Well-off people bought expensive writing papers many of which are little changed in two hundred years; poor people bought cheap papers which have aged badly. The two letters transcribed below appear to have been much handled but the effect of such handing is amplified by the weakness of the paper’s structure. They are falling apart and bits have fallen off.
William
Coyne is a weaver living on the Falls Road Belfast with his wife Elizabeth. The
precise details relating to payment for weaving suggests to me that it was
William who wrote the letters though they are signed off by both husband and
wife. The letters are addressed to William’s brother Henry who has emigrated to
Canada.
The
letters are catalogues of illness and death and low wages; one line indicates that a passage out to North America will cost about £10, equivalent to forty weeks wages for the lowest paid worker on five shillings per week and twenty weeks for someone doing rather better on ten shillings.
First
Letter
Addressed
to: Mr Henry Coyne County of
Middlesex Township of Brunswick London
District Upper Canada
Datelined:
Belfast 29 May 1827
No
legible postal markings, carried by hand to Canada and posted there; charge
marking “10 ½”
Dear
Brother
I
have just met with a person gawing to Cannada and has onley time to write a few
lines hopeing that they will have the good fortune to reach you but we have
wrote so frequently every Season that I almost despair of ever hearing from you
There
is great desolation in the family since you left this Country Sill and his son
is long since Dead so is your Aunt Mary and as for H.Procters family they are
nearly extenct – my own family has been in a very poor State of health this
many months past the onley girl we have
alive – (Eliza) has been in the Hospital this 13 weeks in a Feaveaur [?] but we expect that in a few days
she will be able to come out our eldest boy Henry is also in a poor state of
health the rest of the Familey thank God is tolarble so is your Sister Betty
and her Familey – dear Brother as the person is just waiting I have not time to
give you more particulars onley let me say that trade never was so miserably
bad the gratest earning that the best tradsman can make is from 5 to 7 [presumably
shillings] per week and all kinds of provisions high – I trust and hope that
this will have the good fortune to [torn] you although many a score [torn]wrote
but we are led to [torn] that they had never rech[ed you]
God
grant that this may [torn]to hand and find you and your Familey as well and as
Happy as we do wish [torn]add no more but remains dear Brother Sister and
Friends your ever affectionate Brother and Sister
Wm.
and Elizabeth Coyne.
Second
Letter
Addressed
to: Mr Henry Coyne Port Talbot
County of Middlesex London
District Upper Canada
Datelined:
Belfast March 29th 1828
No
legible postal markings; probably carried by hand to Canada and posted there;
charge marking “10 ½”
Dear
Brother Sister and Friends
We
have recived your letter of the 25 Decr. likewise one dated the 28 J[anuary]
which are the onley Letters we have received Since you went to Cannada
excepting one wrote the year after you went there – it gives us great
Comforting to know that your waurldly Circumstance is such as render you every
comfort that this waurld can afford and your kind offers towards us would be
excepted with gladness was it in our power to imbrease the opportunity but the
state of trade this many years back has put every mains of the kind out of the
power of the working Classes who have nothing but their la[bour] to depend on.
I will give you a Statement of the Sort of work we have at present and it is
considred among the best that is to be had – the 2 boys Henry & John are
wor[king] 16 ½ Lawns 5/4 with 180 in the warp and [torn] the weft at 5 ½
[pence] per Ell [?] I am warking 14 ½ at 3 3/8 so nice is the scale of prices
at pr[esent] that the Manufacturier will divide a penny into 8 parts one
halfpenny is all that is give for the set of a reed till they go the linth of 16 from this you may have some
idea of the way that weavers lives at present – we are all working for Glasgaw
[?] we have several Scotch companies here which is a great Chack on the impositions
of the old Manufacturier –the plan that you mention of William going might do
was he free but he is onley in the 4th year of his time he is with
Mr Marshal which is considred one of the best Houses for trade in the North
they have always on the Bond [?]from 20 to 30 of the best workmen as none else
will be imployed so that we have reason to expect he will be a good tradesman –
yours Sister Betty is in a poor Sate of Health the rest of the Familey is all well and doing well. Wm is at yearly
employment with a Linen Merchants down Lisburn Street. John is in a printfield
where he has been there some years past, and Henry is at the tailoring trade
with Mr Mack in Bridge Street – my Father in law is still alive but so very poorly
that he can hardly go from the bed to the fire the old woman has been dead
these 7 or 8 years the 2 boys are well and all sends their kind Love to you and
they Familey
Thomas
Gardners wife is well and lives on part of the farm her Son live on the rest of
the Land and is married to a full cousin of his own of the name of Watson the
daughter is maried and living in Balandary. Betty Clark is alive her and Tom
sends their love to you, Georgie Snell has been in America these 10 or 12 years
the rest of the familey all died here in
great poverty except the son who is with A McDonald his wife is also dead the
whole familey of the Montgomerys is dead only Mrs Barner – Bob Caldwell is dead
the rest of they Familey is well James Proctor and Familey is well up there is
none of the Hardys in the Country except Mrs Miskinons and old Charly [torn] them
James and the Familey is. John & daughter are married Anns Husband is of
the name of Morason but they are both fond of the Bottle which keeps them in a
wracthed state of poverty. Sister Neley is well and her daughter Mary is gawing
to new York in the corse of next month to her husband who has been there these
some years and has sent her £10 to take her and the Child over. I had almost
forgot Mr McCray he is still alive but sadly reduced in waurdly circumstances he
lives with his Son Archy in Talbot Street but is never to be seen. Sam and the
wife is living but in a wratched state of poverty – we can add no more but
remains your affectionate Brother and Sister Wm. And Elizabeth Coyne
Direct
to me Reeds Row [?] … Falls Road Belfast
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