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Title: H. Wightman, [?] to "My dear Friend".
ID3322
CollectionIrish Emigration Database
FileWightman, Henderson/76
Year1837
SenderWightman, Henderson
Sender Gendermale
Sender Occupationunknown
Sender Religionunknown
OriginWoodside Crescent, Glasgow? Scotland?
DestinationUSA?
Recipientunknown
Recipient Genderunknown
Relationshipfriends
SourceT 1475/1 p27: Copied by Permission of Miss A. McKisack, 9 Mount Pleasant, Belfast.
ArchiveThe Public Record Office, Northern Ireland.
Doc. No.9404170
Date10/04/1837
Partial Date
Doc. TypeEMG
LogDocument added by LT, 25:04:1994.
Word Count647
Genre
Note
TranscriptWood Side Crescent. April 10th 1837.

This day last year I left the banks of the Florence. Sunday morning
April 10th 1836. Surely goodness & mercy have followed us all
the days of my life.

My dear Friend,
It is so seldom that I am favoured with a private opportunity
of sending you a letter that I gladly avail myself of it. I hope that
my good old friends at Hillsborough will begin to revive as the weather
gets milder. From the account you give me of the low state to which my
Aunt McAlister was reduced I had but little expectation of her recovery,
and felt very deeply for poor Ann and Mary and rejoiced for their sakes
when a letter from Mrs Archer informed me that she was getting better.
My dear aunt Peggy I think of more than I can express. I hope James
Henderson is well once more, and able to go his rounds of duty. I thank
you for your kind hints and had intended writing to Uncle John for some
time past, but as I did not receive any intimation on the subject I did
not like to send a letter by post. It does not do for you to judge of
other by yourself on this point. Am anxious to hear if my Uncle John
has good advice. I know he has the best nursing but this will not always
avail. In a very little time I trust we shall all be removed to the
Upper Kingdom. How necessary then that we should each be faithful in
doing our allotted work whilst we have strength. Yesterday I realized
this in my own case. I felt too unwell to go to church or even to read
until evening when I began to get better, and to-day I am very stupid
from the effects of it. I suppose it was a little cold but it has also
stirred me up to see the worth of time, and that a sick bed is not always
the place where we can be spiritually minded. I am disposed to think that
your own health is much improved. You do not say how Mrs W. [Wightman?]
gets on. I only fear that you take too much care of her. As for Jane
like myself she is self willed. The letter you kindly prepared me to
receive came to hand. My aunt had mentioned the subject to me before
I left Ireland, but as I then thought it might be some time before
Margarets education would be finished and I might never be put to the
test, I did not perhaps express myself so decidedly as I should have done.
I replyed [replied?] to the letters as quickly as I could, stating honestly
what I had before repeated, that I did not consider myself qualified
to fill the situation that I had rejected. Some situations offering
advantages most desirable to me in many ways for this very principle.
I am well aware that her partiality led her to overate [overrate?] my
abilities and she would have been most disappointed in the [?] I feel most
deeply indebted to her tried friendship and affection & also to Mrs Archer
which I hope I shall never cease to remember with gratitude, and it would
grieve me if I have offended them in the least degree by declining the
proposal. I am anxious to hear if they have made any satisfactory
arrangements. I have been half expecting a letter from some friends for the
last week, although I can scarcely give a good reason for the hope. If
leisure permitted I would like to write some of my American friends, but
this seems too great a task at present. With affectionate love to
Jane and Miss Waddell and that God may bless you as a family is the
sincere wish of your attached friend
H. Wightman