Hobbs letter collection
[Last amended: February 15, 2003]
A bundle of 14 letters sent to Joseph Overton “Joe” Hobbs by various family members (his Aunt Eliza and sisters Mary “Polly” and Agnes) were found and transcribed. These are reproduced here with permission.
The letters appear in chronological order. Not all are signed or dated. A list of the letters and who they have been attributed to follows:
| 27 April 1881 | Philip Hobbs - uncle of Joe and his father’s brother |
| 12 September 1884 | Agnes Hobbs - Joe's sister |
| 3 April 1887 | Mary Smith - Joe's sister, known as Polly |
| 18 July 1887 | Mary Smith |
| 15 August 1888 | Agnes Hobbs |
| 1 December 1888 | Agnes Hobbs |
| 18 January 1889 | Eliza Jegon - Joe's aunt, youngest sister of his mother |
| 11 November 1889 | Eliza Jegon |
| 13 December 1889 | Eliza Jegon |
| 14 December 1889 | Mary Smith |
| 11 February 1893 | Mary Smith |
| 22 October 1893 | Mary Smith |
| 14 April 1895 | Eliza Jegon |
| 2 February 1897 | Mary Smith |
Thanks to Melba Hobbs for the notes that follow each letter
Return to top| Bockmer
Great Marlow April 27, 1881 |
My Dear Joe
I have forwarded the amount of £205/1/8 your share of your late Mother’s property, to the Bank of Utah, same as before, with a statement and receipt attached, which please sign and return to me. I received the other all right, but George wrote as he is the Sen. Exor.
This business of your Mother’s I undertook as it stood in my name alone after William’s death which made me the trustee. You will see by the statement that Henry’s children have their share which I am still trustee for.
This concludes the business part of my letter, so will conclude and write a postscript.
Believe me your affectionate uncle,
Philip Hobbs
I hope your investment goes on to your satisfaction also your health good, and that your leg behaves well. I wish you could say it was quite well daren’t put that. I talked a lot about you to your Mother when I went to see her. I can quite fancy you could hardly realise her really gone when did you hear of it and I was not the least surprised to hear you say you would have taken the voyage to see her once more if you had known her illness would end fatally. I know you will be pleased she passed away without a murmur or wish to live, feeling her illness was to be her end. She spoke of you with the greatest affection.
I have seen or heard of your sisters quite lately and they are all well. Agnes is with Polly now and going to pay us a visit before she returns to Slough. I am thankful to say we are all in good health, but trade of all descriptions is bad, farming especially. You will be sorry to hear that I think English farmers have had their day. We are quite in a fix. I think if I tell you how things are with my own family it may interest you as much as anything. My eldest Mary is Mother to her Brothers and sisters. Edmund is on a farm at Sonning, his wife a very nice woman, had one child born dead or nearly so. James is my foreman. William is a Miller by trade but not in business. Philip is steward to Colonel Williams-Templehouse, Bisham. Joseph is an ironmonger in a wholesale House in London as foreman. Arthur is at home on the farm. Fanny also at home, fine strong girl five feet eleven inches high. Harry a Draper in Reading. Bessie at school, Fred at school, Herbert also
Notes for letter 1:
The letter is from Philip Hobbs, uncle of Joseph Overton Hobbs, April 27, 1881. It mentions:
Philip names all his own children and their occupations.
Return to top| Chalvey Park
Slough Bucks 12th Sept. 1884 |
My dear Joe,
I have not received a letter from you since last November, and I think it is really naughty of you not to write a little oftener unless there is some good reason to present. I sincerely hope you are all well. I fancy little “Catherine Agnes” must be getting quite a woman by this time.
And now I am sorry to say I have some bad news to tell you. Poor uncle Trew died on the 11th of August. He had been ailing more or less for the past two years but at one time he seemed to get so very much better that we quite hoped all would be well; however last winter he fell back again and the last few months he had been quite laid up, and could not get down the stairs and only entirely kept his bed the last fortnight. He suffered awful pain at times. It was quite hard to see him. The attacks came on very suddenly and lasted a short time then eased off again. Everything that anyone could suggest was tried to relieve him and he saw no end of doctors, Sir Andrew Clark among others, but not one could do him any good. He had a complication of diseases, but he died of aneurism, which took the form of a large swelling on the collar bone and when that burst it caused his death. But strange to say it was not the aneurism that caused the severe pain. He suffered comparatively little from that. Altogether it was a most extraordinary illness and for a long time quite baffled the doctors.
Auntie is quite well considering the sad circumstances. Of course poor Uncle’s death was a fearful blow to her, though we were in a great measure prepared for it. Still when the end comes that does not make it any the less sad to part with those we love. It does seem so strange without him for during his long illness Auntie and I had been in such constant attendance on him, that it seems now as if we had nothing to do and our mission in life ended at least for the time being. Uncle was buried at Stoke by his own request. I am thankful to say Aunty is left very comfortably off, and I suppose some day (if I live long enough) I shall also do very well, and Polly likewise.
I believe you said in one of your letters that if you did not come home soon, we should all be dead before you got here, and we certainly seem getting on that way. So you had better be quick and come. Aunty sends her love and wants to know when you are going to answer her last long letter.
We have had such a wonderful summer, the heat has been intense and very little rain. I believe the crops have been good and the harvest got up in good condition. Altogether the farmers seem more satisfied than they have been for some time.
How have you been getting on lately? Do please write soon, or ask your wife if she will kindly do so for you. I sent you several of the Illustrated Christmas numbers after last Christmas. Did you get them? I ask simply because I have been told that those papers very often do not reach their proper destination. So don’t forget to tell me in your next letter. I must not forget to thank you and Kate for the very pretty carol you sent me for the New Year.
Next week Aunty and I start for North Wales. We are obliged to go on business. At least Aunty is and she will not go without me. The slate quarries will now be sold. I hope they will fetch a good price but I rather doubt it as the trade for slates has not been very bright for some time past. Polly and her fry all seem very flourishing. She has ten now. They are obliged to leave their house which they much regret and at present have not found another one suitable and I fear they will find some difficulty. Madeline, their oldest daughter is getting quite a young woman. She is nearly as tall as I am. But there I am forgetting you can’t possibly know how tall that is. I am just about the same height dear Mother was. I cannot wait for more now. With best love to Kate and Self and a kiss for little Kate.
Believe me dear Joe, Your affectionate Sister
Agnes Hobbs
Notes for letter 2:
Mentions Trew Jegon buried at Stoke (probably Stoke Poges, a parish near Slough)
Return to top| The Grange
Turville Heath Henley on Thames April 3rd |
My dear brother
It is so long since I have written to you that if it was not for Agnes’s correspondence I should fancy you would hardly think of me as in the land of the living but you see I am for all that. I saw your last letter to Agnes that if we want to get you to write to us we must write business letters but I am afraid that I shall not find any business to talk of this time. I am sorry to say that Aunt Eliza is ill, has been very seriously so with congestion of the lungs but am thankful to say she is better. She had been staying in Hereford and returned home so ill it very much alarmed Aunt Julia and Agnes. The latter I am glad to say is better just now but she has very bad health and is not to be depended on from one day to another. It is a mercy she has an Aunt Eliza and what she would do if she were to lose her I cannot think. So I hope she may be spared for a long time to come.
I daresay you know from Agnes we have 11 children, 7 girls and 4 boys. Our eldest girl has left school and the next two and the eldest boy go to Eastbourne to school. The rest have a governess and nurse at home. My husband is a very good man of business and I am thankful to say propserous in most of his undertakings. He is as you know a “miller” by trade and has Gt. Marlow Flour Mills also farms about 300 acres of land up here so we live here which is very nice in the summer and very cold in the winter. It is about 6 miles from Bockmer and States. Three of Uncle Phil’s sons are married and 2nd daughter engaged. The youngest son nearly 17 has just taken it into his head to try the butchering business. I hope he wont like it, for he might as well take to something wiser, I think. Uncle Phil is in anything but good health. He suffers so much pain from indigestion that we feared for some time it was something worse. But we hope now again it is nothing but that and gout combined. And that’s enough perhaps you will say; but I hope it is not killing.
We have had a long severe winter here and today is about the first day of Spring. Everything is “Jubilee” this year till we are nearly tired of the name. The Parishes they quite quarrel over the best way to celebrate the ‘jubilee”. I shall be glad when it is over. Do you think you will ever get to old England again? It will seem quite a strange land to you if you do. I forget how many children you have. Do you get good schools for their education? I do not think I will write any more or you will be tired of reading it so Good-bye and if you will find time to write me just a few lines I shall be delighted to have them. With kind love to all although I only know one.
I am
Your affectionate Sister
Mary Smith
Notes for letter 3:
Children who attended school in Eastbourne were: Emily, Mabel Jane and Sidney
Return to top| The Grange
Turville Heath Henley on Thames July 18th |
My dear Brother
Today is your birthday therefore write to wish you many happy returns and thank you for your letter and photos. Your little girl looks a dear little thing. How old was she when that was taken? I will send you a photo of my youngest girl taken about a month ago when just 4 years. I have not any others just now taken lately; but will have some done and you shall have a specimen of some of us.
You seem to think Turville Heath rather out of the world but it is only about three miles from where we used to live in Hawthelen Valley and not further from Henley only we go in another way. We are quite in the hills and as the summer has been so very dry we are rather short of water, but not nearly so badly off as they are in some parts not far from us as our ponds are not dry although getting very low.
I have been staying at Eastbourne for a fortnight as my youngest little boy had an attack of the fever so when he was better took him to the seas for change, and chose Eastbourne as 3 of the others go to school there. Aunt Eliza, Aunt Julia and Agnes have
Notes for letter 4:
| 15th August
Chalvey Park Slough, Bucks |
My dear Joe
I fear I have been a very bad correspondent lately but I want now to try to make up for lost time. I hope your wife and family have all been well since I last heard. I am truly thankful to say I have grown fairly strong and well again, which is indeed a great blessing as I was quite an invalid for over two years. But now with reasonable care I go out and about much as usual though I still know I have a back and do not now ride of take violent exercise otherwise I am all right.
I have been out visiting a good deal lately, making up for lost time, I say, when I did not go out for so long, and I hope you will forgive me and write again very soon and let me know how you are all getting on. I think Aunt Eliza wrote last and we have not heard anything of you since then. We have had a very wet summer. I never remember such a July. We scarcely had one nice day all the month. It is rather better now but very different from Jubilee year when we had almost perpetual sunshine for almost 3 months. Auntie let the house for 4 months and we had a very jolly time. We travelled all through Cornwall and Devon and then on into Wales and finished up at the Manchester Exhibition. It was a very pleasant tour and I enjoyed it very much. We had several chances of letting it again but Auntie preferred staying at home this summer and we have had a good many visitors. On Saturday next 4 nieces are coming to stay, two of Emily’s children and two of Polly’s.
We have had another of the Australian Barnetts here this year. I think you heard that one of them suddenly turned up about two years ago much to our astonishment. That was Edwin Barnett the eldest, and this last is Henry the second son. After his brother returned he thought he would like to come, also. I suppose they must be very comfortably off, as they do not seem to study expense much. They seem to go everywhere, travel about all over the continent, England, Scotland and Ireland, and this one is going home by America and said he would like to visit Salt Lake City so we gave him your address and I thought I had better write and tell you and then you would know who he is if he suddenly appeared at your abode like he did to us in the Spring. I suppose you understand that he is a son of Uncle Daniel who of course I never saw. I don’t know if you ver did, but they naturally all seem like strangers to me and I
Notes for letter 5:
Letter dated Aug. 15th but no year is mentioned however the visit by cousin Henry was in 1888.
Return to top| Chalvey Park
Slough, Bucks Dec. 1st |
My dear Joe
I was so very glad to get your nice long letter. I was rather surprised to find you had moved from the old place. But from what you say I have no doubt it is much the best plan, and that under the circumstances you will get on much better alone, as it must be most trying I fancy to be in partnership with anyone with whom you can’t agree, especially with one who does not understand the practical working of things. As I am well enough acquainted with business matters to know that many things are very, very well in theory but when put in practice it is often quite another matter altogether. Anyhow I sincerely hope the change will be for your good, and that you will be successful and prosperous in your new venture. I hope you will find time to write again soon and tell me how you are getting on and you may trust me not to tell others anything you do not wish spoken of. I am very glad to hear your wife and children are well. I will send some of the Christmas papers, Graphic etc. directly they are published. I expect some of them will be out very shortly, and I am so pleased to hear the children like them. I sent you a local paper last week as I thought it might interest you. I will also send you one of the photos I had taken a short time ago with our little dog “Yerdy” a very small black and tan terrier. It is a very good one of the dog but I am not sure about myself. Some like it fairly well and others not at all. I suppose I am not a very good subject for that sort of thing. I have another dog now, a small fox-terrier called “Midge” a very jolly lively little animal. They are both great pets of us all. I like dogs. They are such nice companions, so faithful and true.
Do you know I fancy there must be one letter of mine that you did not get as I feel so sure I wrote and told you about Edwin Barnett (the eldest from Australia) coming here. I seem to remember it so well, and we were so full of it for a time as it was such a surprise to us as Auntie had not heard anything of her brother Daniel for about thirty years I think. Edwin came to England rather more than two years ago but I did not see much of him as I was very ill when he first came, and could not see anyone. But I saw him before he returned. He left rather in a hurry at last for he had a wife and family in Australia and not having heard from them for so long he thought something must be wrong so started off home. To our surprise, Henry Barnett (the last one who came) returned to England again from America, and then it came out that he was going to take a wife back with him to Australia. He has already had two wives as I think I told you and only about 28, and now he has a third. I think myself she is a brave girl to try it, He married a Miss Edwards from Marlow. She with her Mother and Sister had a school there, the Father being dead. I believe he was a farmer near Wycombe and I am told our Father had a very great objection to Mr. E. and would not have anything to do with him. I don’t know why but very likely you may know something about it. This Mrs. Edwards is the second wife and she is I believe related to the Miss Drewett that you mention who married Uncle Daniel. I believe this is right but not knowing much of any of the people except by hearsay (though some of them are relations) it is rather difficult to remember it all. Henry Barnett was married on the 10th of November and they sailed on the 16th for Australia. They spent the last night in England at this house. He said when he was in America he did not get as far as Tooele. He found he should not have time as he was bound to be back in England by a certain date. But as you had moved it was perhaps just as well, as the chances are he would not have found you. He went to Uncle James’ place but found that he had lately died. But of course he saw the rest of the family. And now I think I have told you as much about it as I know myself.
What have you named your son? You did not tell me. I am thankful to say that I am keeping fairly well which is a great blessing. And the two aunts are also well and they both send their kind love to you and yours. I spent a few days with Polly last month. They are all very well. Her eldest daughter (Madeline) is now 18 and such a tall big girl. Aunt George died at the beginning of October. She had been very ill for some time but suddenly took a turn for the better and went to Brighton for a change of air. And there she somehow slipped down and broke her thigh. They managed to get her home again, but she gradually sank. I will now conclude as we have several visitors and they take up most of one’s time. For several days past I have been trying to find an opportunity of writing to you. With best love to you wife, children and self.
Believe me
Yours affectionately,
Agnes Hobbs
Notes for letter 6:
| Chalvey Park
Slough, Bucks 18th Jan. 1889 |
My dear old Joe
It was a real pleasure to get a letter from you and such a letter, too. It would not give one an idea that you have to work hard. Your writing is as good as need to be. I will not forget the Slough Papers. I have an idea you would see things in them that would remind you of the old times. Well I feel that it is not good to go back. It makes me miserable. Everyone seems dead and gone that I cared for and Julia and I seem the only two of the generation left. I am sorry to tell you she has been very ill with a bad attack of bronchitis and for two days her breath was very difficult. We steamed her well with eucalyptus oil in the kettle which relieved her very much but for three weeks she has had to be sat up with night and day. I am thankful to tell you she is now able to sit up for a few hours and I hope by Sunday, today being Friday, we shall get her part of the way down as we have a sitting room upstairs which is very cheerful and free from draughts. I am thankful to say Agnes has grown fairly strong again but she had a long illness. It has taken her over two years to recover. I have had plenty of nursing for about 4 years. I was never free. So that I do not feel as young as I might. And sitting up with sister and various anxieties besides has made me feel very seedy. Today for a treat we had some sunshine. And that helps all things to cheer up. We have had a weak frost and skating but I am glad it has gone. Sister became better as soon as it became warmer tho’ we kept the temperature up to 60 all the time and do now. I am doing a little planting at the back of our house as I have just bought a strip of land at the back as all the field has been sold for building cottages. So I was in half defense obliged to buy, not that I wished to do so. James Gardiner, you recollect him I dare say, bought it as a speculation and expected me to buy 5 acres and give him 1200 pounds for it and I could not afford to do it. So that it has made things very crooked. Arthur Lawrence was the auctioneer and they seemed to have arranged it between them that they could do as they pleased with me. I should like to have bought it for now we have a cottage going up fast that took well over our garden. However, I am obliged to put up with it. I finished the purchase one day this week and from what I hear he would have done better if he would have taken less for his 5 acres as now by act of parliament he is obliged to make a road and drain it which will cost him 600 pounds. The Harriers have met today at Sale Hill. That is all so altered you would not know it. The large Hotel was burnt down and now no end of cottages have sprung up and quite altered the character and look of that place. As you say the Master of the Harriers is Wm. Pascoe Grenfill’s son. He harried some a year or two back and has a son and heir. I should fancy he is about your age. You asked about Aldridge and Richard Carey. Fred Harrington has Aldridge’s farm and to see how well he gets on and the number of bucks he has makes me wild to think that he could not make a living there but his wife was the most extravagant creature that could be found and her children were brought up in such luxurious habits and poor fellow since he left England he has done nothing but lose what little he had and that was he said 50 pounds was all he had left when he had paid everybody what he owed. But a subscription was made for him which I think amounted to about 700 pounds but it all went. I hear he has very poor health. Two daughters have married. [letter torn and not readable] …. To visit England after his death but he seems utterly wretched and returned very soon to die and also did their second daughter so I seldom hear anything about them beyond he left a good property in land and houses which could not be realized so they were forced to live out there to look after it.
My brother Daniel seems to have made himself rich. His two sons have been to England. Henry, the younger, was here lately. He went to America and hoped to go and see you and had you seen him you would have thought it was your brother Harry. They were very much alike. He was very good looking. He went to see my brother James but did not see him as poor old boy he died. [letter torn here and unreadable] He stayed a few days as my brother George lives with them and it appears will continue there. But from what Henry said he seemed quite an old man. Then he returned again to England to take back a wife, a Miss Edmunds of Marlow. Mr. Edmund’s second wife was a Miss Swallow and related to his mother as I make it second cousins. They came here and spent a night the day before they left for Australia in the Oceana which I saw arrived safely two days before Xmas. His father sent Julia, George and myself 50 pounds to divide between us as a present. I have bought a piece of furniture with mine, something I wanted. I was greatly pleased, the only time I had ever had a present from my brother not even when I married. [letter torn and unreadable]
Emily’s eldest is a very little Mother to the young ones. Dolly and Gladys - they stayed here this summer over 5 weeks and looked so much better for the change. They do not go from home much. Their father is still single. I have tried to persuade him to marry again now but he always says “he cannot find another Emily”. So I say no more. But he is a good father and we are great friends.
I cannot say I like Polly’s husband very much. He is a good man of business but he is so bumptious there is no bearing with him and he thinks so little of education that his two eldest girls have had quite a moderate education which in these days seems quite wrong and if anything were to happen to him they would really have no chance of making a living for themselves. [rest of letter torn and unreadable]
Notes for letter 7:
| Chalvey Park
Slough, Bucks Nov. 11, 1889 |
My dear Joe
I have been away from home for 4 months. I let my house and took Agnes and Aunt Julia for a good Tour to see the country. We went to Penzance first in Cornwall. Then we went up the West Coast and to North Devon. Then into Hereprasline [Herefordshire] to see your Brother-in-law John Vevers … little Emily. When there your photos were forwarded to us. I do wish you had not sat under the Verandah. We would have seen what you were all like then. You have all come out so dark. Your house looks very snug and pleasant. I should fancy that on that day that Verandah would be a very pleasant place to sit in. I wish you or yours would write a little oftener that we might keep an interest in each other a little more. I daresay you have a great deal to occupy your time and to keep a family going demands time. I know all about it as I now have everything to do myself and as it were to provide for my family Agnes and Julia as they both live with me. Sister has done so ever since my dear Husband’s death. I could not see her at work while I had a home to give her and Mrs. Peto only lived about 12 months after she left. She seems to enjoy an easy life and is a wonder in health seldom ailing anything. Very fat but toddles about and gardens a good deal. I am thankful to tell you Agnes seems quite restored to health again. This 4 months tour seems to have set her up. It cost me a lot of money but I had had such a time with Trew for 2 years that I felt almost worn out. And nursing my niece was not like nursing my dear Trew. I let my house for a while and spent all the money in going about --- which seems to have answered. I have a great deal of executoria business to see to which causes me a great deal of writing and sometimes a great deal of anxiety, one colliery we cannot let and the other is not paying as it did. Every thing in the way of business is declining except the butchers and they have made fortunes. We give him 10 and 11 per lb. for meat. But Slough is a very dear place to live in. I found we could just live at half the cost in Cornwall. But as this house is mine to live in for as long as I live I am not likely to leave it unless I do not get enough to keep it going. It is very large for we three people but I shall see if we can let it again next year for a few months.
Your sister Mary, her husband and 2 girls have been staying with John Vevers. They returned a week ago. Fancy Mary the Mother of 11 children. Her husband is a wonderful man of business but we do not like him very much. He has too much bounce for me and neither is he generally liked. However, I think they are very happy together. But he does not come here now very often. He did not behave quite well after my husband’s death and he knows it now. They live as I dare say you know at old Wm. Bixnis farm. Fancy the old man has not been dead 2 years yet. It is a long way off from here because it is so difficult to get at. Our part is very much altered since you saw it. We have lately lost the Master of our Harriers, Sir Robert Harvey. Wm. Grenfill of Taplin Court started by giving a breakfast last week and invited all the farmers. I will send you the papers. You will see a good many names you know.
My brothers in America are both alive and live together and I think doing fairly well. The Bockmer Hobbs are all well right now but some of them have very poor health. I don’t think any of them are doing much good in the way of getting a living. Poor James has had a most serious illness at the same time Agnes was so ill. Philip had to leave general Owen Williams. He could not make ... was hurt. William has a little corn business in Marlow and has wretched health. Joe has married and taken a Basketship at Henley. One is a Linen Chafer and nearly always out of a situation. The youngest is at home doing nothing - as tall as a Hop-pole. All three girls are single and the two youngest are quite six feet high, perfect giantesses, too tall. Uncle Phil is about as usual. Edmund, I suppose, at Sorring [Sonning], is better off than the others.
Charles Barnett, at Niele [Mile] End is 6’6” in his shoes. Old Deane died in August - at last a sad old man. Louis the Son married a Miss Webster. Perhaps you may have heard a lot of this before. Please excuse it if you have. Accept my best thanks for the photos which I may ... have come ... they not - have written just a few lines inside. Sister and Agnes with me in kind love to you and yours.
Believe me yours sincerely,
Notes for letter 8:
| Cintra Park Cottage
Upper Norwood London S. E. Dec. 13th 1889 |
My dear old Joe,
Your letter has just been received by me at the above address. I have let my house for 12 months and come to a little cottage as my income of late has much decreased. I am hoping it may come back again when Sir H. Vivian’s engineer has sunk down to a fresh vein, or seam of coal. But all things underground are so uncertain. The coal when reached may not be as good as those that have been worked, and since they have been sinking they have cut through such a strong spring it has drowned them out for a time and so my income has decreased also, which makes it most inconvenient and causes me much anxiety as to how I shall keep my family.
At the present moment Auntie B. is sitting opposite me reading her newspaper. She has lovely health again - gets a little rheumatism occasionally. I am so sorry to hear you suffer so much with that poor old leg but I think it very likely that the wound on the leg being open carries away something that would cause you trouble in another way. I know an old woman at Slough that we have supplied soft-bag to pigeons and the doctor says it is her “safety valve”; but of course you find it tiresome and seems as if it would be weakening, but it has not been so to poor old Mrs. Wheeler.
I expect you will receive papers from Agnes about the same time, or perhaps a little before, from Dublin, where she has gone on a visit. Her friends are strangers to me, people she met with when she was so delicate and I sent her up to Chrishead Priory in Lancashire where she had sea baths, Turkish baths and such things. She has wonderfully recovered but for 2 years she was always at ... at one place or another. She went to this place twice, once for 7 weeks, another time for 4. She was at the Hydropathic at Harrogate for a month. Hastings, Brighton and several other places but I think now she has grown fairly strong again and is a capital sailor. I expect her back from Ireland next week. She has been away a month there. I have had Polly here to stay for a week while she has been away. Our cottage will not hold many at a time and now we have her eldest daughter Madeline. She is tall, big, rather an awkwardly made girl but has a most beautiful complexion with fair hair. She will be 20 next June and there are ten younger. But Polly looks fat and jolly and does not seem to mind the numbers. Her husband is a sharp man of business but between you and I rather blustering and rough. However, he makes Polly a good husband and she seems contented but she is not quite such a lady as she used to be but of course you understand I am not speaking unkindly only giving you a little insight to what I thought you would like to hear.
Yes! Poor Uncle James died rather suddenly and George who lives with one son says they miss him dreadfully. I think it was fever and ague. He was a nice kind brother to me.
I have been to bed since I began this and today is the 14th.
Notes for letter 9:
| Turville Grange
Henley on Thames England Dec. 14th |
My dear Joe,
I was glad to hear from you although short and sweet for strange to say I was only thinking about you and wondering if you ever intended to favour me again, and thought I would like to send some reminder of Christmas. Shall we ever spend it together again I wonder! Do you have roast beef and Plum pudding or have you nearly forgotten old English fare?
I am answering you rather quickly in hopes you will manage to write on the other half sheet in the course of the next six months if your long evenings last long enough.
You may well say Henley must be altered since you knew it. I wish you could see it again. It gets bigger every year and the traffic on the Thames is 100 percent more than it used to be. People go quite mad about the River all the summer and houses and land is all very valuable near the banks.
We shall soon be a houseful again as the children come home for their holidays next week. My eldest girl is staying just now with Aunt Eliza at Norwood close to the Crystal Palace. She is 19 and our youngest 4. 7 girls and 4 boys. And now to make the dozen we have an orphan nephew of Stephen’s. So you see when we collect we are a fairish party, but the more the merrier.
Some of Uncle Phil’s sons are married but some of his daughters not likely to be. I wish they were.
We had lovely weather last summer neither too wet nor dry. We took a house at Franklin in the Isle of Wight for a month and all went down there which was a nice change. At present the winter has been very changeable a little of all sorts of weather. The children have had a few days skating but now it is quite mild again. Don’t you ever think you will come home again? If you do we can put you all up. Our house is very elastic.
Give my kind love to your wife and children for although I do not exactly know them, yet I know them almost as well as I know you I suppose, considering it is 30 years this Christmas since we met. When one looks back it seems hardly possible, yet a great many things have happened since then if we look at it in that light. I must draw to a close or you will be tired of reading. So good-bye with much love and best wishes to the coming season,
I am
Your affectionate Sister
Mary Smith
Notes for letter 10:
Letter does not mention year but will be 1889 as her oldest girl Madeline (19) was born in June 1870.
Return to top| Feb. 11th 1893
Turville Grange Henley on Thames |
My dear Brother,
I feel somehow this morning that I must write to you and find out if you are still in the land of the living so I have been routing about for your last letter to me and find it has no date on it and the envelope is gone, so I do not know when last you wrote to me but it must be sometime a long, long while ago. But I shall chance the same address finding you and if I do not hear from you soon I shall conclude this has not found you. I nearly sent a young friend to see you two years ago. I heard from his Mother that he was in Salt Lake City. So I wrote to him at once and sent him your address but unfortunately he had started on his return home before receiving my letter or he would have waited and found you out as a week or two did not make any difference to him.
I have the likeness of your little girl. It stands in a frame on the drawing room mantle piece. So I cannot forget you while that is there to remind me. Altho’ from my long silence you may have thought so. I hope you are all well. Do you think you will ever come home again? We are all flourishing and in very comfortable position, not rich for our large family will not allow us to be that but I find the richest are not always the happiest by a long way.
The Bockmer and States people are all about the same. Two of Uncle Phil’s sons are in Canada. One has been there about 2 years and the other went about six months ago; and the youngest but one died about 8 years ago, that was a sad blow to us as he was such a nice fellow just 22, one of the nicest of the family.
I am sorry to say Aunt Eliza is in very poor health, and her money matters don’t improve a bit. Agnes is with her but is trying to meet with something to do to get a little money. Aunt Julia is a wonderful old lady. Nothing seems to hurt her. She will be 74 or 75 in May. Give my kind love to your wife and children altho’ I do not know them, perhaps I may some day. And same for yourself and mind do not forget to answer this or I shall think you have disappeared.
Your affectionate sister,
Mary Smith
Notes for letter 11:
| Turville Grange
Henley on Thames Oct. 22nd |
My Dear Joe:
It is a pouring wet Sunday morning, so as we live nearly two miles from church I shall not go so think I cannot do better than employ my time for a while in writing to you. Thank you so much for your letter. It was nice long one for you. I am now sending you a collection of photos done by my girls as I thought they might interest you and give you some idea of your heap of relations at Turville. I have written on the backs of them to explain. I also send a large one of not done by the girls as theirs is only a little bit of a camera and will not take anything larger than I send, but it is a great amusement to them as most people get photographed when they come in the summer. We have had a most lovely time this year, rather too dry for the corn crops as we have had very little rain from march 1st till quite lately. It is a pity fine weather does any havoc for it is nice to have it so fine, but of course the farmers have suffered; all sorts of fruit has been most abundant.
You say in your letter you cannot understand how it is with Aunt Eliza’s affairs. Well it would be a very long, long story to explain it all and then I could not make you understand, but I will but give you an outline. Uncle Trew, you know, was always fond of anything appertaining to colliery property and in evil moment he was persuaded to take up somebody’s lawsuit about a colliery in South Wales, and although he even the day after ... every court it could, it really ruined him for he spent all his money which was thousands and had to sell one of his wharves and mortgage the other and also mortgage the colliery, which he had spent all his money to get. Then he put off making his “will” until he was too ill to understand properly and the lawyer he chose to make it is a rogue, I believe, altho’ a relation by marriage and the property was left in a very complicated state, in fact the “will” ought to have been upset in the first place had there been any one sharp enough to see it, but he left Aunt Eliza trustee with two others Mr. Castle and Mr. Jennings who as far as business goes are no better than two old women, and worked against Aunt Eliza all thro’ and the last 4 years the only income she has had has been what she could get by letting her house. The income from the estate is all taken to pay mortgages, rent, etc. Just now it seems coming to a climax as the mortgagees have given notice of foreclosure and what will be the result remains to be proved. When I know I will write to you again and tell you. Stephen is coming to see if he can do anything for her but it wants some one with a lot of money to take up the mortgage, and that we have not got. Do you understand at all. I am afraid I am not very lucid but the long and short of it is Aunt Eliza has very little to live on and keep poor old Aunt Julia. I help the latter when I can by having her to stay here and giving her a little, you see she is 75 years old and a wonderful old lady for her age. Agnes is out in a situation. She is not at all strong. It is very awkward for Aunt, sometimes when her house stands empty for a time, she lets it furnished and goes into lodgings; but she is thinking of selling all her furniture off and trying to let the house on lease. It is only hers for life and she has to keep it in repair, but here I might run on for sheets and sheets and I am sure you would tire of reading so I will turn the subject.
Did you go to the Chicago Fair? I hear it was rather a failure. I enclose also the names and address of Uncle Phil’s two sons in Canada that you asked for. James Hobbs lost one of his little boys by a sad accident about a month ago. He had 3 of his fingers crushed in an oil coke crusher and after eight days lock jaw set in and the poor
Notes for letter 12:
| Slough, Bucks
14th April 1895 |
My dear old Joe,
I was glad to see a letter from you once more. I sent it on for Agnes to read. She returned it with this remark, “Letter writing is not Joe’s strong point”. But still a short letter is better than none and I thank you for it. It is Easter Sunday morning and I have been to a very early service with two of the servants in this house and as breakfast will not be ready for another 2 hours I thought I would write you a letter as I have been reminded of you by the book you gave me which I always use and it goes to church with me when I go to Communion which I have done this morning at 6 o’clock.
Slough is greatly altered since you knew it, very much built upon and the back of my old home quite spoiled, so built in. I am now a houseless, homeless wanderer. My Co-trustees Jennings and Castle have behaved badly. So far they will not sign a cheque for me to live on. It is such a long, painful story I cannot write it but it has ended by my selling my house and furniture. This was done on the 25th of March, and I am staying at Mrs. Slekirs close by to settle my affairs and after that I do not know what will become of us, for I have poor old Auntie B. as she is called now, entirely dependent on me. So next week I am going to see if I can get some cheap lodgings at Worthing because there has been such and awful business with the drainage and water that people died by hundreds and everybody who could left the place. But now it has been drained and a fresh supply of water brought from miles away and people are so anxious to get the place inhabited again that living and lodgings are so cheap. So this week I am off to try as I do feel it so awfully having no place where I can put my head into. Auntie B. is staying with Polly till I can arrange a home for her. My lawyer says it is time my Co-trustees were made to sign a cheque for me so I think now it will be taken into court as he thinks no judge would think it right to starve the man’s widow to hasten up the Estate for people that my Husband never knew. It begins and ends by his having a bad, wicked lawyer to make his will and Jennings, the boy you used to know is as wicked as he. But I try to bear my trouble and not worry more than I can help but when there’s still good income coming in yearly it is very hard to get nothing. I think if I live the difficulty may be surmounted but I am getting old and my days of health are being blighted by want of means to live on.
Agnes has been obliged to turn out to get her living, but I am too old to do anything and I do not know what to do with my sister as she will soon be in her 77th year. And don’t forget when you write that if you address to me at Slough I shall have the letter forwarded and do hope you will send me your new address when you go south. I am so sorry about your poor leg. It has always been a draw back to you. I do hope the warmer place will suit you and that you will be able to get out of the one you are in better than I have though people say that I ought to be very thankful. But I only get the interest on the £23,000 I sold the house for and I had been obliged to part with so many things to enable me to live the last 5½ years that was when I could not let my house.
I am sorry to say that the Bockmer girls and boys are left very badly off. Your Uncle Phil had lost nearly all his money and paid the boys’ debts several times and now the 3 girls are left without anything except what Aunt Fanny left and from what I hear they have dipped into that pretty much. Mary has had two operations for cancer but she seems getting well now from what I hear but I do not see anything of them for they treated Agnes so rudely once and when we wrote after their Father died they took no notice whatever. So we do not chum up at all.
Uncle George is getting old and was thrown from his gig the other day, injured his horse, broke his shafts but only shook him. Edward and Harriet are still single and so are all Polly’s children. Some of the girls are very tall. They have 11 as I dare say you know. Two of the girls go out as governesses. One is in Ireland and one in Northumberland.
We had the coldest winter that has been known for very, many years and the highest flood. Only now are the leaves beginning to peep but it is still cold and frosts at night.
I expect I have made my letter quite long enough so I will draw to a close by wishing you and your wife much happiness and prosperity in your new home with better health and with kind love to you both -<,p>
From your Affectionate Aunt<.p>
Eliza Jegon<,p>
Influenza has been quite a plague everywhere and has taken such a serious turns in some while others have shaken it off in a fortnight. I am now going down to breakfast.
Notes for letter 13:
| Echain House
Bourne End Maidenhead, Berks Feb. 2, 1897 |
My dear Brother,
I have been a long time answering your letter to me after the death of my dear Husband. It has been a terrible trouble to me and all my children for he was a loving and kind husband and father, but the “Almighty” has been merciful and helped me to bear it and I am thankful to say I am feeling better now. We were all so thankful when Xmas was over, for when we were altogether we seemed to miss him even more. But I have many mercies to be thankful for and am much blessed in my dear children, for there is not one would willingly cause me a moment’s anxiety and my eldest son is a very great comfort to me and he is carrying on the “Mill” at Marlow for me and so far very successfully although he is only just 23. But he is a steady fellow and like his father a good man of business. You will see by the address that I have moved from Turville, for I could not stay there without my dear husband and I wanted to be nearer my Son, so we have returned very near the old “Home”. Although you will not remember this house by name you will when I tell you it is the white house on the right hand side over Cores End level crossing before you get to the Leigh’s house. I have taken it for a year to see how we like it and I hope we shall stay here for we are very comfortable. Last year was a very sad year for many of our friends, so many had trouble. Uncle Phil’s eldest daughter Mary died last October of Cancer in her breast. She had been ill for two years and had two operations.
Bourne End is very much altered since you knew it. Numbers of houses have been built and many more in the course of construction. It has become a very favorite riverside resort.
I must not forget to tell you of the sad death of poor Emily’s eldest son. He went out to Africa last year as he could not settle down at home, and was getting on very well engineering at the Gold Mines at Johannesberg but he got entangled in the machinery and killed instantly. That was another shock to us all, and the same day I heard that I also heard of the death rather suddenly of a very old friend of Stephen, a Mr. Mackaruson who lived near us at Turville.
There are no Hobbes left in Medmenham now and Mr. Scott Murray has sold nearly all Medmenham Parish and there is great change there. Uncle Phil's three daughters moved to Mill End Farm House where Mary died and the other two are there for the present, but I fear they will not be able to stay there, for Uncle Phil died poor.
James has a farm up the Hambleden Valley. He is a very kind and good fellow and a great help to me in any [my] trouble.
We hope to sell Turville Grange this spring. We sold 60 acres of the land nearly directly to Mr. Hoare of Turville Park. Everybody, both rich and poor, was most kind and sympathizing with us for my dear Husband was much respected.
I shall be very glad to hear from you again so hope you will not be so long in writing as you were before.
I have forgotten to say anything about Aunt Eliza. She has no settled home since she sold her home at Chalvey Park two years ago. She with Aunt Julia and Agnes have been spending the Autumn and Winter in Staffordshire but I am expecting Aunt Julia to stay with me directly as I am going to look after her for a little while for Aunt Eliza, for as you may imagine she is getting old and rather peculiar (not childish). She will be 79 in May.
Thanks very much for yours and wife’s kind sympathy with me and mine.
I am
Your affectionate Sister
Mary Smith
Notes for letter 14: