| Title: | Mary Cumming, Petersburg, [Va?] to Margaret Craig, Lisburn. |
|---|---|
| ID | 784 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Cumming, Mary/25 |
| Year | 1813 |
| Sender | Cumming (n. Craig), Mary |
| Sender Gender | female |
| Sender Occupation | middle class housewife |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Petersburg, Virginia, USA |
| Destination | Lisburn, Co. Antrim, N.Ireland |
| Recipient | Craig, Margaret |
| Recipient Gender | female |
| Relationship | sisters |
| Source | T 1475/2 pp.94-96: Copied by Permission of Miss A. McKisack, 9, Mount Pleasant, Belfast. |
| Archive | The Public Record Office, Northern Ireland. |
| Doc. No. | 9006102 |
| Date | 10/03/1813 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Document added by JM 02:09:1993. |
| Word Count | 890 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | Blandford, March 10th. 1813. I received my darling Margaret's welcome letter a few days ago, it was a very long time since I had one from you, I wrote a long letter to my Father and Rachel about six weeks ago, in answer to theirs, but I do not believe the ship they were to go in has left this country yet. There is a report to-day that letters will not be permitted to leave this country, but I sincerely hope it is without any foundation. It is also said that letters will be opened and read, I care not who reads mine. How delighted I am to hear you are all so well, William and I continue to enjoy excellent health, and by leaving this place for a few months during the sickly season I hope we shall enjoy it for a long time to come. I am very much pleased to hear you think the pictures like, and I hope you will have the originals with you in a very few years, and then how happy we shall all be. Do not, my dearest Sister, ever be afraid of your letters appearing either stupid or tiresome, believe me, I would like them to be much longer, I wish you could see how delighted I am when William brings me one, many is the time I read them. I got some tunes which you sent me about a year ago, but I would like to have a set of "The Heather-Bush" and some other Irish airs I used to play. I still continue to like the flageolet, the people here are quite pleased with it. I will get you to teach me to play on the Musical Glasses when I go home, Margaret Byers says you play very well, and I shall take the greatest delight in teaching you and dear Rachel any thing I may have learned in this country. I have written a long letter to Margaret Byers and another to James, which I enclose, you will send it to him if he is not at Strawberry Hill; I wrote to Mary Cumming some time since. You have by this time, I suppose, received the first letter I wrote after my recovery. I know how much my dear Margaret will feel for my loss, when I read your letters how grieved I am to think the little angel who is the subject of so much of them is no more, what a lovely darling she would have been had she lived till now. William is very busy with his garden now, getting seeds put in, this place will look beautiful in a month or two. I am on the most intimate terms you can imagine with my neighbours, we visit with each other without the least ceremony, when I feel lonely in the morning I take my work and sit with the Freelands, how much I wish my dear Margaret knew that family, I am sure you would like them very much, many a time Sally Freeland says she wishes I was her Sister, she is a lovely little girl about nine years old. I think the Virginian people are more like the Irish in their manners than any I have met with yet, they have #PAGE 2 all that affability and kindness that is so pleasing to strangers. We had a card party here last week, everything went off very well, I have not been at many parties this Winter, we are engaged to dine at Mr. Robert Colquhoun's on Friday. William and I went to the Birthnight Ball on the 22nd of February, there were a great many at it. There is to be another on St. Patrick's night, but I do not think we shall go, I am not as fond of dancing as I was once, but I shall recover my taste for it when I go to Ireland, I do not like the reels they dance in this place as well as the country dances I once enjoyed so much. How delighted I am to hear my dear Rachel is so much improved, I am longing so much to see her; she will be very much changed when I return. You tell me Mrs. Ward will write to me soon, give my affectionate love to her and tell her I will be very much gratified to hear from her, she was always a great favourite of mine. Is there no word of another little one? I think Mrs. Walker is determined to have as large a family as her mother, if she goes on much longer in the same manner she has begun, give my love to her, and tell her I look forward with the greatest pleasure to the time when I shall be a neighbour of hers, tell Eliza I expect she will be living in Dublin by that time, Oh, my dearest Margaret! what blissful days we will all spend when I return, I shall have you or Rachel constantly with me, and I will do all in my power to make you happy. I wish every month was a year till that time arrives. William joins me in the kindest love to you and all the dear inmates of Strawberry Hill. Write soon, my beloved Margaret, to Your much attached Mary Cumming. Miss Craig. Lisburn, Co.Antrim. IRELAND. |
