| Title: | McCance, John to Orr, William, 1861 |
|---|---|
| ID | 4280 |
| Collection | Oceans of Consolation [D. Fitzpatrick] |
| File | oceans/42 |
| Year | 1861 |
| Sender | McCance, John |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | gold-digger |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Victoria, Australia |
| Destination | Grey Abbey, Co. Down, Northern Ireland |
| Recipient | Orr, William |
| Recipient Gender | male |
| Relationship | old neighbour |
| Source | |
| Archive | |
| Doc. No. | |
| Date | |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | |
| Log | unknown |
| Word Count | 1358 |
| Genre | news, labour |
| Note | |
| Transcript | Chewton July 23rd. 1861 Mr. William Orr Dear Sir I write these few lines to inform you that I Received your very welcome letter of the 18th. May and we were very glad to hear that the small sum come to hand safe, and also that our friends were still mostly alive although the news of my Fathers illeness is not very joyful to me and trusts before you Receive this that you will get another of the same. And I certainly feel very much grieved that the offering is so small but this is the very hardest time with me as my family is all now got up, and is a great deal worse to Keep than when they were small, and none of them is begun to make much yet. But I must try and get them something to do as they are now getting up to men and women but still they have maid very little yet, nor I have maid very little indeed myself for this very long time. But as our country is very changable and we still hope that things will change for the better, but at any rate every year now will make us better if our family has any grace at all as if they dont do much for me they will be able to do for themselves and I will not have them to Keep, and I certainly feel very thankful for what you have just told me. And if you be so Kind as to look after the old couple I will surely not forget your Kindness, and as we all must die sooner or later it is possable that some of them may drop off and if so you will see that the are interred in a decent manner. I will surly reward you for all your trouble if I live and if not as we Know not what a day may bring forth some of my children surly will. I have just been writing a letter to Mr. John Patton, announcing the death of his son William, a very fine young man indeed and very much respected by both me and all our family, and you would have thought that you could not see a stouter abler young man. But alas he is no more, so you see that we Know not what a day may bring forth. I do feel very thankful to Almighty God that we are all as a family at present in very good health, and sincearly trust that this will find you all as it leaves us my parents and Brothers & Sisters also, but when four score is atain'd our strangth cannot be great. You have not said whether there is any word from Mr. John Jeffery latiey and I have not heard of him this long time, but we feel very much for him on his parants acount that he was so foolish or rather thoughtless. I have had a few lines from Mr. Robert Byers. He is now at a place called Huntley neat Bandigo, and he says him and his mates is doing pretty well up there. When Nathaniel was up at Yandoit he said he saw a man who said that he was a son of Mr. Wattsons of Ballybolly but my Mrs. thought that it could not be so. He also said that he heard that Mr. Robert Hutton was up there also, but for the truth of this I cannot say. James Bailies son James of Baliygarvin call'd in John McMillins and had dinner some time ago but we did [not] see him as he was on bussness and I think that he was allowing to call again. He was in good health at that time. I think he was living with a man of the name of Glass from Portaferry. I think I have been telling you before about falling in with a man called James Gibson. He is Sisters Son to Alexander Seedses wife—but our coming to Know each other was rather singular as I had work with him for a whole summer and we did not Know each other, nor till nearly a year after when I ventured to ask him where he was from, when he said from Belfast. Oh I said we all hail from the same place, and when I questioned on at last he said he was born in Inishargie, and I said you had a friend called so & so and so & so. I cannot describe the stare of his eys when he said you surely did not Know them. So you see we might be living long enough along with our nearest neighbours and not Know them if they did not wish to be Known. If you be talking to Alexander Seeds you can tell him that he told me that his Father had behaved in a very improper manner to him (A S) for his Kindness to his Mother and family of which he form'd a part on leaving Ireland, as he had plenty of money and would not pay him, but that he had maid a vow to his Mother that if God would spare him to be ever able to do so that he would Reward him for his Kindness as he had not forgot it yet. And he declared to me that he certainly would but he had not seen any of his people this 14 years but if any of them was writing to Amarica they might tell his Mother that he was still alive and in good health as he never writes to them himself. And although he intends to return to Amarica or home as he calls it he does not intend to go near them. James McMillin saw Mr. Thomas Brooks about a fortnight ago. He was about six miles from This and returning to Melbourne, but he was very poorly in health at that time, and thought that he would have to give up his situation but we have not heard of him since. My Mrs. is very thankful that you never omit sending her word of her sister Mrs. Dorrian but if you chance to see her you might tell her that we think it strange that she does not send us her son Jameses address if he be in this country or if she gets any word from him. We would also wish to Know if she or you ever hears anything of her Brother James McLeod as he is still her Brother and as we have got no word from him this some time, and was in ill health the last word we got. If you wrote before May I never got it although we looked for it very anxiously every mail. As to the seeds I have not collected colonial ones as it is generaly home plants or flowe[r]s we wish for and as this is our dead of winter we must wait till Summer to collect them. If you see Mrs. Leackey you might ask her if she got a letter from me dated 5 or 6 months ago the answer to which her husband is very anxiously waiting. And I went not very long ago in person to a friend to borrow 70 or 80 pounds to send for her and family and her father also if he would come and offered his deeds as surety for he had laid all his money in property but I did not succeed if [?and] have not seen him just latly. I supose you are aware that one of Mrs. Boyces Doughters is dead since they come hear and one was married some years ago to a man from county Antrim. I think the other has got a Cornish man I hear or a man from Cornwall in England. Though I have never seen him I have heard yarns told about him but I have no certainty nor I have never seen anything. He seems very uneasy about his children but I must finish. Your ever the same friend John McCance |
