| Title: | H. Wightman, [?] to "My dear Friend". |
|---|---|
| ID | 3322 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Wightman, Henderson/76 |
| Year | 1837 |
| Sender | Wightman, Henderson |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | unknown |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Woodside Crescent, Glasgow? Scotland? |
| Destination | USA? |
| Recipient | unknown |
| Recipient Gender | unknown |
| Relationship | friends |
| Source | T 1475/1 p27: Copied by Permission of Miss A. McKisack, 9 Mount Pleasant, Belfast. |
| Archive | The Public Record Office, Northern Ireland. |
| Doc. No. | 9404170 |
| Date | 10/04/1837 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Document added by LT, 25:04:1994. |
| Word Count | 647 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | Wood 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 |
