1856: Letter from Rebecca Cree to her brother Joseph H Cree (with letters included on the same page from their mother Mrs Elizabeth Cree and their nephew William Frisby) |
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[Outer:] |
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[Inner:] You may direct to us [at] the above directions. It will be sure to find us has there is no fear of our removin[g] at present. |
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Mr Dear Brother Our dear Mother and I were very glad to rece[i]ve another letter from you. We began to think something had hap[p]ened to yourself that prevented your writing. We were su[r]prised and sorry to hear of your loss. Poor Martha. I little thought she was so bad when [she] used to tell us of her ailments. I hope your chidren will be able and willing to make up the loss to you. Poor things, nobody can make it up to them. I hope thay will be good. That is their only chance of being happy in this transitory world. |
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Mother and I are rejoiced at your success. I know it is the crowning of your hopes. I trust all things will turn out according [to] your expectations. It is a source of gratification to me to think I have a brother that has realised something. |
Since we have no idea what work Joseph did, we cannot even guess what success he had had. The contrast with the sadness expressed in the previous paragraph is noticeable, as is the contrast with the conditions in England as described in Rebecca's two letters. |
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Dear Joe I wish you would write to Will and invite him to come out. He has 2 children now, both boys, and you know what a precarious living labouring is in this country. I am always in fear of his falling out of work. Will is a good worker but neither he nor his wife have anything about them to relieve that incessant toil that is makeing him an old man before his time. It makes my heart ache to see him. The times are very dif[f]icult just now. I have been well employed this last twelve months or else I do not know what we should have done. We have a hard time to make ends meet. Do not think I am beg[g]ing by pleading poverty. I am just telling how we are situated. We stil[l] continue to keep up an air of respectability has a matter of policy. It is necessary in my business. I know the nature of living now, I do assure you, too well to think you can do more than you have been doing even in your country of Milk and Honey. I cannot tell how happy it makes me to think you have raised yourself above indigence. |
Will is Joe and Rebecca's youngest sibling William Cree who is now approaching his 32nd birthday. He had also moved to Manchester by 1851 and was living in Cheetham so not far from Rebecca. He married Charlotte Rogerson there in 1853 and they had their first child, Thomas, that year. The other son mentioned, James, is just a few weeks old. Will did not move to America but stayed in the Manchester area as a gardener until his death in 1879 aged 55.
"My business" is upholstery. Rebecca is shown as an upholsterer in the 1851 Census. |
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I will send you a newspaper if you can tell me in your next w[h]ether you have ever rece[i]ved any from me. I shall not write much to leave room for Mother to write a few lines. She [says] you will think you will she has forgot you but the fact is she is so trembling she cannot. Frisby will write a few lines to [..] Habour [=Haber]. I hope he is a good son and [makes] good use of his youth, the seed time of life that he may not starve in Harvest, I have no news that will interest you. In fact I am not a newsmonger. I forget it has soon has I hear it, so you must not expect much gossop from me but Believe your ever loving Sister Rebecca Cree. |
Elizebeth's "trembling" may suggest she has develped Parkinson's disease. Frisby is Rebecca's nephew (Elizebeth's grandson) William Frisby who is living with them in Manchester and is aged 25. Habour is Joe's son Haber Cree who is now 23. |
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Please tell me in your next how far you are from Hickville Long Island State New York. There is a person I know coming out to her Brother there. |
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My Dear Son I thought you would think I had forgot you but you are the first and last of my thoughts. I put up my prayers night and morning for you and wonder what you [are] doing many time[s] in the day. I was so pleased when you told me that you had got a settled home but when I got to poor Martha['s] death it quite un[n]erved that day. I thought you would have so been so comfortable after all your trials but wee must not have all our own way. Wee must bear the Cross patiently to attain the Crown. Poor Martha, she was a pattern of humblenes[s]. You must walk in her steps and you will attain her peacefull end. |
The news that Joe and his family, "had got a settled home", may be the "success" that Rebecca had referred to above. |
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I hope you and your children go to a place of worship on a Sunday. Just tell me how you spend your time on a sab[b]ath day. I hope the children will be good and you can carry out Martha['s] wishes and keep home for them. I am sincerely greived for you. Nothing can make up the [...] loss. Let me know all particulars about your children, how thay go on, in your next. You must send how far you are from New York. I want to send you the books. It perhaps would relieve a meloncholy hour. Write soon for my time cannot be very long. Farewell my dear son, your [...] Eliz Cree.
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Here Elizebeth reiterates her concern, expressed at the end of the 1848 letter, for the religious welfare of her grandchildren.
We might presume that the sentence "I want to send you the books" refers to Thomas's books (including an encyclopaedia) that she wrote about in her note in Rebecca's 1853 letter. "My time cannot be long" - Elizebeth is now 68 and she was to live another seven years. |
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(Uncle you must excuse my uneducated letter) |
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No 12 Sherborne street Strangeways Manchester Dear Uncle & Cousins |
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I feel that you will be pleased to hear from anyone in this country and has Aunt is writing I feel ancious to write a few lines to you which we ought to have done as soon as we had received your letter which we was much pleased to receive but when we come to know its contents we was sorry to hear of Aunt been taken from you after you had toyled togeather & gained a home to rest in your old age. But the Lord's will be done for Man's rest his not on Earth. |
"Aunt" here is Rebecca, the sister of William Frisby's mother Hannah who died in about 1842.
Here and in the next paragraph "Aunt" is Joseph Cree's wife Martha. |
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Uncle I ham pleased you told us of Aunt feeling quite happy to Die & that she gave all things up to the Most High. I feel pleased with you for burying Aunt with Hannah side by side in that distant land from us but it will mean not where we are laid so that we have lived to meet our redeemer. I hope Uncle you have with your Familly followed the means of Grace for the sake of you[r] children & their children after them. |
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I have often thought of Hannah & Sarah for thay use[d] to sing & repeat peices & Eliza use[d] to assist them. Uncle you tell us of Eliza been gone to the West. I think of the Command given to man to subdue the earth & thay will carry those Glad Tidings of Great Joy which was sown in their young minds before thay left this Land which I dare say thay have not forgot. Thay will the means of carr[y]ing the Saviour's love to the uttermost part of the Earth & if we are not permitted to meet on Earth I hope we shall be prepared to meet at that Great meeting to shout those shouts of Joy, Worthy his the Lamb that Died. |
Hannah, who had died in 1853, and Sarah were twins, five years younger than the writer, their cousin Will Frisby. Eliza was Joseph and Martha's eldest child now aged 26 and married.
As Rebecca wrote in her 1853 letter, "Frisby... never seems to have any desire for amusement. He is a strange youth..." |
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G[rand] Mother wishes me to tell Haber that James Marriott that use[d] to live against you at Town End he is married to Betty Riley, Samuel Riley['s] daughter & lives at Codnor. I don't know much news to tell you but I think Aunt Bettsey [h]as told you all she knows. Uncle I hope you or Haber or some of you will come over when you are a little settled before long. I think I shall come to see you some day but not yet. I hope Haber will write to me when you write again. Love to All W Frisby | Next page | |
This implies correspondence to Joseph from his sister Betsy, who had married Frisby's father Tom. |
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All the transcriptions, notes and commentaries on these Letters to an Emigrant web pages are copyright © Mike Spathaky 2009. |
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