Carlow, Wednesday1 evening 7 o’clock
My very dear John
I believe I stated in my last letter2 that I would not write to you until I should first get one from Kinsale, but important business, business, which if possible is as dear to me as to you now calls upon me, and it is this, that your uncle Caleb has been duly and lawfully acquitted.3
His trial commenced at 10 o’clock this morning the rabble produced 9 witnesses, which I believe would swear that the houses in Carlow were not made of stones or morter. John they were drilled well, but truth is powerful and must prevail. Your uncle had your uncle Wm.,4 his apprentice, and two policemen.5 He had two of the best counsellors on the Circuit, McDonough and Walker,6 these are the boys that laid forth the truth, his jury comprised of 10 good and stanch protestants and two Roman catholics. At 6½7 the trial terminated, the jury retired and in ¼ hour, to the surprise of the vagabonds in court, they again made their appearance. I knew, I knew he was victorious, the jurymen’s names were now called over – now boy, O, my ear was cocked, the next minute the Prisoner was NOT Guilty. Hurrah Hurrah for Tyndall I say. I saw your father in town to day. He told me he expected a letter from you
‘Fair and flowing be thy way
And bright the skies above thee
Nor grief nor gloomy care impart
Their cruel pangs to wound it’8
John it is quite useless for me to say that the above few lines expressed the sentiments of my heart and that it is the fervent wish (I could say prayer for you know I would be telling a great lie for I never say one) of your humble servant that grief nor gloomy care may never make their appearance near you. John if the Sentinel contains any part of the trial9 I will send it to you. Could I do anything for you before I leave this country?
‘Sleep on now and take your rest’10 | Give my love to all the young fellows
I remain your affectionate companion | P.D. Evans
RI MS JT/1/11/3566
LT Transcript Only
Wednesday: LT gives postmark ‘July 21. 41’.
my last letter: letter 0076.
uncle Caleb has been duly and lawfully acquitted: the trial at Carlow Assizes of Caleb Tyndall for wounding Mary McAssey; see letters 0071, 0073 and 0075.
uncle Wm.: William Tyndall.
his apprentice, and two policemen: William Cooley (apprentice) and constables John Macken and William Watters.
McDonough and Walker: probably Francis Macdonough, QC, Lower Dominick Steet, Dublin and Richard Cotton Walker (1782–1850), barrister, of Upper Gloucester Street, Dublin.
6½: half past 6.
Fair and flowing … wound it: Based on lines 1–2 and 11–12 of J. H. Bedford, ‘To Amelia’, in Wanderings of Childe Harolde: A Romance in Real Life (1825).
the Sentinel contains any part of the trial: report in CS, 24 July 1841, p. [2].
Sleep on now and take your rest: Matthew 26:45.
Please cite as “Tyndall0079,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0079