| Title: | Stewart, Frances to Mrs. Sutton, 1856 |
|---|---|
| ID | 4763 |
| Collection | Revisiting Our Forest Home, The immigrant letters of Frances Stewart [J. L. Aoki] |
| File | stewart/45 |
| Year | 1856 |
| Sender | Stewart, Frances |
| Sender Gender | female |
| Sender Occupation | housewife |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | unknown |
| Destination | Ireland |
| Recipient | Mrs. Sutton |
| Recipient Gender | female |
| Relationship | unknown |
| Source | |
| Archive | |
| Doc. No. | |
| Date | |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | |
| Log | unknown |
| Word Count | 1449 |
| Genre | wedding, family |
| Note | |
| Transcript | 1856: November 10 To Mrs. Sutton, Ireland Fragment "Nov. 10 1856; to Mrs. Sutton" [date and name written in another hand] I must now tell you something of our wedding. It went off in "first rate" style I assure you. We had a party in the evening of a good many of our relations & connexions & some of Kates young companions. Several sent apologies & even so I think there were between 60 & up people collected together besides a good many of my Grandchildren & a great many old servants & tennants who were invited to a kitchen party & to witness «Miss Kates wedding" as she has been a favorite with all who have ever known her. I must say she looked very nice & behaved with the greatest self possession during the ceremony which was performed read by Mr. Warren an English Clergyman who is stationed at Lakefield in this township, a large settlement about 6 miles north of this place & which belongs to Mr. Strickland. Mr. Warren is a pleasing man. He seems not to be at all a Puseyite which is a great comfort. He is a very liberal churchman tho' not at all careless or slack in attending to his Duties as før as I know. He has not been in Canada much above a year but I rather like his manner of reading the Service. I have been at his church two or three times. His preaching is nothing very Hvelv, or deep but I think very much to be preferred to our Peterboro clergyman, Mr. Burnham, so that we requested him to officiate at Robert & Kates wedding & indeed he did read it remarkably well & I was quite glad we had one who read it so impressively. He is a sort of connexion of our family as his wife's brother is married to my Great niece Emma, a daughter of Mr. Stricklands. Only think of my having had two Grand nieces at Auburn that night, both married women & mothers which makes me a Great Grand Aunt!!! But I have digressed sadly. After the ceremony was over we had tea & then dancing & some good singing & then supper which looked very nice as there were two long tables & a handsome 3 storied cake on each table. These cakes were placed in the middle & then there were all sorts of jellies & custard, Russian [ ] Trifle, tarts & pies &c, besides turkeys & fowls, tongues, ducks, &c &c. Every one said it was excellent & plentiful & everyone seemed pleased & satisfied with the whole proceedings of the evening which was extremely gratifying to me. We were all greatly disappointed that Johnny Noble could not come. He told Kate to let him know whenever she was going to be married & that he would come if he could. So I wrote to tell him as soon as the day was fixed and hoped he would have come, but he could not leave as one of the salesmen was absent & there was so much to be attended to that he could not leave & we were all very sorry. Four of the young Kirkpatricks (Staffords) were there. They are very nice young people & I was very glad to see them but Mrs. S.K. never goes to parties & Stafford having suffered so much from Rheumatism was afraid of the night air. So Anne, Helen, Katharine & William came. They are nice unaffected merry girls. I am sorry this place is so far from them, for which reason we seldom can meet. Tuesday night was miserably wet & stormy & dark so that all the people were obliged to stay for daylight & the young folks seemed to have no objection to keep up the dancing till 6 oclock but some of the elders grew very sleepy & some lay down on beds & others nodded in armchairs. We remained till about 8 & had some breakfast with Louisa & then came home. The ground was very hard frozen the first time this winter & when we came to Auburn the evening before it was muddy & sloppy. We have had frost & some snow ever since & I suppose we may soon expect winter with all its rigours. You never saw a nicer little dwelling for its sire than Roberts is. Of course all the outside part is rough & there are still piles of mortar & lime & bricks & timber all round the house. But the inside is very comfortable & Kate seems as happy as can be. Indeed she could not help it for she has a most affectionate & indulgent husband who is perfectly devoted to her. Here (at Goodwood) we are now quite a reduced party. Robert is a great loss to our family circle & indeed so is Kate who was always rattling away at some fun or nonsense. She has a few constant flow of spirits not boisterous, but steady & "comes out" with very amusing remarks sometimes which used to make us laugh & kept us alive. Henry who has lived here for the last three years I think has now begun to build on his own farm & is very busy preparing for independence which he seems in a fair way to reach in some not very distant time. He has a nice farm close to Auburn & has a very pretty situation for his house. He is a steady sensible straightforward lad & I hope may succeed well. It is time to say something now of the poor Hays. The Doctor seems to revive a little. He is in much better spirits than he was sometime ago, but he is still very helpless. Dear Anna is very delicate & far from strong enough for the performance of her heavy duties. I have not been much with her lately & have not seen her for ten days but I know she is not gaining strength as she ought. Poor soul, I fear the exertion is too much for her & we cannot get any nurse to hire for any wages that could assist her in her charge. She looks dreadfully ill at times & is very pale now. The little baby is going on nicely & is a very pretty fair little creature. He is called John Patrick. Ellen Dunlop is only pretty well. She has almost constantly some pain or ailment which shews there is still something wrong. She looks thin but not at all ill & she is wonderfully strong & able to go through all her housekeeping in a very active way & to walk to see Anna very often. Dear little Mary is a charming girl. I never saw such a warm hearted affectionate creature as she is & she is improving greatly in looks as well as in every other way. Ellen & Charles have every comfort about them. They have a sweet pretty place & a most convenient and comfortable house just as much land as affords him occupation & amusement & supplies them with many of the necessaries of life & enough of money to keep them quite independent. Ellen is always complaining of her poverty & of the difficulty in making "both ends meet" but still I never find any want of every comfort & even luxuries & tho' their income is nominally only £50 a year yet they have other helps which make it out a very good one. Mrs. Dunlop sends out handsome gifts constantly & valuable boxes of clothing every two or three years so that they hardly ever have to lay out anything on clothing & Ellen is an excellent manager & delights in economising. She makes a good deal by her poultry & dairy too & having no great family they don't require to spend much. She is very like her Aunt Kirkpatrick in many ways & I often tell her so. She is also like her in having a warm affectionate heart & being perfectly free from Selfishness. I am sorry to say my dear daughter Joan is in very poor health. She seems never to have recovered the death of her little infant & she has had a great deal of trouble about the little boy Willy who is delicate. He is a very pretty little fellow but she looks very ill indeed & is far from well. I have spun out my letter to an unconscionable length & I fear worn out your patience but I know how kindly interested you always are about me & mine... |
