| Title: | Toner, Edward and Mary to Donnelly, Patrick, 1818 |
|---|---|
| ID | 6629 |
| Collection | Irish Immigrants in the Land of Canaan. Letters and memoirs from colonial and revolutionary America (1675-1815) [K.A. Miller et al.] |
| File | caanan/37 |
| Year | 1818 |
| Sender | Toner, Edward and Mary |
| Sender Gender | male-female |
| Sender Occupation | farmer |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Unity Township, Westmoreland Co., Penn, USA |
| Destination | Dungannon, Co. Tyrone, Ireland |
| Recipient | Donnelly, Patrick |
| Recipient Gender | male |
| Relationship | brothers-in-law/cousins |
| Source | |
| Archive | |
| Doc. No. | |
| Date | |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | |
| Log | unknown |
| Word Count | 1735 |
| Genre | emigration, life in the colonies |
| Note | |
| Transcript | Edward and Mary Toner, Unity Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, to Patrick Donnelly, ca. Pomeroy, 13 in care of Rev. Henry Conwell, 14 Dungannon, County Tyrone, 7 June 1818 Unity Township Weastmooreland County June the 7thd 1818 Dear Brother & Couzen I Recaved your Letter and My Loveing Brother Peters Letter on one day that was the 27thd of May Last which surprized Me Much to Read The Contents thereof Concerning the Distress and poverty of Ireland which is a greavious heareing to Me to think of the Distress and want of that Contery and More so when I do think of My friends and Relations to sufer there in Destress and hardship and is not Able to Rach to a free Contery Like this is I understand that Edward Muldoon was the Barer of them Two letters he was here a long time Before them After spending the winter in Lancaster for he Entrusted them to Another Man which was Neglected if he had posted them there I should have them in six Day<s> Time therefore when you send Any More Letters Desire them to Be posted in Philidelphia or Lancaster and I Shall have them in a short Time for I can take Care of Any Letter that is sent in My Care for I am Better Aquent there Now that I ever was in Pomproy sir I understand your Uneasyness Concerning ordination But you Need not be in the Least Uneasy only Dedicate your self to the will of god for if you ware A priest the Night you ware Born no Man Can Deprive you of it only this that you Must Be as pure as the Ceder of Lebannan which Is Encoruptable wood I have the Advice of three pr<i>est<s> Concerning you Coming to this Contery Which is the one half of the Cleargy of this state as the<y> have Told Me first the Revd Mr O Brine priest of pitsburg Who Allows that you will get free Collage in this Contery if you Didedicate your self to the service of the state or otherwise tatch A Lower Class if you are Able and Live independente and study Likewise that is to Be A secular priest which I Belive would be your Desire if you would wish to Be a Regular priest the Revrend Charles Mcguire from the Coale Iland who Left there 30 years Ago and Came here Last Chrismus to Be our priest after Trevling All catholick Conterys he was in Etily france & germiney in the Nine provences of Netherlans and Last of All in Bohemia he Can preach in five Defirent Languges he has Been professor in several Colageges he is a friar of the order of st frances— he says that if he had five Boys he would study them himself But the<y> Must have Letters of Recomendations Along and you Must have the same Along so do not Neglecte it The Reverend Mr flen thinks that the jesuat s friers is the strongest Body and likewise in riches But there is no Doupt if you ware here and To Be well Recommended But you would Be Recaved in Baltimore or georgia or Any other part that there is A Collage in the United States so do not fret But make the Best speed you Can for its very Likely that your Luck or fortune was not laid out for you in that Contery do not Be Like A greate Many that I had knowed Myself there in Ireland if the<y> would only build A New End to thire house the<y> Could not find from thire heart to lave it Much Like the snaile when he Lives in his Box all winter and when he is Laveing it in the sumer time he Trailes it Along untill that he gets quite weried for he takes it to Be one of the greatest pallices in the world this hould<s> in Comparison to A greate Many there In the year 1811 I was in Philedelphia Agreeing About my son Arthurs passage I got your Name on the List with the Revnd priest kinay To Be Advanced to Bishop Eagin as soon as you should Land and Michiel Flinn Likewise and I had Left the Chuseing of the third To My B<r>other petter Toner that Three of you should be Recaved in haveing your Recomendations Along that you ware to Embrace a free Collag in Case you wood find yourselves in Cloathing But I was thinking that your Mother was the Mains of keeping you there as she thought that Any one that would Come to AMaraca Was totaly Lost But I Recommend you Much to Ade and Asist your sister Nancy and her fatherless Children which I Regreat Very Much for thire fathers Death and so Dus Mary for he was an Upright Man Litle familly Could get Coming Togather for if she was here shee was no More A Trouble to you for if she had Nither friends or Relation<s> Before her she would fetch herself through Deasenly When she Could get a Bushel of good wheat for the I think you would Act Very proper if you and that spining of four or five Dozens of yearn of thire Own stuff Besides her Children to have a Chance of Arriveing to perfaction which the<y> Never would Arrived to in that Contery Let thire fortune Be Ever so good therefore put your Whole Dependence in the Allmighty god and Invoke the Coort of heaven to Be your guide do as the Litle Huny Bee Dus when shee gos out in the time of storme shee Carys A Litle gravel Along to Balance her in the Are so paus on this and Beg <God> to grant yo<u> so Much grace as will gard you Against the snares and Temptations of this Life As it is well Becoming a Man in your state of Life and situation to Be an example of Virtue To Both old and young— which I Expect it will be the Case with you you know it would Be our glory to here and see of your wellfaire and to proceed in what you Underwent In this Contery I have seen A part of the Boanes of the 12 Apostlys in Relecks Most Curiously Cemented in frames of glass and Embroyderd with gould and Even the garment of our Blessed Redemer A part of them and of the garmets which his Mother Ever Virgin wore in this world I had the Hapiness of kissing them when the shedow <of> st petter & the Napken of st paul Did Cast out Devils what less Virtue would thire Boones have if you would see the profoile of the Bless<ed> Virgin & of her Enfant jesus Most Curious<ly> Drawed out in waxed work in A frame Likewis Embroyderd with gould the Revnd Charles Boneventure Mcguire Collected all thes Relicks in his Trevels We have great satisfaction for we Live on the Nixt plantation to him he is one of the greatest pratchers that Ever I hered in My Life Catholick Clergy gets fine Liven in this Contery there are several places Laid out for A priest and non to Embrace it there are so Many other Chances for Lerned Men in this Contery which Makes so few Embrace the Church Unless such as are Enspired with pyety or Devotion to the Catholick fath our priest got 500 Acrs of first Reate land Besides his Congregation subscribes Better than 500 Dollars yearly <in> solarry his Brothers had wrote him Bohamia and incouraged him to this Contery but it would take a seacon<d> Mosses to Drag Any of the Clargy that was Reased there here Altho the<y> are in herdships and want in it —no More on that subject we are in good helth thanks be to god your sister Mary is younger and frasher Lookin than shee Was the day she Left Ireland shee Carrys her Age Better than I do for Many a hard days work I got sinc I left there which Left My head gray I k<n>ew Myself often wett still I had my Own Dew A good Bed to Lye on and plenty to Eat and Drink But I had got A complant with the grief and Trouble I was In when I was in Ireland Viz A pain in My Bowels that works Me in the Maner of a Collick which some times I am Douptfull will shorten My Days Altho I live hapy and well and Expects so[on] to B<u>y A place of My Own which is still My Look out simon Donely is Making out well in greensburg he gets as high as ten Dollars for Maken A greate Coate and James is Distilling in this Nibourhood the<y> Meet with Me here Very often John Donelly from shesaugh Donoughey is here and Dooing well at his Trade I send My love to My brother petter and Let him know that I sent him A letter Januar[y] last to All My Brother s in Law I Expect that My sister peagy and paul Mallon will here this Letter Read as I am Told the<y> live in pumproy I should wish that the<y> were alle to Come to this Contery therefor I conclude with My best Respects to all My friends and wellwisher<s> in that Contery Edward Toner and Mary Toner In the Main Time I am pening these few Lines I have an Extrect of A letter from A Man in Dundalk in the County Louth to his friends in this Contery Relateing the Barbarity Tyrony Hardships and hard usage of the poore Enhabitants of them parts the said Letter Expressly says that the<y> are hanged and gebigeted Burned with Roach’d Lime in the goile yeards<,> that Numbers of heads of familyes Transported for Exiles and Especily Roman Catholkcks when the<y> are so <are> Unfortunate as to fall into thire hands<,> that Caracture is of no Use to them<,> that the<y> are the Most Degradeingest people in the world all By the pride and Aristocricy of the Nobility of England and Ireland it has Rached over the globe and no Doubt But it has Rached heaven— for the Cryes of the Dying Enocent Must Rach that holy Coort as the said Letter allows that the<y> Declaire thire Inocency to the Last |
