| Title: | James Humphrey, Upper Canada, to his family in Coagh. |
|---|---|
| ID | 1493 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Humphrey, James/59 |
| Year | 1824 |
| Sender | Humphrey, James |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | keeps a tavern |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Upper Canada |
| Destination | Coagh, Co. Tyrone, N.Ireland |
| Recipient | unknown |
| Recipient Gender | male-female |
| Relationship | writes to his family |
| Source | T 3534/2: Copied by courtesy of Dr. H. W. Goodwin. |
| Archive | The Public Record Office, Northern Ireland. |
| Doc. No. | 9310464 |
| Date | 24/09/1824 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Action By Date Document added by C.R., 15:10:1993. |
| Word Count | 1102 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | Highland Creek, September 24th, 1824. Dear Father and Mother and Sisters: I take this opportunity of writing to you to let you know we are all well at present, thanks be to God for all His kind mercies to us since we left you. At four o'clock on Saturday morning the 12th of June we weighed anchor and had a fair wind. The next morning we took our departure from Derry Mountains and saw no more. We had one hundred and seventeen passengers. They were almost all sick, only myself and a few others. Margaret was sick for three weeks, my mother-in-law was sick for two weeks, and my father-in-law had not an hour's sickness since he left home and is quite mended of the old complaint. Samuel was but a few days at sea until he got well. My William was not sick since he left home and he can talk very well and is fatter than when he left you. On the 16th of June we lost our mast and got up another. On the 18th our brig fell on her side and it was wonderful to hear the shouts of the passengers for about five minutes. On the 24th of June we had high winds and snow and on the 27th of June we lost our mast again and did not get it mended until we landed. On the 5th of July we passed mountains of ice as high as the mast of our ship. The wind blew and we were driven down to the North that night. We saw Newfoundland but it was the north part of it and our course was to the west and on the 9th we passed Cape Ray and entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Gulf is four hundred miles from when we first see land to Quebec. We had contrary winds from when we first saw Newfoundland. On the 12th of July there were twenty six Orangemen dressed themselves and walked three times around the deck and gave three cheers for old Ireland and went and brought four gallons of rum and parted in peace. On the 29th of July we landed all in perfect health after a passage of seven weeks, thanks be to God for it. We stopped two days in Quebec. It had a black appearance. There are full fine stores in it. I saw John Egnew, he was very kind to us . I saw James McCana, he is very well and going home. He and Edward McAnaway, they were very kind to us. We then took a steamboat to Montreal and stayed two days there. Mr. Richardson went to Benjamin Workman and left the letter for Robert Workman. He told us he was there about two weeks ago and that he would be back in about eight days and that they were well and doing well. We went and hired a wagon and went out nine miles to #PAGE 2 Lachine and there took a steamboat one hundred and fifty miles to Prescott. The first I saw was my sister Mary and she took us to her house and we stayed all night in her house and then we took the steamboat sixty miles to Kingston and we stopped there six days. You may let James Baylen know that I went out and saw George and he is well and he told me he would send his mother six pounds. Kingston is a good town and is very rich. Mr. Twig lives miles out of the town and William and I were out and he has a beautiful place. You may let Mrs Johnson know that her brother Will Cranis is well and has a full fine shop. We went and got a steamboat and sailed to Fort George and found John and Robert Gilmore there and they were all in good health when I saw them. It is a beautiful place, the Yankees are on one side and the British on the other and the sentries about eight perches apart. John Humphrey's Joseph is dead, he lived but two days after he landed in Fort George. The Steamboat stopped about eight hours and then we went away to York. We landed on the 25th August and went to John Richardson's place. He has 200 acres of good land and a house on it about two perches from the road. Two days after Margaret had a young daughter and it lived three weeks and I called it for my mother. I took a house three miles from their place and set up a tavern. It is a very pretty place, there is a river running past the door and there is a sawmill on it and a flour mill within two perchesof my door. I can buy rum at two shillings in the gallon and sell it for eight shillings. There is a licence here as well as at home, I pay eight pounds per year. This is a better place than at home, labouring men get twelve dollars per month and found [food?]. A girl will get five dollars per month. I would not advise any person to come here for the road is very dangerous and if anything would happen to them they xwould blame me. But I don't rue it. Weaving is doing very well. You will get 7 1/2 d. [pence?] per yard and plenty of it to do. there is nothing here that you will work at but you will get paid for it. The land is better here than at home. My brother Joseph wrote to John Richardson on the 12th July and got word of us being here and he said that he and his sister wanted to come. I wrote to him but get no answer. You may let my sister Elisabeth and my brother Andrew Carson know that I was sorry I did not see them before I came away. Give my love to them and to my sister Judy, to my Aunt Nancy Johnston and other enquiring friends. Flour sells at 2d.[pence?] per pound, beef at 5d.[pence?] per pound, and potatoes at 1sh.[shilling?] 3d.[pence?] per bushel. So no more but remain #PAGE 3 Your same James to death. P.S. I will write you in the course of three months. When you write direct to Mr Patrick, watch and clock maker, to his care for James Humphrey, Highland Creek, York, Upper Canada, and surely send your letters to New York for the letter that Henry took for Mr Richardson to Belfast cost him two shillings and the one that came from Quebec cost him seven shillings. |
