The first letter received from the fugitive William aged 21, after his crossing from Liverpool in 1880.
C/o W. T. Pell Esquire, 24, Broad Street, Elizabeth, New Jersey, America, 1880/1
My Dear Parents,
You must excuse me for not writing to you before this, but was determined not to do so until I succeeded in getting a good place, which l have done. Well, now I tell you how I went on.
I stayed a week in New York trying to get a Butchers situation, but in vain, so I met with a farmer, a Scotsman. He hired me for a month on trial, &. gave me ten dollars & my board.
Well, when I got there, he was only working the farm for a Store Keeper, that is, a man like Mr Allen the grocer, only a great deal larger, & he sells meat in the store, about three times as much as Mr Armitage does. Well, he had about 250 pigs all fat ready to be killed for his store, so I told him I could kill them for him, so I set to work & killed the lot for him.
So Mr Pell, the man as keeps the store, used to drive up to the farm every day, so he used to come & talk to me, & he asked me if I was a good salesman, & told him was. So he told me to go down on Saturday night help them sell out, & if I suited him, he would engage me. well, I went & suited him first class, & he engaged me & gave me 12 dollars a week for astart, that £2.10 a week in English money. So I have been steady & saved my money & bought a lot of good clothes, & now I am as well off as anybody needs to be, plenty of money & plenty to eat & drink. I am boarding with a German lady, & she is very good & kind to me, so don’t trouble any more about me for I can tell you that I am a great deal better here than in England, & I cannot say for sureness, but I guess nexttime you hear from me, I shall be married.
Please write back as soon as possible, & you can put my right name on it for they cannot touch me here, but mind whatever you do about the money you let me have to come across with don’t tell anyone that you sent me money, as perhaps it might get you into trouble. I will pay you back again in the course of two or three months all what it cost you back. When you write to me if you take that trouble to do so, I hope that you will just let me know what cost you in stopping at Brewitts & the money you let me have, & I will send it back to you as soon as possible.
I have not written to anyone since I have been here, but I guess I will write to Mrs Brewitt this afternoon, & tell her how I have roughed it in this country. I can tell you, that it is a hard thing for a young fellow to come over here as I did, & not know a soul & not much money in his pocket. It makes you look about you, as times are very bad here without you happen to fall in as lucky as I have done, for there are thousands all round New York cannot get work, & want to get back to the old country & can’t. It is awful to see them for they look half starved, & I can tell you though, I am doing better than what I could do in England. There is no place like home. It is a hard case when l tell you that I shall never see any friends or relations again, but there is one thing, & that is I have brought it all on myself, & so, I must abide with the consequences, & I feel very happy to think that I should have been so lucky.
I think I must now bring it to a close, & shall be most happy to hear fromyou as soon as possible. Give my best respects to all who should enquirer after me, especially Freddie & Lizzie, & accept my fondest love yourselves, & hold me to be your affectionate son.
P.S. i will tell you all next time about my voyage.
