The next letter we have from George Haworth is dated March 1706, still based on the Quaker Calendar dates. He is very appreciative of the fact that he received something from home, “I have received your token with great comfort to bear of your wellfare and health to which I won myself obliged to you for the tenderness and care towards me which makes me desire to make a large acknowledgement to you …” (All italics are excerpts from George’s letters, as written.(1))
I get the impression, from things he wrote, that it was not a letter he received from his family, “but I much admire that you are so negligent and soon forgotten me that you never writ to me since I left you, it makes me ready to weep often, when I think how I cannot have so much as one letter from some of your hands, I would desire some of you to write to me by the next opportunity and not to fail I would not have you to forget me, tho' I be far distant from you I have some thoughts of coming to England and see you but the Seas are so full of Enemies that there is no good coming as yet, I have sent 9 or 10 letters and my Sister hath sent but one and never received any…” I have to wonder if letters were written but never received.
He seems to be quite elegant in his wording, and although to us it may seem a bit choppy, I think he got his points across to his family. "Seeing the distance between us, I desire you accept of my goodwill and dutiful affection towards you, together with my desire for your prosperity and wellfare and hoping these lines will find you in good health as I am at present the Allmighty be praised for it. Remember my dear love to my Brother and to my loving Sisters and all relations in general…"
Sometime in the recent past, George’s cousin James had passed away, as he mentioned his widow in this letter. “James Haworth's widow and her little daughter are in good health and she hath married one of my shipmates one George Clough..” She remarried a man who came over on the ship Britannia, with George, from England.
A lot has happened to George and America, since his arrival in 1699. What does the future hold for him and the Haworth family?
Today's Terri's Tidbit: Check out this fascinating website called "The American Civil War, then and now". It is a fun, interactive website. To view, click here.
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(1)George's letters can be found in many publications but most notably in:
Early Letters from Pennsylvania, 1699-1722
George Haworth The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
Vol. 37, No. 3 (1913), pp. 330-340
1 comment:
That is an interesting site--the now and then shots--we lived in Petersburg, VA for three years in the 60s and the subdivision was close to the Union lines in the siege of Petersburg and you could still find miniballs and cannonball fragments where they were digging foundations for new homes.
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