# Memoirs of a Huguenot Family/Letters of Peter Fontaine, Jun.

MAP OF THE VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA DIVIDING LINE.
(From a Draught at the head of the following letter.)
LETTERS OF PETER FONTAINE, JUN.
OF ROCK CASTLE, HANOVER COUNTY, VIRGINIA.
Lunenburg, Virginia, 9th July, 1752.
Dear Sir:— I got not long since, your kind letter, by the hand of my father, bearing date 2d January, 1752, and take this opportunity of returning you my thanks for the many expressions of kindness it contains. We are all (God be praised) well, not only my family, but all our relations that I have lately heard from, except my good aunt Maury, who I hear has been very like to die, and is yet in a very low condition.
The kind curiosity you seem to have to know where I live, has put me upon sending you a sketch of that part of our country where I now reside, which I thought might be some entertainment to you, as you in your rambles with Colonel Spotswood, travelled over a good deal of the southern part of Virginia.
I find you have formed a very good judgment of the situation of these parts, for Lunenburg, as you imagine, joins (as you see by the plan) Carolina, though not so far now as it did before Halifax county, now on the head of it, was cut off from it by a late Act of Assembly. You judge very rightly that ​Meherrin River is in Lunenburg county. We live so high up Nottoway River that we have not any fish, as you imagine, but, thank God, a healthy air, fruitful soil, and good fresh range for stocks. I fancy you did not travel far enough southward to get acquainted with Roanoke River, which is a much finer stream than either Meherrin or Nottoway, and vastly larger, before it divides itself into two streams, called Stanton and Dan, near three hundred yards over, and either of the just mentioned branches of it are at least two hundred and thirty.
My district for surveying lies, i.e. the chief of it, in Halifax county, in the Fork of the river Roanoke, so that I now live out of my county, and by means of the indulgence granted me, of having assistants, I do not go at all in the woods, which indeed my weakly constitution is not fit for; yet, thank God, I have my health very well, when I am not obliged to undergo fatigue. Though my living a hundred and twenty miles from Williamsburg, forces me frequently to take very tedious rides, being sometimes called down in the heat of summer. But certainly, if any man in the world has reason to be thankful to the Great Giver of all blessings, I, who in a troublesome employment, am indulged to live at home at ease, ought to be all gratitude, and instead of murmuring at the trifling fatigues I undergo, should be thankful that I can reap a comfortable harvest without putting my hand to the plough.
You see, dear sir, that the regard you are so kind as to express for me, has made me so fond of myself, and so vain, as to trouble you with almost half a sheet full of my own history, and to imagine all the while that I am entertaining you agreeably. ​My family is increased by the birth of a son, now two months old, whom we have named Peter. My wife joins me in tenders of hearty and unfeigned respect to you, my aunt, and all your good family. I have no more to add, but to beg on your part a continuance of the correspondence, which affords me so much real comfort, and to assure you that I am with my daily prayers for the health and welfare of you, and all our dear friends on your side the ocean.
Your very affectionate nephew and humble servant,
Peter Fontaine, Jun.
To Mr. John Fontaine.
Lunenberg, Virginia, 7th, June, 1754.
Dear Sir:—Your exceedingly kind letter of 30th November, 1753, is before me, and I am seated to return you my hearty thanks for that favor, and in a very talkative humor to perform my part in the only kind of conversation which the great distance between us will admit of.
Your kind acceptance of my little performance inclosed in my uncle John's letter for his and your perusal, has more than paid me for the trouble it cost me, and might induce me to make a draught of the country for your and his satisfaction, had I proper helps to assist me in those parts of it that I am less acquainted with than this, which the nature of my business in it has given me a tolerable knowledge of Your kind promise of embracing all opportunities of keeping up an epistolary correspondence with me, gives me the greatest pleasure, and renders the business I am now about a most agreeable one: as I have leave to expect that each epistle of mine will be rewarded with at least a few lines from ​you, the perusal of which affords me real satisfaction on many accounts, but on none more than the truly Christian disposition and open sincerity I conceive to be lodged in the heart that dictates them.
The indulgence that it has pleased God I have, by the favor of those who have the legislative power in their hands, enjoyed, has been of great service to my constitution. I pray God to enable me to express my gratitude, not with lips only, but a well-spent life and Christian conversation.
I have formed to myself a very agreeable idea of the situation of your present residence, as I imagine you live much retired; and being out of business, have great leisure for study and contemplation, to which I doubt not is added the pleasure of fine prospects, fertile soil, good gardens, and healthy air.
My father, whom I am preparing to visit on my way to Williamsburg (our metropolis), informs me by a letter I have received from him, that he has this past winter had a most severe fit of the gout, which affected his breast much and his head a little, symptoms that I fear forebode sorrows to those who can never part with him without regret; but, I thank God, he speaks of it as of a journey he shall undertake with joy, a circumstance which, I doubt not, will administer comfort to him and all his friends in time of need.
My wife assures you of her most hearty respect. Pray, my dear uncle, continue that good office of mentioning me and mine in your prayers to the throne of grace, and be persuaded that my poor petitions are frequently put up for blessings on you and all our dear friends on your side, and that I am, dear sir, your dutiful nephew, and
Very affectionate, humble servant,
Peter Fontaine, Jun.
P. F.
Lunenburg, Virginia, 7th June, 1754.
Dear Sir:—I return you hearty thanks for your very kind and most agreeable letter of the 30th Nov. 1753, and particularly acknowledge the favor of your having wrote me a longer epistle than I have ever yet received from your side of the water; for, I can with sincerity assure you, that my having more to read at once than I can at once remember, yields me great pleasure, as it sets me to reading again and again your kind letter, wherein I am in hopes, even to the tenth perusal, of finding something new, and never fail of meeting something very entertaining.
The encomiums your kindness has dictated on account of my little draught are, I am very sensible, more than it deserved, though I am very glad it has yielded you any satisfaction, as it has thereby fully answered its end.
I heartily condole with you upon the loss of my dear cousin, I believe, your only daughter. May God Almighty ​comfort you and your family, and him who cannot be less in want of it, my poor cousin, James Fontaine.
I congratulate you on your new purchase, by which, if I understand the matter rightly, you have turned your money to greater advantage than 4 per cent., and hope you will repair the loss sustained by the reduction on the interest prescribed by the Parliament while your money was in the Bank. I conclude that you lead a very happy life in your present country-seat, but must beg you will excuse me when I desire you will be so kind in your next as to let me know how the name of your castle is pronounced, for I observe it is spelt CWM, which, for want of vowels, I do not know how to pronounce, and which is, I fancy, the case in many Welsh words.
My present settlement does not answer the opinion you have conceived of it, being very little improved by art; for, as the only inducement I have hitherto had for residing at it is, its being the nearest tolerable neighborhood, I could find and purchase, to my business in Halifax, I have always been cautious of expending any thing considerable on it, being determined (God willing) to leave it when my business shall enable me to live in Hanover, a much more sociable part of the country, where I have upwards of five hundred acres of land very pleasantly situated, with good house and all other necessaries; though I am not so fond of my scheme but that I may perhaps sell my possessions below, and with the money purchase a larger quantity of land in these parts, since the increase of our family with which it has pleased God to bless me (having, thank God, three fine boys, John, Peter and William), may make it more expedient to spend our days near the frontier. However, I do not form, I hope I never shall form any other resolution than to endeavor to be contented in ​whatsoever station or situation it shall please God to place me, always striving for what appears the best.
Our neighborhood was, about eighteen months ago, rendered much more agreeable to us by the coming of Mr. Daniel Claiborne and his wife, my cousin, formerly Molly Maury, to reside about three quarters of a mile from us. They are both well, as is their daughter Molly, their only child. We live very happily together.
My aunt Maury is, I understand, somewhat better in health than usual, though but crazy. She lives where my uncle lived. Aby Maury is the only child she has with her. He acts the part of a dutiful son and a worthy young man. He carries on the business of a merchant.
My cousin, the Rev. James Maury, has removed from King William, and lives in Louisa County, in the upper parish; he is much beloved by his parishioners, and has a pretty income.
My sister, Mary Ann Winston, with her husband and three sons, Peter, Isaac and William, are well. Mr. Isaac Winston, her husband, is a wealthy planter, and what is much better, a tender husband and a good Christian.
The last time I heard from my cousins, Francis and John Fontaine, who carry on the carpenter's trade in New Berne, a town in North Carolina, they were well and in a thriving way. Francis is married. They live about one hundred and fifty miles from me. I need not tell you, that my cousins last mentioned are sons of my late uncle Francis. My aunt, his relict, lives in York County; her oldest son James, a fine, promising youth about fourteen years old, goes to the college. She has also a daughter with her. There is a kind of coolness ​towards her—I mean my aunt—in most of our family, on account of her treatment of my uncle's first children.
Ann Fontaine, sister to my cousin James, your son-in-law, lives with my sister Winston, who brought her up. She is a virtuous, good girl, and reaps the benefit of it even temporally, as my brother Winston has given her a little beginning, in case she should marry and leave him, and provides for her handsomely, as I dare say he will continue to do while she stays with him. I have not in a great while heard any thing of the rest of the family my uncle James left behind him. They live in the Northern Neck, 170 or 180 miles from me.
My father has by his last wife, my mother-in-law, five children, three boys and two girls, the oldest about twelve years old. He has made use of my opportunities as a surveyor to procure lands for them in Halifax County, where he has procured five tracts of land, amounting to about six thousand acres, which he designs, with near or about twenty slaves, to divide amongst them at his death.
And here I cannot help expressing my concern at the nature of our Virginia estates, so far as they consist in slaves. I suppose we have, young and old, one hundred and fifty thousand of them in the country, a number, at least, equal to the whites. It is a hard task to do our duty towards them as we ought, for we run the hazard of temporal ruin if they are not compelled to work hard on the one hand—and on the other, that of not being able to render a good account of our stewardship in the other and better world, if we oppress and tyrannize over them. Besides, according to our present method, which every body appears afraid to go out of, it seems quite necessary to lay most stress on that stinking, and, in itself, useless weed, tobacco, as our staple commodity, which is the ​reason that all other more useful trades and occupations are neglected, or professed by such as are not above half qualified for them; and every Virginia tradesman must be at least half a planter, and of course not to be depended upon as a tradesman.
I cannot help adding a piece of domestic news, which is, that the French on the back of us are disputing our title to the Mississippi lands, have built a fort to annoy our settlements, and have drove off about seventy families of my countrymen. The Assembly has enacted the levying of £10,000 currency to enable them to oppose the enemy. We expect every day to hear that about fifteen hundred men, levied in these colonies, have either settled on Mississippi and built a fort to countermine that of the French, or that they have, if opposed, engaged them. May God restore peace to our infant colony! I have but just room to add, that I beg you will excuse my writing in this manner on the back of my uncle Moses's letter, which I do under a notion of saving you postage, and that my wife joins in tenders of sincere respect to you and all your dear family. That you and yours may long enjoy here all temporal blessings, and in the regions of bliss everlasting happiness, is the fervent prayer of, my dear uncle,
                Your obliged and dutiful nephew,
                         And very affectionate, humble servant,
Peter Fontaine, Jun.
To Mr. John Fontaine.
Charles City County, Virginia, June llth, 1757.
Dear Sir:—I have now an opportunity of returning you my hearty thanks for your kind mention of me and mine in yours of 8th Jan. 1757, to my father, and fulfilling your ​request so grateful to me. Impute not my silence to a want of due regard to you, or an indifference in keeping up a correspondence with you. I have, since my last to you, removed forty miles further southward than I then lived, which renders my writing to you more difficult than formerly. But as the motive that carried me thither, i. e., the keeping my place, which is become, on account of our present troubles, of little value, has no longer any weight in it, I have (Deo volente) determined (unless the times shortly change for the better, which, from the appearance of things we have but little, and from our own deserts no reason at all to hope) shortly to remove to my little seat in Hanover, where I propose to employ my small abilities in the education of my three boys, which I shall have the more leisure to attend to after having quitted every kind of public business, and the many avocations which are now a bar to such an employment; though I fear our distresses, unless it please God to put a speedy stop to them, may prove an interruption to every occupation in every part of this poor infant colony. We are here so utterly unacquainted with military matters, that we all, from the legislator to the meanest handicraftsman, are at a stand. All the measures we have fallen upon seem ineffectual, and answer no other end than to plunge us in debt, insomuch that the credit of the country is almost sunk; and from the inexperience of the managers, our expeditions have proved not only abortive, but disgraceful. The miscarriages in all our enterprises have rendered us a reproach, and to the last degree contemptible in the eyes of our savage Indian, and much more inhuman French enemies.
Those of the Indians that call themselves our friends despise us, and in their march through our inhabited country, ​when going to our assistance, insult and annoy us. It is not above a month ago since a party of about a hundred and twenty Cherokees, in passing through Lunenburg, insulted people of all ranks. About three weeks ago the Cattawbos behaved so ill in Williamsburg, that those in power were obliged to arm the militia, and the matter was near coming to extremities. About fourteen days ago the same Cattawbos murdered a poor woman in Bartie County, in North Carolina, whom they met alone in the road. It is said that for this last misdemeanor they are like to smart severely, as it is reported that four hundred men in arms are in pursuit of them (and they do not exceed one hundred), and are determined to avenge her death.
There is some hope that our affairs are better managed under the Earl of Loudon than formerly they were, as matters are conducted with great secrecy; and it is presumed he has a good army.
The County of Halifax, in the mean time, is threatened by our Indian enemies, and the people in the upper part of that county, which by the late encroachments of our enemies is become a frontier, are in great consternation, and all public business at a stand. The poor farmers and planters have dreadful apprehensions of falling into the hands of the savage, as indeed, considering the treatment those have had who have had the misfortune to be surprised by them, they have good reason.
We have among us two or three who have made their escape from the Shawnees (a tribe of Indians that live on the Ohio, to the westward of Halifax County); the Indians suspected that one of them, whose wife and children they had most inhumanly murdered, would attempt to escape, to ​prevent which they cut deep gashes in his heels, and as soon as the man was like to get well, and be in order to travel again, they cut other gashes across the former, and by that means, and at some other times searing his feet with hot irons, they kept him a continual cripple. The man, however, being of an enterprising spirit, contrived, by means of a piece of lighted punk thrust into a barrel of gunpowder, to blow up a fine French store in their town, for which, being after some time discovered by the treachery of a fellow-prisoner, he was to have been burnt alive by piecemeal, had he not very providentially made his escape. He gives most dreadful shocking accounts of their treatment of our people, but more especially of the poor women, upon whom they exercise all kinds of torture and brutality. In short, such cruelties do they practise upon every one that falls into their hands, that all had rather perish than be taken alive. I dare say I have by this time tired you with the relation of our sufferings, and the bloody triumphs of our enemies, which, though not perhaps as to the minute particulars I have mentioned, you are no doubt in the general well informed of from our public prints.
My family was, three days ago, when I left home, in good health, as was also Mr. Claiborne and my cousin, Aby Maury, who is his father's likeness both in person and all good qualities. I also saw a letter from my cousin, the Rev. James Maury, the other day, by which I see he and his also enjoy the same blessing.
I beg, my dear uncle, you will be so kind as to feast me with a letter by the first opportunity, and that you will in the mean time, think of me and mine in your approaches to the throne of grace, and be assured that I am with the most profound respect, the most sincere affection, and daily prayers for ​your well-being here, and everlasting happiness in that never-ending state of bliss, where I hope and trust we shall all, through the merits of the Redeemer, have a joyful meeting. My dear uncle, your dutiful nephew and most
Affectionate humble servant,
Peter Fontaine, Jun.
This letter I believe to have been addressed to Moses Fontaine, it was without address, but endorsed in the hand-writing of Moses Fontaine. Received 23d September, 1757, answered 21st February, 1758.
Rock Castle, Hanover, Virginia, June 9, 1760.
Dear Sir:—It is so long since I have had the pleasure to receive a letter from you, that I am afraid something has happened on your part to prevent it, and yet I acknowledge you have seeming reason to doubt, to suspect my sincerity, when I tell you so, as I have been so long, so very long silent myself. But I am persuaded that you will make all possible allowance for a person who has had so much business on his hands, as I have had since I last wrote to you. The death of my dear father; the business of his whole concerns falling into my hands, my own removal from Halifax and settling in Hanover, the late dismal prospect of our public affairs, with the almost continual sickliness of my own family, and the death of two dear children, and last of all, my having discontinued to ship tobacco home, which used to act as the monitor as well as offer opportunities of writing to you and my other friends on your side; these, dear sir, have been the principal impediments in my way. ​As I have always understood that you are settled in South Wales, near my uncle John, I shall refer you to mine to him, for a particular account of my mother; I hope, please God, all may end well at last.
Our public affairs have, through the merciful and almost miraculous interposition of kind Providence, taken quite another turn of late, and were it not that the Cherokee Indians have most perfidiously broken their treaty of peace, and fallen upon our frontiers, we should enjoy the sweets of peace again. But they have done considerable mischief in North Carolina on our borders, and some in our own Province; several families, that had since the former troubles returned to their settlements on the frontiers, are again frightened and have left them—so that the county I lived in (Halifax), is as much confused, and as unfit, of course, for my business as when I left it. Our colonies are raising men to go against them. May the Lord of Hosts, the only giver of all victory, prosper the enterprise.
I, for my part, had, for the last two years I lived in Halifax, very little to do as a surveyor, nor should I, if I had continued till now. I there lived on rented land, at a smart expense, had houses, etc., here, suffering for want of me, and above all, had a longing desire to retire and live in private, where I might attend to the education of my boys, and had hopes that I could be, through the grace of God, thankfully contented with that competency with which his bounty had blessed me; nor have I as yet, thank God, found myself in the least disappointed. I was always persuaded that a middle station was the happiest, in which condition it has pleased God in mercy to place me, with thousands of blessings—even ​in the midst of his chastisements—on my head, the least of which is more than I deserve.
As to perfect happiness, it is not, it ought not to be looked for in a valley of tears, or in a state of trial. Our good God has, in mercy, denied it to every station of life, lest we should anchor here, and not long for that better life, where tears and pain and want are strangers, and where friends are never parted. May the merits of our gracious Redeemer purchase for us all an inheritance, an estate for life eternal, in those happy mansions.
My wife and family join me in tenders of sincere regard and affection to you and all on your side the ocean. May temporal and eternal blessings attend you all. I am, dear sir,
Your affectionate nephew and humble servant,
Peter Fontaine, Jun.
To Mr. Moses Fontaine.
To Messrs. Moses and John Fontaine and Mr. Daniel Torin.
Forks OF Pamunkey River, Hanover Co., Va., 7 Aug, 1763.
My Dear Uncles:—I take this opportunity by Mr. Harden Burnley, who is going home, to inquire after you all.
It is some considerable time since I had the pleasure of receiving a letter from you. I hope, please God, nothing has happened to interrupt that agreeable correspondence which has yielded me so much pleasure.
There has not any great alteration happened in the state of any of our relations' families here. I believe cousin Ann Fontaine, sister to cousin James (with you), was married when I wrote last to Mr. Thomas Owen. She has two children. ​But our public affairs are in a very bad situation at present, as all the Indians on the continent, i. e. between us and the Mississippi and St. Lawrence Rivers, have entered into a combination against us, resolved it seems to prevent our settling any farther than we have, viz., much about the main Blue Ridge of mountains; and in consequence of this resolution, they have, according to their manner, declared war against all our colonies, that is to say, all, or most of the tribes on our backs, divided themselves into proper parties, and fell upon our poor scattered unprepared frontier settlements, and have cut the throats of many of the inhabitants, whilst they were quite unaware that any mischief was intended them, and have carried a great number of women and children, as well as some men, and (for the first time too) a good many negroes, into captivity; indeed, 'tis said they have broke us more frontiers, come lower down to do us mischief, and killed as many people as in the last war.
I hope, my dear friends, you do not disapprove my manner of writing to you all together, as I direct for my uncle Torin, who after perusal, will be so kind as forward the letter to Wales. My family, I thank God, is at present in health. My youngest child is James, who I believe was born before I wrote last.
I long much to hear from you. I am in a more particular manner anxious to know how my dear aunt Torin and uncle Moses are, as I look upon them to be the greatest invalids, and of most crazy constitutions.
We all join in tenders of sincere respect and affection.
I am, my dear uncles, your most affectionate kinsman,
Peter Fontaine.
Mrs. Torin's handwriting.
I find he has not received mine, of 30th July, 1762, though it went by Mr. Sumpter, a friend of his, who went back with the Indian Kings.
It may be interesting to remark, that the James Fontaine, spoken of as an infant in the foregoing letter, in after life held a commission as Major of a volunteer regiment of cavalry from Kentucky, which composed part of the force which was sent against the Indians on our western frontier, after the close of the Revolutionary War. Owing to some indiscretion of the commanding officer, his regiment was surrounded by the Indians. Major Fontaine proposed to the troops to cut their way through them. There were but few who joined in this heroic attempt, which would probably have saved the greater part of the regiment, had the movement been executed by all, with the resolution which marked the brave few.
Major Fontaine succeeded, but died almost immediately, from the numerous wounds he received.
To Mr. John Fontaine. Rock Castle, Hanover Co., Va., July 8, 1765.
Dear Sir:—Your very kind letter of 20th June, 1764, I just now received, for which, as for a most agreeable cordial, I return you my sincere thanks.
Your memento, my dear uncle, that you are now seventy-one years old, and that you are providing a substitute to act that kind part which you now fill yourself, after you shall leave the stage, though kind and reasonable, has yet raised in me that sorrow which is natural, at the thought of parting ​with a beloved friend. But it is a memorandum that I think we ought always to carry about us, that friends, the best of our worldly enjoyments, are liable to be taken from us every moment, or if not, we ourselves must some time or other be taken from them; so that we ought to stand always prepared for the painful divorce, and not set our affections on the good things of this world, which are only intended by our good God as comforts and refreshments in our pilgrimage upon the journey to that other world, which is our proper home. May God grant; my dear uncle, that all of us may so run this short race, as that we may reap those joys which have no bitterness, and no bounds, in that everlasting world, to which you, that are seventy odd, and I that am forty odd, are equally hastening, and in which you only have a little the start; where I hope we shall not only be better acquainted with each other, know personally, and converse by word of mouth, and have no dangerous ocean of three thousand miles between us. But the very essence of all joy will be, that we shall know the Great Father of all our blessings and enjoyments, whom to know is eternal life.
As to public affairs here, we seem to have room to flatter ourselves that our cruel enemies the Indians, are, from some motive, more peaceably disposed towards us than formerly. And yet things wear but a gloomy aspect, for the country is so excessively poor, that even the industrious, frugal man can scarcely live, and the least slip in economy would be fatal. There is no money but the small remains of our paper currency, which is almost all returned to and burnt in the Treasury; and in the midst of this our poverty, our mother country, which seems to have contracted a dislike to some of our proceedings, is laying a tax (the forerunner we fear of ​others) upon us, which it appears impossible to pay, as I learn it is to be collected in silver, of which there is almost none in the colony: so that peace, the ardent wish of the poor wretch who is involved in war, seems to threaten us with as great, if not greater evils, than even the war itself. But I am not a politician, and the subject is disagreeable; therefore I will drop it, and in spite of alarming appearances, I will trust in Providence to send us better times, and to work a kinder disposition in our mother country towards us.
I saw my cousin, Mr. Abraham Maury, and his family, and Mr. Daniel Claiborne and his family, this spring, who were all well. I have also lately seen Mr. Isaac Winston and his family. They are well, except my sister, who is in but a low state of health.
My poor mother-in-law is now with Mr. William Mills, who married Elizabeth, her second daughter. Sally, the oldest, lives with us, unmarried. Moses, the oldest son, is in business in Charles City County. Joseph I have bound to a cabinet-maker, and he is like to do well. Aaron lives with Mr. Isaac Winston, and Aby, the youngest, is with his mother.
The Rev. James Maury I saw not long ago. and believe he and his family are well.
My cousin Mary, oldest daughter of my uncle Francis, is so unhappy as to have married an extravagant, careless man, who is quite unable to maintain her; and she now lives in the capacity of housekeeper, with a very worthy clergyman in North Carolina.
I willingly embrace your kind proposal of commencing an epistolary correspondence with your son, my cousin James Fontaine, but not as your substitute, for I trust in God ​provided it be for your good to continue here) that I shall have the pleasure of receiving many kind letters yet, from the good friend of seventy odd, if not of eighty odd.
With hearty thanks for your kindness in favoring me thus far with your correspondence, and sincere prayers for your temporal and eternal welfare,
I am, dear sir. your very dutiful and affectionate nephew,
Peter Fontaine
To Mr. Moses Fontaine.
Dear Sir:—Your kind favor of 20th June, 1764, now lies before me; and most sincerely am I obliged by the kind promise you make of continuing to give me this proof of your affection. When your annual letter arrives, it yields me much more substantial pleasure than is felt at the feastings on the return of a birth-day. The meltings of heart that I experience when I read your pious letters, leave impressions on my mind that are of real advantage to me. I am persuaded there is a kind of instinct in souls; for though I never saw with my bodily eyes either you or my dear uncle John, yet I am better acquainted with nobody. I indulge myself in forming ideas of you in my mind; and sometimes in an agreeable reverie, enjoy a kind of ideal conversation with you. I seem quite intimate with you both, and so closely united in familiar friendship, that nine-tenths of those I am personally acquainted with, are incapable of affording me half the satisfaction, in repeated interviews, that I reap from only poring over one of your letters once a year.
As to articles of intelligence, I have forestalled myself in my letter to my uncle John, to which I have only to add, ​that my family of children now consists of three sons, John, William, and James, and three daughters, Sarah, Mary Anne, and Judith, who with my wife, are, thank God, well. To avoid repetition, I refer you to the letter aforesaid. Indeed, I have learned to consider you and my uncle John, almost as one person, for I find you so united in your letters, your habitation in Wales, and in another warm habitation you have in my heart, that whatever I write to the one, always anticipates my thoughts to the other: I therefore conclude with hearty wishes for your health and happiness here and hereafter.
I am, dear sir, your dutiful and affectionate nephew,
Peter Fontaine.