# Letter to William Sykes at Portsmouth Prison from Charles Hargreaves

​This is intended for WIlliam Sykes number 283 Portsmouth Prison
Sir
Governor of this Prison Sir it is not my wish or will to go against the rules or Regulations of this Prison and I hope and trust through your instrumenttality that William Sykes Convict number 283 will receive this into his hands and i hope it will not miss his heart and i wish to inform him that his wife and Children Brothers and Sisters are all well at present for ought i know we send our dearst and kindest respects to you hopeing it will find you in good health, William my advice to you is that you obey all that are in authority over you and Let your Conduct be good and try to gain that which you have lost i mean your character Let me beg of you to pray to our heavenly father and his son Jesus Christ to give you a clean heart and right spirit within and then all your troubles and anxieties of this world will be small when compared with the Joy and happyness of that bright world above William I hope you are aware that our Blessed Lord has Caused all holy scriptures to be written for our Learning and God Grant that we may hear and read them and not to read them only but to do what they teach us and then when the swelling of Jordan overtakes us may we be ready to meet our saviour and him to be ready to convey us through the valley and shadow of death to our heavenly father arms there everlasting to dwell with him
Dear Brother i ask you to seek for Christian salvation which means deliverance from something that is feared or suffered and it is therefore a term of very general application, but in reference to our spiritual condition it means deliverance from those evils with which we are afflicted in consequence of our departure from God it implies deliverance from ignorance from ignorance of God, the first and the last, the greatest and the wisest, the holiest and the best of beings, the maker of all things, the centre of all perfection, the fountain of all happiness, ignorant of God, we cannot give Him acceptable worship we cannot rightly obey his will we cannot hold communion with him here we cannot be prepared for the enjoyment of his presence hereafter
​But from this ignorance we are rescued by the salvation of the Gospel, which reveals God to us which makes us acquainted with his nature, his attributes his character, his goverment and which especially unfolds to us that scheme of mercy in which he has most clearly manifested his Glory
it is good that a man should Both hope and quietly wate for the salvation of the Lord, William a few more words when they was leading Jesus to the cross and there followed a great company of people which also bewailed and lamented him but Jesus turning unto them said Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me but weep for yourselves
well William in conclusion i will say a little about the contents of your letter I belive you said your children was the strings of your heart now i say let christ be the strings of your heart i belive you went on to say that wentworth was your place of Birth and i say let Christ be your salvation
William your brother John sends sends his best respects to you hopeing the advice Given will have a good effect your sister Rebecca sends her love to you and trusts that she will see you again before death do you part and your sister Elisabeth sends her kindest love to you and wish you to behave your self under your present situation and as for me Charles Hargreaves my desire is to point you to the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world and trust in christ as your Physician for it is through him we Live and move and have our being Dear William your Brother John would give your little Boy a good school education but you Dear Wife cannot find time to send him to school I conclude with the Blessing of God allmighty the father the son and the holy Ghost may remain with you booth now and for ever amen i trust the governor of this Prison is a kind hearted Man Charles Hargreaves Park Gate near Rotherham Yorkshire.
This work is in the public domain in Australia because it was created in Australia and the term of copyright has expired. According to Australian Copyright Council - Duration of Copyright, the following works are public domain:
* published non-government works whose author died before January 1, 1955,
* anonymous or pseudonymous works and photographs published before January 1, 1955, and
* government works published more than 50 years ago (before January 1, 1974).
This work is also in the public domain in the United States because it was first published outside the United States (and not published in the U.S. within 30 days), and it was first published before 1989 without complying with U.S. copyright formalities (renewal and/or copyright notice) and it was in the public domain in Australia on the URAA date (January 1, 1996). This is the combined effect of Australia having joined the Berne Convention in 1928, and of 17 USC 104A with its critical date of January 1, 1996.
Because the Australian copyright term in 1996 was 50 years, the critical date for copyright in the United States under the URAA is January 1, 1946.
This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse