| Title: | Mary Cumming, Petersburg to her sister, [Lisburn?]. |
|---|---|
| ID | 793 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Cumming, Mary/41 |
| Year | 1814 |
| 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 p.126-127: Copied by Permission of Miss A. McKisack, 9 Mount Pleasant, Belfast. |
| Archive | The Public Record Office, Northern Ireland. |
| Doc. No. | 9006111 |
| Date | 24/11/1814 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Document added by JM 01:11:1993. |
| Word Count | 533 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | November 24th. My letters have been detained for a week past, as I wished to send them with William's . Yesterday he received a large packet from Ireland, but not a single line from Strawberry Hill, which I am surprised at. I had another letter from M. Cumming, where she tells me of poor William's death. I am sincerely sorry for this melancholy event, I have still hopes of getting a letter from you by the next arrival. I am stronger than when I began this epistle. The weather has now got extremely cold but still very dry. William is the very picture of health, I have been busy lately getting the black people's winter clothes, which is a very troublesome business. The women and children have all to get gowns and frocks of cloth, to keep them warm during our piercing cold weather. My waiting maid, Mary, is grown almost a woman within the last year, her face, I can assure you is not very handsome, but she is very good-natured and extremely smart at learning anything, and immoderately fond of dress as almost all the negroes are. This is Sunday, William is gone to town, he generally invites someone to dine with us. I have not ventured to church yet. Had I gone to-day I would in all probability have had a little bit of a shake when I returned, and this I shall avoid as long as I can, I am sure you will be tired before you get through all this long letter, but I almost think I am talking to you. "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise", as I shall now prove to you. When I lived in Ireland I heard now and then of a complaint which the good people there call the spleen, and I have seen a farce which was entitled a cure for it, and so forth, now I was then so very ignorant of all diseases that I imagined it to be nothing more than bad spirits. But in this new found country it makes its appearance in a very different shape, as I shall explain to you, having myself experienced what it is for six weeks past. After having been much debilitated by sickness, there is a hard lump about the size of a goose egg, which rises in the left side. It occasions a little uneasiness, but very little pain, and is not in the least thought to be dangerous. I shall get quit of it when I am strong again. How very learned this trip to America will make me! Do not you think so? What if I begin to study anatomy?? You may know I am much better to-day. Had I not been I could not have written all this badinage. I wonder what you are all about just now? I am very much pleased with the bonnet M. Cumming sent me, which I shall be proud to wear, I wish I could meet with an opportunity of sending you all some little keepsake, perhaps I soon may. God protect my darling Sister, and grant that I may live to see you once more. Write by every opportunity. |
