1841 Archibald Kelso in Jamaica to John Gladstone in Liverpool, plantation owner father of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone

 

In the recent past a postal history dealer put this letter into one of their boxes at a pencilled price of 75p. Since it had been carried “by hand” – that is to say, outside the Royal Mail system -   from Kingston Jamaica to Liverpool England it has no postal markings and thus of no interest to postal history collectors.

After slavery was abolished in 1833, John Gladstone (1764-1851; from 1846 Sir John Gladstone) put in a successful claim for compensation which proved to be the largest of all pay-outs:  £106,769 for the loss of 2,508 enslaved people on plantations in British Guiana and Jamaica and equivalent to about £10 million at today’s prices taking 1837 as the base year.  Rather than employ people who were now free, Gladstone - who was always an absentee owner -  sought to employ indentured labourers imported from India; this proved unsuccessful and in this 1841 letter it is clear that Gladstone (now aged about 77) is trying to sell or lease out his estates rather than continue to own and actively manage them. One interested party is Alexander Gladstone who is not his son (despite what AI tells me) and is almost certainly not a near relative; he is at present an estate manager as indicated by a passage in the letter. The UCL database does not  list Alexander Gladstone as a claimant under the compensation act; as a manager he would not have owned slaves and if he progressed to owning or leasing estates - as the letter suggests he will - it was in the post-slavery period. 

The Estate which is called “Lacovia” in the letter appears in the UCL slavery database as “Shaws” in quotation marks and is grouped with Holland as it is in this letter.  

In the letter Archibald Kelso, currently Gladstone’s agent in Kingston Jamaica, reports back to him; letters between Kelso and  John Gladstone and his brother Robertson Gladstone are  held in archives including the Gladstone Library, formerly known as St. Deiniol's Library.

Transcription

Addressed to: John Gladstone Esqr Liverpool

Datelined: John Gladstone Esqr   Kingston   14^th May 1841

Docketing notes: 1841 Archd. Kelso to J.G. Kingston 14^th May / Tems of lease of Holland & Lacovia to J Gldstone. Produce on hand of Oxford, Eden & Fair Prospect; Recd 8 July 1841

My dear Sir

The two last Packets have brought me yours of the 13^th, 15^th, 24^th, 27^th Mar to the several contents of which I pay due attention.

The mail for England will be despatched tomorrow morning. I regret that the time of its departure had not been a few hours later, when I should have have had it in my power to communicate the result of our [auction] Sale. At present I am unable to say anything more of our prospects than after my first arrival in the Colony. Intending purchasers, if such, as I hope, there be, keep very quiet & make no enquiries as to terms or conditions. The North side Estates will have a large portion of the present years crop left on the ground, which will be an inducement to parties to buy, & bring the price nearer to what you fixed for them, but otherwise Mr Wilson, & Davies as well, consider that none would give the money required. The former says his subsequent letters to that of 31^st Jany to you would give you the prices of several Properties sold in the Island, by which you would see that they went low. Fair Prospect they say is generally over-valued in their opinion. If I am unable to sell at the sum fixed & also to rent, I must then according to present appearances give way considerably before getting clear of them. The crops likely to remain on the ground I had estimated when visiting the Estates.

As to Holland & Lacovia I think it will end in our leasing them to Alexr. Gladstone. I have given him your letter on the subject, & he begs me to acknowledge the receipt of it & to thank you for it. When he wrote to you about renting, he referred only to Holland but it would never do to separate them, the Lacovia people would all go to work at Holland if he were to have the latter only. The means he calculated on for paying for the Cattle were principally his Comison [Commission] on the last & present crop with some little money besides, altogether not amounting to more than £1,600 or £1,700. He hopes to get ample security but is very much averse to commiting himself with anyone else in the lease. If he rents the Properties I feel confident he will do every justice to them, he is more enterprising than most of the Planters here, & manages the people well. He does not like to go to India, if he can do anything in this country, & he is so well known & thought of that I have little doubt of his obtaining employment if he should have to seek for it [presumably as a manager elsewhere, in order to supplement his income]. Both Logan [another manager] & he are here Mr Davies recommended their coming up to answer any enquiries Bidders for the Estates might wish to make.  

Mr Davies fears, contrary to Messrs Freshfield’s expectation, that Parties here will not be satisfied with the different Titles unless completed which you are aware they were not with the view to saving the heavy stamp duties & this also will be borne in mind on their sale, & a higher price required.

I am glad to hear of the improvement which has again taken place in the Sugar Market the Account of which has come in good time to help us. The Rains on the North & East side are long of setting in, & the yielding of the Canes is getting worse & worse. I have letters from both F. Prospect [ Fair Prospect], Oxford & Eden [estates] today telling me that at all three places they have to lower their Estimates again. On the first the crop of this year made, amounts to abt [about] 22 Hhds [Hogsheads,large casks] & 8 Tces [Tierces, smaller casks]  & there remains for the year from 25 to 30 Hhds more. On Oxford there will not remain to be cut more than enough to make 60 Hhds besides the 11 Hhds & 2 Tce[Tierces] already made, & on Eden in addition to the 21 Hhds 17 Tce[Tierces] made there will remain to make about 36 Hhds. The Crops remaining of last year are

 FP      14 Hhds Sugar 4 Puns [? Puncheons, larger casks] Rum

    E      15 ---- 5 ----- 

     O     47-----23 Tces  14 ------

These will require a good many HHds to repack .... 

Click to Enlarge

What the Union [sailing ship] does not take, will be shipped as opportunities offer.

I hope to hear that the operation on your eye has fully succeeded & that you have made a good recovery, In hopes of being able to inform you of the Estates being sold in my next I remain meanwhile my dear Sir

Very sincerely yours

Archd Kelso

References

Wikipedia: Sir John Gladstone, 1st Baronet

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/search/   [UCL Legacies of British Slavery]

 

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Augustus d’Este and the Aborigines Protection Society

Augustus d’Este (1794-1848), who appears as the boy Prince Augustus elsewhere on this site (see References) saw active military service in Canada and the USA during the war of 1812-1815. Later in life, when his mobility was increasingly limited  by multiple sclerosis, he took an active part in the affairs of the London-based Aborigines Protection Society formed in 1837. He took a particular interest in the affairs of first nation Canadian populations, receiving their emissaries in his London home and using his access to government ministers to advance the petitions they brought seeking recognition of their land rights which were being eroded by European immigrant settlers supported by the colonial government of Canada.

The letter transcribed below shows him taking on financial commitments on behalf of an indigenous person named La Graisse who was prosecuted for some unclear but serious crime but acquitted. I have been unable to discover details of the case or of La Graisse’s tribal allegiance. His employment by the Hudson’s Bay Company opens the possibility that he is a native Inuit, a community often in conflict with the Hare (a sub-group of the Dene) mentioned in the letter. The writer of the letter, the Reverend Lusher (c 1787- 1849), is a prominent Methodist minister, writer, and newspaper editor. Wesleyan Methodist missionaries were deeply embedded in Canadian indigenous society and were the foremost defenders of native rights. They encouraged agricultural innovation and promoted schools (including higher level schools) for both boys and girls.

*

Transcription 

Addressed to: Sir Augustus d’Este      Connaught Square       London

Datelined: Montreal Nov 6 1840

Honoured and dear Sir

I have the pleasure to inform you that the Indian La Graisse in whose behalf you have so kindly interested yourself has at last been brought to trial, and acquitted, on the ground of the moral incompetency of the witness – the one only witness which appeared against him. I immediately took him under my care, and wrote to James Keith Esqr. of the Hudson Bay Company, resident at La Chine requesting that he might be again taken into the Company’s employ; but that he should be sent to another part of the Territory than that where the Massacre took place, as he would be in danger from the Hare, among whose tribe the outrage was committed. Mr Keith at once saw the propriety of this, and has sent him down to one of the Company’s posts below Quebec. 

La Graisse is in good health and I believe very deeply feels the obligation he is under to you for all your kindness. I asked him what I should say to you about him when I wrote to inform you of his acquittal? He said he wished me to assure you of his gratitude – that he would strive to avoid all wicked practices in future – that he hoped to be enabled to love and serve God, and finally that he should happy if he might spend the rest of his life as your servant. I believe him to be sincere and grateful.

I am sorry however now to have to inform you that in consequence of his trial being for various reasons postponed from time to time, the Fee and Expenses of Counsel will amount to nearly £90. Messrs Fisher & Smith assure me that in consideration of the nature of the case, they have made the charge as low as possible. I am not sure whether it is their intention to draw on you for the amount or wait until we have the honour to hear from you. I shall request them to await your answer. 

I feel greatly honoured and obliged by the favour of receiving two or three London papers for which I presume I am indebted to your kindness. Most earnestly do I hope that the just claims which your illustrious birth and connexions entitle you to urge, will speedily prevail to secure to you that high and Princely rank and consideration which are legitimately your due. Pardon Most Excellent Sir, so humble and obscure an individual as I am, venturing to express to you these sentiments. I do it in the sincerity and fulness of my heart, and from not only a profound respect for you as a member and Prince of the illustrious House of Hanover, and of the Royal Family of England, my beloved country; but also from admiration of your Christian condescendion and philanthropy which has led you to compassionate the case of a poor despised Indian, and at so much trouble and expense, seek to promote his temporal and eternal welfare. May “the blessing of him who was ready to perish come upon you”.

Waiting your further commands, I have the honour Illustrious and dear Sir to be

Your obedient Humble Servant

R. L. Lusher

Docketing note: No. 5 From the Revd. Lusher stating the amount of the Attorneys Bill £90 – for La Grasse’s defense. Dated November 6 Received December 16^th 1840

References

Wikipedia: Augustus d’Este

Wikipedia: Aborigines Protection Society

Dictionary of Canadian Biography: Robert Langham Lusher [author: Nathan H Mair]

Aborigines Protection Society: Report on the Indians of Upper Canada (1840) – a detailed and highly informative short work available as Print on Demand

https://www.otherpeoplesletters.com/2026/07/lady-augusta-murray-duchess-of-sussex.html

1834 Robert Sympson Jameson (1796-1854) arrives in Canada as its Attorney General and writes to his wife Anna Brownell Jameson nee Murphy (1794-1860)

The long letter transcribed below from Robert Sympson Jameson to his wife Anna in Europe was written a few months after his arrival in Upper Canada from England, following his appointment as its Attorney General based in Toronto. He describes in lively terms the election campaign which has just ended in Leeds County and resulted in his election alongside the prominent “Orange” Irishman Ogle Robert Gowan (1803-1876) whose active support he enjoyed. Gowan was based in Brockville, the principal town of Leeds County and named in the letter. Jameson fears that there will be a challenge to the result and, indeed, there was and it was successful.

He goes on to describe his work and life in Toronto where he has been visited by a physician, Dr Julius from Berlin, who is researching Canada’s economy and politics and has been travelling with a party headed by Harriet Martineau, mentioned in the letter. The book which Jameson gives him is almost certainly the Lexicon, o Vocabulario de la lengua general del Perú, by the Spanish Dominican friar Domingo de Santo Tomás and first published in 1560. Their dinner companion is Dr William “Tiger” Dunlop (1792-1848), an adventurous army officer and surgeon who fought in the war of 1812 and later was a leading figure in the development of the Huron Tract in southern Ontario.

The letter concludes with expressions of hope that his better-known author and activist wife Anna Brownell Jameson nee Murphy (1794-1860) will join him and describes the beginnings of a project to build a house to her taste. The marriage had not been a success and though Anna did join him in 1836 she left after less than a year. 

Robert Sympson Jameson  circa 1840

*

Transcription

Addressed to: Mrs Jameson   7 Mortimer Street   Cavendish Square   London

Re-directed: à Madame Mde Jameson   Poste restante à Vienna

Postmarked: TORONTO OC 30 1834; Transit marks of Liverpool, London, Amsterdam; arrival mark of WIEN 17 DEC

Datelined: Upper Canada      Lake of a Thousand Islands      12 October

 

My dearest Anna

I commence this on the river Laurence where I am on board one of our splendid steam packets gliding up towards lake Ontario. I left Brockville late last night a Knight of the Shire having carried the County most conclusively – to the astonishment and dismay of the enemy who retired from the contest on the fourth day of the poll. I have gone through a fortnight of such exercise in all weathers enough to knock up a weak man; but the only inconvenience I feel is literally that my right hand is benumbed and in pain from the grips and thumbscrewing of the Leeds yeomanry, whose hands have exercised the axe to some purpose and whose manual expression of devotion often compelled a tear as well as a smile. I did not like to speak with much confidence of my return for the County, which as it is the largest & by far the most populous in the province has always appeared to be the most disaffected to the Government. When therefore previous to the General Election I accepted the Requisition it appeared both to the Government and their opponents a most hopeless attempt. I had never been in the County and had nothing to rely on but a little personal popularity, which some very ardent friends made the utmost use of – except indeed that the unprepossessing manners and stupidity of my two competitors was so much in my favour that I would give them any start they chose in a canvas and beat them.

Another thing in my favour too is that my colleague is an Irishman, also a new aspirant to political distinction, and having unbounded influence among his countrymen who are very numerous in that county, had predisposed them in my favour, and they to a man were warm supporters. When I entered the County for the first time a fortnight ago and spent a week in galloping over it or as much of it as I possibly could I was received everywhere in a manner which perfectly astonished me – and when the contest commenced I never in England saw anything exceeding the enthusiasm. Some trifling instances of vivacity on the part of my Irish friends, who were not inclined to bear very tamely anything like an affront to themselves or their favourites, are made a pretext on the part of the disappointed candidates for withdrawing from a contest which they had no chance of winning. It certainly required all the influence and ingenuity which myself or my colleague could exert to guide and temper the ardour of our supporters. They are as fine a set of intelligent independent fellows as the whole world can produce, and having been for many years kept in the background by a faction of grovelling wealthy exclusives, their delight on the present occasion, when they felt they were exercising their rights in favour [of] those of so different principles, knew no bounds. Nothing however could be less alike in some respects than Mr Gowan’s Orange politics and mine. He was supported exclusively by his party but I had not only their support & of the Europeans generally but that of the best of the Canadian population. Know madam, in short, that I performed the part of a canvasser &c so well as to acquire the appellation of the Pet of the People! And then came the glories of the Chairing, through deluges of rain, about which no mortal present cared a straw – there were songs sung about “our brave Attorney General” and in fact all the captivating abominations of a successfully contested county Election – very much after those delightful models exhibited in England.

 

My dearest Anna. I have now been five days at home but have not been able to finish my letter. I arrived here just in time to recommence my law labours at the Home assizes which are now going on and the Solicitor General is unwell and unable to give me any assistance so that I have still everything upon my own shoulders. The Governor was surprized and delighted at my success in my Election – but the defeated candidates and their party are infuriated and are spreading such abominable stories about our violence that you would suppose me a perfect mob leader, breathing nothing but bloodshed. They avow their intention of controverting my return when the parliament meets – and from the specimens before me they will not stick at trifles. Parties are pretty equally balanced and if they get a Committee suited to their purpose they may possibly succeed in unseating me – and if they do I shall [word missing from breaking of letter seal] go down and be re-elected. At all events there is a pretty stormy station for me in the house; but I do not dread the thing in the slightest degree – on the contrary I have more nerve now, and more experience – and no longer start at the sound of my own voice in a popular assembly. The opposition newspapers have already started with all their virulence upon me.

I was fortunate in getting back just in time to meet your friend Dr Julius who left Miss Martineau at the falls of Niagara, and spent two days here with me, much to my satisfaction, and some little of his – if any credit is to be placed to the profuse gratitude he desired to be conveyed to you for his introduction – which if expressed by a Frenchman I should have taken as substantial as moonshine, but in the philanthropic German seemed to mean something. Luckily Dr Dunlop happened to be in town and dined with us, and astonished the professor at the universality of his information and his humorous rich mode of conveying it. Of all men perhaps in America the Doctor (that is my Doctor) was the best able to furnish your Doctor with valuable facts upon those particular subjects which bring him to America, I contributed something to his statistical acquisitions and have a large package of provincial Laws and Parliamentary papers to send to him to New York, to which city he is now on his way, after inspecting our penitentiary at Kingston. The learned German has an amiable touch of antiquarian weakness, and nothing could equal his delight when I compelled him to accept a little book so deliciously useless and unique that perhaps a second copy does not exist. This was a vocabulary in Spanish and Peruvian – the very language of the Incas – compiled and printed two centuries ago in Peru by some learned old Spanish padre, & is now destined to enrich the Royal Library in Berlin.

I have not yet acknowledged receipt of your last letter dated 4^th July which duly arrived. The tone is more kind and charming than some of its predecessors. I hope you have received the money safe. I shall send the second part of the Bill on London to Henry perhaps by this packet. I wish it were a distinct Bill – but at this moment it may not be. Dearest Anna let me look forward to our meeting with hope. Let me not lose the privilege of loving you and the hope of being loved by you. Let me come to my solitary house with the prospect that my daily labours shall before any very lengthened day of trial be rewarded by your presence and your most precious endearments even. I have no single hope that does not depend upon that one – do not school your heart against me and I will compel you to love me. I have been fencing in my nice little piece of ground on the banks of the lake where I am promising myself the happiness of building you a pretty little villa after your own taste. I have set a man to plant some trees and shrubs also for the place was quite denuded – but by far the finest situation near the Town. I have ground enough for a pretty extensive garden nearly three acres.

The Cholera has entirely left us, having carried off between seven and eight hundred persons from this town and yet such is the increasing population that among all that number there was but one person whom I knew. Adieu dearest Anna – believe me ever your faithful & devoted   R S Jameson

References

Dictionary of Canadian Biography: Jameson, Robert Simpson

Wikipedia: Anna Brownell Jameson

1814 Describing an audience with Pope Pius VII and reporting at second hand what Napoleon has been saying on Elba - an unsigned letter fragment from Rome.

 

I have only two sides of what was once at least a four-side letter but the contents are remarkable enough to justify including the material here. It was written at the end of 1814, the year in which Napoleon was defeated for the first time and exiled to Elba off the west coast of Italy.

The addressee is precisely identified as Sir William Forbes, 1771-1828, seventh baronet Pitsligo and resident in Edinburgh, a prominent and wealthy banker who appears in another letter on this site – a link is in the References at the end. The writer could have been one of his brothers or else a high-ranking individual known to the baronet; Forbes had been quite recently widowed and his own children were still young.

Whoever wrote it has had a private audience with Pope Pius VII and summarises their conversation; the Pope has just recently returned from Napoleonic imprisonment. The writer has been at a ball given by Napoleon’s brother Lucien on behalf of the exiled Caroline of Brunswick, wife of the Prince Regent; he summarises at length an account given to him by a gentleman who has just visited Napoleon in exile on Elba and was party to a four-hour conversation with him which ended with Napoleon getting up to piss against the nearest wall.  It's possible that the gentleman was one of those who tarvelled out to Elba with Viscount Ebrington early in December 1814 though the time-frame is then very tight in relation to a letter which reached London on 12 December. But all in all, a remarkable amount of information passed back to Edinburgh and much more that is missing.

It is relevant that  this letter was not posted from Rome; a note in French in different hnadwriting and  added to the outside of the letter  suggests that it was carried privately to Calais and only put into  the regular post to England from there – it received a London FOREIGN letter receiving mark on 12 December 1814. The courier who writes the note in French appears to be “C.Matis". Either the post from Rome was reckoned unreliable or there was a suspicion that mail censorship was in place.

 Pope Pius VII painted by Thomas Lawrence

Transcription

Addressed to: Sir Wm Forbes of Pitsligo Bart.  Edinburgh

No dateline

London FOREIGN entry postmark dated DE 12 1814, London despatch mark of the same day, Edinburgh arrival mark DEC 15 1814, charged 4/2 [four shillings and two pence] on arrival plus 1/2d  (halfpenny] additional standard internal Scottish charge

[pages 1 and 2 and possibly more missing] … at Rome we saw the King and Queen of Spain and poor Louis [ probably Napoleon's brother, exiled King of Holland ] who is strolling about most majestically – Lucien [Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon]  is here too. It was at a ball given by him to our Princess [Charlotte, exiled wife of the Prince Regent] where she made so sad an exhibition.

Should we return to Italy in the Spring and you make out your trip to the Continenet we cannot fail to meet . Rome you ought unquestionably to visit and spare as much of your time for it as possible; the other twons excepting Paris may be soon discussed – altho’ only five days in Rome I yet contrived to see the Pope who is a very prepossessing Person. There was no public day and I was presented privately, he is a most uncommonly gentlemanlike old man, soft and condescending in his manner without pomp or formality, he expressed the strongest admiration of the British government and its steady perseverance in the good cause: he said that Italy would not recover its misfortunes for a period of years and asked me what appeared to be the general feeling regarding the fate of Naples. I must tell you of the reception given by Bonaparty [sic] to his …[?] gentlemen just returned from Elba one of whom we dined with today – he [Napoleon] conversed with them for 4 hours  … thro’ his political career and defended his conduct spoke of the whole as a matter of history reasoning matters cooly and without seeming irritation – he laughed at our [the British] destroying Washington [ in 1814] and asked how the English who condemned him for such acts could be guilty of them themselves – confessed his error in remaining so long at Moscow [in 1812] and said his reason for not making peace with the allies latterly was that the French would not have supported his government – he said his part was played but that that the Bourbons know not the French people – denied having had any correspondence with the Americansand sid his sole purpose for invading Austria  was to accomplish the independence of Poland. – said that Marmont [Marshal of the Napoleonic Empire who surrendered Paris to the Allies in 1814] had totally deceived him and added “what could I do with such a friend and a General who fought in a valley instead of the heights as I desired him”. The conversation took place in a garden when it was over turned around and made water against the wall before taking leave. They say his manners are quite those of a rough soldier – one of his questions to Douglas …. [remainder of this passage missing] 

 

References

https://shs.cairn.info/journal-napoleonica-the-journal-2023-2-page-101?lang=en  

https://www.frenchempire.net/biographies/marmont/

Wikipedia: Pope Pius VII

Wikipedia: Lucien Bonaparte

Wikipedia: Joachim Murat [for Naples]

Wikipedia: Caroline of Brunswick

https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/30280/sir-william-forbes-pitsligo-1773-1828-7th-baronet

https://www.otherpeoplesletters.com/2026/07/sir-william-forbes-receives-letter-from.html

The Parallel Literacy of the Less Educated: Susannah Harden writing from Bradhurst Kent in 1826

 

For a long time, a  key measure for historical literacy rates in England has been provided by church marriage registers and court witness statements: you begin by simply counting who signs their name in full and who signs their name with just an X; then aggregate the results to work out changing percentages over time. It has generally been assumed that those who could write their name also had some ability to read.

It is a feature of English - and an obstacle to the acquisition of literacy - that standard spellings score low on being phonetically based in contrast to at least some other languages. All attempts to change this and make more use of phonetic spellings have been thwarted by those who have mastered the glass bead games (“i before e except after c” and so on, until you ascend to the seventh circle of rules for apostrophes).

However, a parallel form of literacy did once exist though predictive text  software which spells for you has probably eliminated it. But it is evidenced in letters like the one I have laboriously transcribed below. Those who had been taught their alphabet and some minimal writing skills could guess at or create spellings guided by how the words sounded in their own dialect plus whatever general rules they knew or imagined to exist; you would not use a dictionary which would be an expensive piece of equipment to possess. It would be of little use anyway in spelling everyday words which aren't nouns. But the use of precise dates in the letter suggests that the writer, Susannah Harden, has a calendar in her home 

Letters using intuitive  methods are reasonably common and more than  probably achieved their purpose. In her book The Pen and the People,  Susan Whyman  writes of what she calls "epistolary literacy" which avoids an only-one-route approach which yields concepts like "semi-literate". And Mark Hailwood has used the concept of "letteracy" as a rooute into understanding what is going on. 

I think I understand most of this letter written exactly two hundred years ago from Bradhurst just outside Chatham in Kent to London. Look at the opening lines of the letter from Deer Jane down to Runs a bout anny wares

Microsoft counts 116 words and I count 79 words - a surprising two-thirds - with indisputably standard spellings though I include a before split in two (be fore) and likewise an under stand. I have also included the cant which lacks what would now be a required apostrophe. There are then words which though in very common use are spelt phonetically in ways which reflect Kentish pronunciations: wat for wet, thrad for thread, sens for since, goen for going, hus for us. The problem here for the writer is perhaps that the standard spellings are at variance with intuitive spellings and the latter are allowed to win out. I think a stronger claim is justified: many standard spellings of words are implausible in most or even all English dialects: how many of us pronounce I was surprised as I waz surprised? I am sure my readers are comfortable with wuz and wz or, most often the entirely acceptable woz. (I am not Wikipedia and spare my readers the international phonetic alphabet).

But there are puzzling features in the extract, notably the phonetic spellings for two proper names: Chattem for Chatham (which is never pronounced Chat Ham but always Chatm) and hanner for Hannah. In the first case, the writer who lives on the outskirts of Chatham may well have seen mile stones or road signs naming it; the address panel of the letter received a CHATHAM postmark. So I am genuinely puzzled by that spelling. In the second instance, spellings of the names of family members will often be known from those used on baptismal certificates, tombstone inscriptions from previous bearers of the name, and so on.  In consequence, I find the use of phonetic hanner puzzling. That said, I have found undoubtedly literate writers who spell the first names and surnames of themselves and family members in different ways even within the same letter – sister Harriet may turn into Harriette and so on. 

So I cannot resolve all the questions which occur to me but want to persuade the reader that “semi-literate” probably obstructs a proper understanding of what is going on in letters like this one. What we read evidences some distinctive cognitive activity which strikes out independently from whatever limited instruction in reading and writing has occurred in the past.

The  address panel of  the letter appears to refer to a son , but opens with “Dear Jane” who I assume is the son's wife and perhaps the (more) literate partner. Though signed off by “your Father and mother”, the letter itself refers to “your mother” – that is, Jane’s mother. The families involved are probably closely inter-related. Mr Dobson the Chemist in the address line was well-established in Coleman Street – the “Back Bank” refers to an area literally at the back of the Bank of England. The couple may have been employed by him or simply renting lodgings.

Click to Enlarge

This letter can be compared with another letter on this site also written in Kent and just eighteen miles away in 1801:

https://www.otherpeoplesletters.com/2026/07/now-all-my-famley-is-goan-to-bed-i-am.html

 

Transcription

Addressed to: … [ unclear looks like E^d] Harden at   Mr dobson Chimest  and drugest  Coleman Street 30 at the Back Bank  London

Datelined: Bradhurst 22^th  Janry 1826

Postmarked at the local post town CHATHAM  31 [= 31 miles from London]; London receiver mark 25 JA 1826

Deer Jane this fue Lins coms to Let you now how I got home But so wat be fore I got to Chattem that I had not a dry thrad In me and have had shuch a Cold ever sens and I hant dun no work sens but ham goen to trye a gane a Monday a gane and I hope that these few Lins Will find you much better then Leeves hus at present for John has got such a Cold and horsnes that We cant hardle under stand him and Thomas has had a cold but he better a gane and your mother do but porley and hanner Runs a bout anny wares and Richard says you must send a Lather jacket and a cape and a cyt [?] and I had a Lettr and a passel on Sunday Last from totrig [? Totteridge, north of London] From your ant Hannah Harden and she sent me word that your aunt Wilkens is ded and that she did on the 9^th Jany and your mother wants to now hoe washes for you now and send word how you Lick your plase now and all The perticklers and I hant sene Nor heard maidston [Maidstone, Kent] sens I with you & your hant & uncil [?] Barns sense thare Love to you and thare ….[?] Quite well your Granmother was at Bradhurst on the 19^th of this mont and she Wos very Bad and wos trubbel To wock home I have not herd From them sens and your aunt mary Hammond Is as yousel [usual?] I got Mr Russel Bill on tusday Night after I got hom a muday [?] and your Brother and Sisters sends …[word faded] & thre Love to you

So no more at present From your Father and mother

John & Susannah Harden 

Reference  

Susan E. Whyman, The Pen and the People: English Letter Writers 1660-1800 ( 2009)

Mark Hailwood, "Rethinking Literacy in Rual England", Past and Present, v 260, n 1, pp 38-70 (2023)

Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be Comforted (Matthew 5:4) A letter home from Milwaukee to England

Letters home from nineteenth century migrants to America and Canada are a valuable source of information about migrant life. This one dated 1849 is from rapidly-expanding Milwaukee, a city which was ethnically and religiously diverse from the outset but with German-speakers the largest single group. The sect known as The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) had a presence there in the 1840s and in this letter Sister Norwood is described as a disciple which was a common way of referring to church members and may indicate her allegaince to that church. The Mr King in this letter is probably Rufus King, then editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The letter reports deaths and is appropriately closed by a paper seal the wording of which provides the title for this piece. The letter  ranges over reports of income and employment situations and general family matters. A family historian could research it more fully.

Click to enlarge

 Transcription

Addressed to: Miss Sarah Taylor   Mr James Wilson   Grocer   Commongarden Street   Lancaster   England   Great Britian

Datelined: Milwaukie [ sic, an early variant spelling] Jany 24 1849

Endorsed via Boston Postmarked MILWAUKEE WISC and PAID handstamp over Mss. Paid 24 [cents]. LANCASTER arrival postmark MR ? 1849

Small blue paper letter seal, torn: Blessed are they that Mourn for they shall be Comforted

 

Dear Sister

We have just received your very welcome letter for which plese accept  our thanks the reasons we did not write sooner were maney in the first place then the Postage has been so very high that we thought it would do no harm to wait a bit it is now down from thirty four sents to twelve & a half cents (22 cents make 1/= [one shilling]) so that is no loner an excuse but the greatest objectson was I knew not what to say you will receive along with this a leter from George which will tell you part of the mornful story namely the Death of our Dear Sister Isabella she also has gone the way of all flesh. This has caused us much grief we wrote to Mother but have not yet got an answer so you see poor George is left with his poor little Boy without a mother yet without an Aunt Sarah [the addressee of this letter] to take care of him. It was quite impossible for us to get him this winter nor was his father willing to part with him It is also my painful task to tell you of the sickness & Death of our little Boy he was taken with the Bowel complaint the later end of June & Died on the 19 of August it ended with compson [ compression?] of the Boules

As you see we have our shair of sorrow here as well as elsewhere his Uncal William Harper took his likness [took a photograph?] so if you should ever come to Milwaukie you can at least see his picture we think it is very like him you wish to know what we are doing & if William & Alexander is near us Robert is Bookkepper in the City Foundrey William carys on printing in Compney with a Mr King William Boards with us  Alexander with his partner Mr King he also is lerning to be a printer they are both very stedy & I think in time will do very well in America all though they have had their share of hard times so you see my famley is not large so you see I have at last manedged to have finer times than you for it seems to me that you have more to do than ever you had  & phraps less wadgess [wages] but you do not say what your wages is but you are foolish enough to try to do without a servant you say you have had a visit from Mrs Woolnorth if aneyone had told me that she would not have so much as have said give my Love to them I could not have beleved it but beleve it we may for not one word to us either good or bad if we have don them aney harm we would like to know it & not be treted with Sullen Silence it is now two years since Robert wrote to Mr Woolnorth & we have never herd a word from him since but although we have no sister Woolnorth hear we have sister Norwood she is a disiple [see Introduction above]& just as kind harted a one as I could wish to associate with & maney more here that we could name that are as warm harted & sincere friends as ever graced the shores of England for .. say that friends in Lancaster are like Angles visits fue & far between please give our kind regards to Mrs Yats [?] & Mr & Mrs Allen when you see them tell them I like America as … [ letter damaged here] & have no wish to come back …like much to see you here  with ….for it would be a good chance for you to have company we were sory to hear of the very sevear afflickshon that Mrs Roberts has been agane visited with she had but one Child left out of six one drowned two poisoned one child on the rail way what Richard died of you do not say but leave me to gus [guess] it was to much Drink

On the side flap and in another hand: Address Robert Harper Milwaukee Wisconsin United States America

Previous writer concludes: Wisconsin is now a State & no longer a Teritory so we send back to we [? wee] Jennie [?] all the kisses you sent to .. Baby & two more [?] & wish he may long continue his Fathers joy        Mary Sharpe

 

References

Wikipedia: Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Wikipedia: Milwaukee

Wikipedia: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Lavinia Forster, daughter of Thomas Banks RA, guides the education of the Eliot sisters in Paris 1826

 

The two letters written in 1826 transcribed below were written by  nineteen-year-old Harriet/ Harriett Eliot to her father Major Eliot in London; she and her sister Eliza (aged fifteen and  who contributes just one line to the first letter) are being polished and finished in Paris at an expense which may be placing a strain on the resources of their father. The first letter emphasises their frugality and the second the impressive educational and social opportunities which their host Mrs Forster is making available: virtually every name Harriett mentions can be followed up on a Wikipedia page. Harriett Eliot (whose first name has no stable spelling across my sources) was born in 1807 and her sister Eliza in 1811 and became the surviving children of Major Eliot's first wife who died in 1813. Major Eliot remarried in 1815 and the "mamma" mentioned once in the letters in the step-mother of the two sisters.  Their father was absent for long periods in their childhood; born in 1779 he was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1796. From 1805 to at least 1813 he was deployed on active service in Prussia, Portugal and the Low Countries, won medals, and could place the initials "K.H." after his name as a Knight of the Kingdom of Hanover. In 1811 he published in London A Treatise on the Defence of Portugal which can be had now as Print on Demand. He ended his days as a retired Lieutenant-Colonel at Ore in Sussex where  his daughters, now married, also lived. He died in 1855. 

But the  central figure in the letter is Mrs Forster, in whose Parisian family home the sisters are staying and who is clearly charged with or taking responsibility for their education. It is easy enough to locate Mrs Forster in relation to her father and husband, less so in her own right. Lavinia Forster was born in 1775 the only child of the monumental sculptor Thomas Banks RA (1735-1805). She was clearly provided with a more than adequate education, evident in known work which she published. In 1799 Lavinia married Edward Forster (1769-1828) who like her father was from a fairly modest background but talented and ambitious. Forsaking the Law, Forster became a clergyman in 1796 but as well as becoming a fashionable London preacher launched publishing ventures which produced stylish (and expensive) illustrated editions of classical works in their original language or translated. Eventually, the costs outran the revenues and what my sources refer to as “financial difficulties” led him in 1815 to quit London for (cheaper) Paris, taking with him wife and children.

By that date, Lavinia had at least two pieces of published work to her credit. In 1802, she provided the numerous, fine-line illustrations for her husband’s edition (in original Greek) of the Anacreon or to give it its full title, Anacreontis Odaria ad textus Barnesiani fidem emendate, which was successful enough to merit a second edition in 1813. The illustrations can be found online using the title of the book; I can't get a decent cut and paste one to put here. Then in 1807 she published under her own name a long article in a short-lived London periodical The Director, edited by Thomas Dibdin (a clerical colleague and friend of her husband) analysing and paying tribute to her late father’s monumental sculpture Achilles Mourning the Loss of Briseis. When her husband died in 1828 at the age of 59 she edited and published, probably as a fund-raiser for herself and her children a two-volume edition of his Sermons Preached a the Chapel of the British Embassy and at the Protestant Church of the Oratoire in Paris. 

In Paris, Edward Forster started out again as a preacher but more likely solved his financial problems when in 1818 he secured the post of Chaplain to the British Embassy, a post he retained until his death in 1828. By the time these two letters were written he was already in poor health and no mention is made of him by Harriett. I hazard that an energetic Mrs Forster had turned their home into a pension-cum-educational establishment for paying guests; a main attraction would have been the access to Parisian cultural and social life which she was able to supply, relying both on her backgrounds as daughter of Thomas Banks and her connection to the British Embassy. A nice vignette in Hariette’s letter describes the presence of a seven-year-old child, Clelie, who happens to be the daughter of Giuditta Pasta (1797-1865), an outstanding operatic soprano currently performing in Paris. Bellini wrote a lead part of La Somnabula intended for her and Donizetti the title role in his Anna Bolena. Other characters appearing in the letters include Francois Gérard (1770-1837), first painter to the French king.    

Lavinia Forster had in her possession works by her father and later in life donated or bequeathed them to a number of institutions including the Royal Academy, Sir John Soane’s Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum. Many more of her father’s works (and perhaps also her own) passed down in her family and are now held institutionally.  

But I close on a small note about material realities. Both letters were written in Paris but were carried by hand to London before being posted at Charing Cross for local delivery, thus saving expense. But who carried them? The first letter is annotated bottom left in a crabbed hand “E Forster”. At this period, when all letters were handwritten, it was common for government officials to indicate their responsibility and also to claim legitimate free of charge use by writing their name or initials bottom left. This letter was most likely carried from Paris to London by a British Embassy courier who would have arrived from a Channel port at the coach station of Charing Cross before turning the corner down into Whitehall. The second letter is not endorsed but was also carried privately using the same route.

Transcription first letter

Addressed to: Major Eliot   23 Bedford Place Russell Square

No dateline but written in Paris

Endorsement: E Forster [Edward Forster, Chaplain British Embassy Paris]

Posted in London at the Charing Cross office, charged 2d, London transit mark A[after]NOON 24 FE 1826

Docketing note: Harriet & Eliza Feby 1826

My dear Papa

You need not make yourself uneasy about the letter there was not the least hint given about money it was in French and about different things Paris news &c the only part that in any way related to our staying was that in speaking of Paris I said that we found Mrs Forsters family so pleasant & Mrs F herself such an agreeable woman that we should regret very much leaving her, that you had not yet spoken to us upon the subject but that we were in daily expectation of hearing from you, it was written some time ago soon after Mrs Forster left France, I didn’t [?] send it to you as I did not then owing to your long silence know whether you were at Manchester or in London. It must have been received some time as I gave it to Mrs Forster to send nearly a month ago. What do you mean by saying that you think of taking a house out of London for us all to live in pray explain this to me in your next letter are we to be with you alone or with mamma or grand papa  We will endeavour to be as sparing as possible in cloaths washing &c you will find our cloaths come to considerably less this year as we shall not have to buy leghorn hats pelisses silk gowns & dress gowns for me as we have a good stock which will last a long time, it is that sort of things which are so expensive, we shall now only want shoes & such kind of necessary articles of which we shall use as few as possible I have been thinking about the masters & think there are several which we might do without for instance there is a master for Geography  & the globles [?] &c Dancing is no longer necessary I suppose you are not particularly anxious for us to figure in a ball room like opera dancers we know a great number of steps & can dance at least like gentlewomen also I think I might do without Italian Emma [Mrs Forster’s daughter] & Mrs Forster are very good Italian scholars & I do exercises with them every day with the master I only read for the pronunciation There then remains the Harp piano singing & drawing masters  I should feel sorry for Eliza [ her sister] to leave off the piano as she is now making great progress & I think has some talent for that as well as for singing & certainly  has a fine voice, for myself drawing & the Harp is what I should give up with the most regret, but do as you please dear Papa what ever you decide upon for us to leave off, I will practice by myself, let me hear soon,

Last night I was at a concert at Mr Jennings[probably Robert Jennings, London-based publisher of books about Paris] & he desired to be remembered to you, we have been to two dances this week & have just received an invitation to a very grand ball at Monsr. Lafitte’s the banker but of course we shall not go, as it is on Sunday. I will set about the drawing for you as soon as possible, I am now finishing one for Mrs Forster’s birthday she will not receive bought presents but we all give her a trifle of our own making. It is copied from a beautiful lithograph called La retraite coupée  between a Turk & a French Dragoon [a famous work by Godfroy Englemann, contemporary and prominent Parisian lithographer]. With the master I draw from a bas relief of the nine muses, which has been lent to me, we have also a jointed figure of a Roman Senator which we have draped in robes to study drapery from, Eliza begins to draw Landscapes in seppia very pretty in a good, bold style but I do not think that [she] has much idea of figures, with the money [seal torn here, probably which]  you were so kind to send me I have bought a small [torn here] of books which are to me invaluable chiefly treatises on … French language, the participles, verbs &c which cannot be had in England & without which it is almost impossible to have a complete knowledge of the language & write it elegantly. We have also bought a few of the best French authors

In a different hand:

Harriet is obliged to attend the harp mistress & therefore begged me to finish this letter for her I believe she has nothing more to say nor have I either excepting our kind love to all &

Believe me my dear papa your very affectionate child Eliza Eliot

 

Transcription second letter

Addressed to: Major Eliot   23 Bedford Place   Russell Square

Datelined: Paris April 25^th 1826

Docketing note: Harriet 25^th April 1826

Carried by hand from Paris to London and put into the post at Charing Cross, dated postmark  2 MY 1826

My dear papa

It is very long since we have heard from you, more than a month, I think you must have left town Aunt Eliza mentioned in her last letter that you had been staying some time at Blackheath. Mrs Forster gave us a few days ago a sovereign which you had begged her to keep till we wanted money, it could not have come more opportunely for I was actually soulless, we both thank you very much for it dear Papa. [The previous letter refers to Mrs Forster leaving France presumably for a visit to England]

I have not much to tell you for almost all the gaieties of Paris are over, Aunt Eliza tells me that a Mr Schalch of the Artillery [John Schlach, Major in the 6^th Battalion of the Royal Artillery ….] is coming to Paris in a short time & will bring a letter from Uncle Frank by way of an excuse to call; do you know any thing of him? We have had beautiful weather here for this last week it is just like summer we went yesterday to see the models for a monument  to be erected to the memory of General Foy they are all by different artists & exposed in the bazaar for the public to give their opinion, they have been there about a fortnight & I believe the election is to be made tomorrow. I see by the journal that the Duc de Rivière capitaine des Gardes du Corps is appointed to succeed the Duc de Montmorenci as governour of the little prince. We have also had grand illuminations here on account of the bill for the droit d’ainesse having been rejected it seems to be a subject of universal joy the whole nation was so much against it [ a Crown-initiated bill to restore the pre-revolutionary inheritance rights of first-born children, intended to strengthen the traditional aristocracy] . Your drawing is finished but the difficulty is getting it to Manchester should you be there. I may soon have an opportunity of sending it to London but it is a chance if I meet with anyone going from here to Manchester. Mary [ possibly another sister?] continues to practice very assiduously and is learning a piece of Kalkbrenner [Friedrich Kalkbrenner, German composer long-term resident in Paris] I suppose you have heard the music of the Dame Blanche it is very much admired but does not strike me as anything remarkable [ now a received view of La Dame Blanche , a comic opera of the French composer François-Adrien Boieldieu] - every thing gowns capes ribbons gentlemen’s pantaloons &c are  à la Dame Blanche as they were formerly à la Jocko [Jocko, ou le Singe du Brésil, a melodrama which in Paris  starred the famous acrobat Charles Mazurier as the ape Jocko] There is a new piece preparing at the porte St Martin [ Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin ]  under the direction of Mr [Thomas] Cooke the London actor, it is from the story of Frankenstein the scenery & dresses are to be very good & it is expected to have a great run [it did; Cooke played the Monster in  Le Monstre et le Magicien for eighty successive nights].  While I am writing this letter Madame Pasta’s little girl Clelie is standing by my side cutting out paper dolls, she frequently spends the day here being at school in Chaillot – it seems so extraordinary to hear her talk Italian continually but she understands French perfectly, she is about the size of Belle & would be very handsome if her eyes looked the same way. The fine collection of Pictures Statues & in short – the whole museum of the late Baron Denon [Vivant Denon] is to be sold by auction the beginning of next month, the catalogue only consists of two large volumes I was looking over it this morning & thinking that you & Mr B.O. Brydon would like to have Fortunatus’ wishing cap & inexaustible  purse, it is said to be the finest collection in France & every one regrets that the French government does not buy it entire, it is really a pity to seperate such a large collection which the Baron has spent the greatest part of his life in assembling. A few days ago I accompanied Mrs Forster to the atelier of Gérard the king’s painter he was working at a picture of the Dauphin but it was so little advanced that we could not form any opinion respecting it. I was very much struck by a portrait by him of Marshall Beresford [ Viscount Beresford, Marshal in the Portuguese Army during the Napoleonic Wars] it was at a little distance like a living head, there was also a portrait of Gerard himself by Thomas Lawrence. We have been to the Chapel in the Tuilleries again & saw much better than we did the last time we were there, we had tickets for the gallery & stood next to the Dames d’Honneur so that we saw the royal family during the whole of the service after it we walked through the Salle des Maréchaux where all the officers noblemen &c were waiting to be admitted to the king’s presence the Duke d’Angoulême passed close to us accompanied by Prince Talleyrand & the Duke de Biron Gontaut [usually rendered Gontaut de Biron]  If it is fine on Monday we are going with a large party to a review on the Champ de Mars, I expect it will be very hot & dusty.

Since I began this letter I have heard from Aunt Eliza she mentions John’s departure for Ceylon and a variety of other circumstances with which I daresay you are acquainted. Baron Denon’s collection is to be viewed today tomorrow & the day after & the sale begins on the 1^st of May. The Forsters are going on Friday night to a grand amateur concert give for the benefit of the Greeks [whose War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire was faltering at this time] as the tickets are a napoleon each of course I do not think of it. There is a grand ball at the Ambassador’s next week and Mrs Forster regrets very much not being able to take me, she desires me to ask you if you do not know some one who could introduce me to Lady Granville [wife of the British Ambassador in Paris, 1824-1828] & could write a letter of introduction for me, do pray papa try and do something for me it would be such an advantage some of the Phillippsons know them now do not forget for Mrs Forster charged me to tell you and let us hear from you soon you have not written for so long. God bless you dear Papa.

Your affte Daughter Harriett Eliot

 

References

Liz Peters AGRA located the correct Major Eliot for me - his first names appear nowhere in this correspondence and there are many Major Eliots - from which it was possible to then obtain dates etc.

Wikipedia: Thomas Banks (sculptor)

Wikipedia: Edward Forster (writer)

Wikipedia: François Gérard

Wikipedia: Giuditta Pasta

Wikipedia: Vivant Denon

Wikipedia: Thomas Cooke (actor)

Wikipedia: Godefroy Engelmann

Wikipedia: Friedrich Kalkbrenner

Wikipedia: La Dame Blanche

Wikipedia : Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin