhood is against us giving it
up, that we shall stand the best chance of any in the place nearly, and therefore
if you and Edwin would be so kind as to assist us in this chance it might be
that we should not have the occasion to trouble you much after, for Edwin I
suppose has told you that we was obliged
to borrow money beside what you was so kind as to send, and all as you sent did
go and then it made us to be half a year more in debt, and that is we shall owe
Mr. Faulks a twelve month’s rent by Christmas and he paid the half hear as was
due , and if we will settle with him the twelve month at Christmas that it will
be all right. Therefore your mother and
myself hopes that you both will not forget us by then, and your brother has
made a fair promise before he started for he knew all as well as our selfs how
everything stood with us, but we hope that we must not trouble you much
more. Mr. Faulks wishes us to keep a
steady house and the mean to do so, and he has desired for us yesterday for to
give his kind respects to you all and that he wishes you to prosper well in the
new world, and you must excuse my righting [sic] for it is getting late on me
for I cannot right in the day time now for I am obliged to look after all the
men and keep their time, for he has left all to me and he only comes once a day
for to see how is the ___ getting on, and we are going to have all of the
premises walled all round, therefore I believe there is enough upon that ___
now for I must turn a little to something else now.
PS - Your mother desires me to send to you that she is very
thankful to you both for making such a preparation
against your brother coming over and that you may be well aware how hard it was
upon her starting him off just the same as when you both made a start before
him, only she knows that if the Lord would permit him to prosper in his voyage
that he was going to have a better home than we had for him, and another thing
we hope that the little M.A. Ellen has received her ___ with her teeth ere
this.
Therefore your brothers and sisters all sends their kind
respects to you and that they should of been very glad if they could of sent
something better than they did do with your brother but it cannot be helpt
[sic].
You must excuse me for not writing a letter to Edwin this
time as I told you above that I am busy but I shall next time, and your brother
James will likewise, and he expects to have some good news from you the next
time as you promise to send to him, and he expects that you both will not allow
him to remain long in this poor country, for 4 or 5 shillings per week is
enough for them to allow him for his work, and also all your old neighbors and
friends was very glad to hear that your brother Edwin arrived safe and
everybody sends their kindest respects to you all as a family they say. Now therefore I must draw to a close at
present for it is getting late, and all this from your dutyful father and
mother,
Robert & Sarah Benjamin
PS Elizabeth’s uncle stopped with me one day last week and
asked me if Faulks was going to make the house into a pubic house and I
answered yes, and he asked againwho was going to have it, if I was to have it,
and I said I was, and he was quite surprised, and away he goes.
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