# James Patterson (1794-1877) letter of December 13, 1854

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James Patterson (1794-1877) letter of December 13, 1854 to to his niece, Catherine Murphy (1828-1907) in Australia. The letter contains information on the Crimean War in which John Patterson (1818-1854) died of cholera at Gallipoli on July 31, 1854. The letter contains information on the 1854 South Carolina hurricane, in which William Patterson (1842-1954) was lost at sea on September 11, 1854 aboard the bark Harvest along with 12 others. A wave washed them all overboard, as they tried to move from the front of the ship to the back of the ship along the top deck, hoping it would be safer. In the letter he refers to "Milford", there is a Milford, New Jersey and a Milford, Connecticut, and it is not clear which he is referring to.
247 8 Avenue, New York, Dec. 13th 1854
Dear Catherine I am in receipt of your favour by Mr. Towne and am glad to hear that you have succeeded so well in the Teaching Department, and that you have entered into connubial felicity. I hope that your Partner and you will spend many happy years together & that you will be made instrumental in rendering your mother's path down the hill of life as peaceful & as comfortable as you can, you are aware that there is one Commandment in the Decalogue to which a promise of long life is attached, "Honour thy Father and Mother that thy days may be long in the love". I hope your Mother enjoys good health & that your friends the Millers & Majors are doing well, I observe your remark with respect to the Dean of Boys, harbouring those unkind & unchristian feelings towards Mr. M. I also experienced much of his tyranny arising from a Letter I wrote to him from Belfast when he kept your Aunt Jane dancing attendance after him, in order to get a fair settlement which ended in violating his own voluntary promises in reference thereto, & when I appealed to his Christian Profession as binding him to impartial justice, he then caused Mr. Byrne to serve me with a Notice to appear in Dublin as Defendant in the case to oppose (?) Hertofore adding nearly £3 law expenses in the case. His practice is & has been at variance with the precepts of our common Christianity, however we are commanded to pray for our enemies & leave them in his hands to whom they will have to render an account. I have held little communication with those of my Lisburn friends who I thought were really friends until adverse circumstances developed their characters, after my arrival in New York I wrote a Letter containing 6 pages to Robt. Thompson whom your Mother knows I consider a warm friend & he never answered it also one to Geo. Pelan & Wm. Hicks which were never answered since which time I ceased writing in that direction, however I wrote a long Letter to (la?) Cumming requesting information about your Uncle's death & Lessy's & any matter referring to our immediate connections but no answer, I observe your remark with respect the indifference of your Uncle C. at a time when adversity & death visited your Uncle O'C domestic circle & am grievously disappointed in him, for I am aware that your Aunt Eliza evinced in word & deed a good degree of sympathy for them, subsequent to the loss of your Aunt Margaret. I left Lisburn without a tear having met with many disappointments on account of which I had my mind soured against it, had your Aunt Jane & I spent the same number of years of our youth & the prime of our life using the same active & indefatigable means in New York that we did in Lisburn our mature years would have been crowned with ease and affluence, but our lot was other wise arranged by Him who prescribed the bounds of our habitation & although we had our troubles there we had many mercies. I would feel grateful if your Mother or you would visit the burying ground of those whom I held most dear & let me know what condition it is in & if still held sacred from intrusion, I don't expect ever to see it again but may shortly see the spirits of those who have entered into that invisible world to which we are hasting, as to the deposits there, not until that great day when the once Crucified but now exalted Saviour shall come in his glory and all the holy angels will line to be the Judges of the quick and dead. Your Aunt Jane enjoys good health & is very little affected with bilious symptoms as at home. Abigail is at Milford 60 Miles off 10 Months out of 12, Anne at home — Elizabeth at the Normal College Toronto living with Joseph Shaw and Jane Shaw for a Teacher, Mary preparing for a Teacher also in New York — Rich'd has served his time at the Printing and is a steady sober good young fellow he is now as tall as I am — I am Collector for an Iron Wholesale Concern in this City, your Aunt & I are getting down the hill of life together 36 years say 37 since in the vigour of life we commenced our journey last September 1, 1817 was the year, what is our life, but a vapour that continues to a little while & vanisheth away. In conclusion I have to announce the mournful intelligence of poor John's death which took place in Turkey when on march with his Reg' of Cholera, having taken ill on the 27 & died 31 July last, he left London on the 27 April & forwarded Letters & remittances to his Wife regularly until that fatal period which ended all his earthly hopes, leaving a Widow and 4 Children in a cold friendless world to be provided for. Were this intelligence to end here, mournful as it is we should have been resigned but I have to announce the death of poor William Patterson his eldest Son under very painful circumstances which are as follows — Being aware of the 19th Reg' being designed for Gallipoli in February last John and I agreed that Wm. would come to be made useful in learning business or trade, being smart & having arrived at the Age of 12 Years, he left Liverpool on the 29 July in the Bark Harvest in care of a young man coming out, and matters went on fairly but when within 4 Days of New York an equatorial gale arose about 1AM Monday 11 Sept. and swept away the Forecastle and Second Cabin which was placed on Deck and being the work of a moment hurried 13 of the Passengers into eternity among whom was my poor child — I then wrote a Letter to John and Mary Anne of condolences enclosing it to Mr. William Green, Wm's Grandfather to Liverpool and before it arrived there, Mr. G. sent me a Letter enclosing the Commanding Officer's of the death of poor John — only 43 days between father and son. Mary Anne has her son Robert residing with his Grandfather in Liverpool and she has James the eldest surviving, of 10 years & Thos. next also Abigail Jane the youngest with herself at the Depot of the Reg' about 30 miles from Liverpool where she is teaching School. John on his departure was made Serg' Major quit the Writing Department & attended to the Commissariat - this ends his mortal history poor John cut down in the prime of life & a fair & indeed commanding chance of a Commission being 36 years old 29 May last — "Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble". I have written a Letter to Mary Anne, submitting the propriety of sending one of the children to us — The Chaplain of some Department or other has proposed sending James to the Military College, my poor fellow bore a first rate character in the Army & was too independent in his spirit for that situation that he early embraced, he had none in his last moments (of his own) to smooth his dying pillow or whisper words of consolation to his departing spirit. How little do we know of what is in the future until eternity draws the curtain & unveils to us that world of spirits, where so many of our dear kindred are gone; Blessed Jesus save us through thy death & passion Amen. I have written a long letter to Ann Jane O'Connor, which I beg you to peruse those Letters I sent with a young man returning on the Africa. I present my sincere regards to your Mother also to your partner, and your Uncle Henry's Family Seymour Street & would esteem it a favour, to receive a Letter embracing definite information of our friends & connection. Finally, I had nearly forgot to mention that Joseph Shaw has a good School in Toronto & I believe his income is about £130 per annum. Jane has got two daughters and a son. She attends to her Grocery & doing well. Joseph Shaw sent me a Letter a few days ago in which he mentions that a person has arrived there from Australia, who states that he was at Robert's place there, that he and two young men who left Toronto together in September 1853 am in partnership, they have 3 Sines of Dry Goods and a Ferry and have realized £5,000 each, he says they were about selling out & coming home to British America again, whether or not we shall find this to be real time will determine; I remain Dear Catherine Your Affectionate Uncle James Patterson.
NB I refer you to Ann Jane O'Connor's Letter for further particulars, which is forwarded by a young man on the Africa for Liverpool & one to Henry Mulholland.