Ballybromell1 | Feb. 24th 1842.
My dear John
Mr Little was handed your letter2 on Sunday the 4th, while we were at dinner at a Mr Smyth’s3 he opened it and read part of it, after which he excused himself to me saying he thought it was for him. Up to that time I was expecting to see you. The mail coach starts from Cork every evening4 Mr Little generally is the driver from Fermoy5 to Cork on the one o’clock, and from Cork on the six o’clock coach, in the evening. Mrs Little6 told me that she was looking out for you Christmas eve – she expected to be able to give you a good fat tumbler before the coach you would come on would leave the office in Fermoy. You say that you will see me before we would leave home I think if ever you come to the Co.7 Carlow you will be likely to find some of the family in the old spot. I was very anxious to get home from Fermoy, thinking that the place would be sold before I could get back. Mr and Mrs Little thought to keep me until Easter but I would not consent. I got home on the beginning of last week. The place was still unsold. There was a good many coming to look at it. On Friday last Mr Robert Watson8 came and bought it for himself and his brother –John Leckey Watson9– wrote the agreement and took it home to Killconner10 to his father.11 On Saturday morning Mr Robert came to let my father know that his father would not give the money. So the sale ended there. Perhaps it is all for good. Mr Faulkner was here on Monday last and seemed glad that my father had given up the thought of going and said that he would do any thing in his power for him. We got a letter from Tom12 last week. They are well. Dan and Bess13 has got a daughter. Sam14 says that he will go to America this season. I think all the boys will go one after another.15 Tom promised in his letter to come home next fall. All our family are well. The travelling did me a great deal of good, we had fine weather and a very pleasant visit. But travelling through so many markets without any person bidding for Miss James16 or me, I think we may give up all hope of ever being sold however we have no reason to complain when the Fermoy boys did not send us to Nenagh17 Shroff Tuesday18 night. Let me know in your next how you escaped and what court you summond the bug to that insulted you on the night you arrived in Cork.19
Yours affectionately | D. McAssey
RI MS JT 1/11/3760
LT Transcript Only
Ballybromell: see letter 0121, n. 4.
your letter: letter missing.
Mr Smyth: not identified.
The mail coach starts from Cork every evening: The Cork-Dublin Night Mail Coach left the coach office at 12 Dawson Street in Cork each evening, stopping at Fermoy, Clogheen, Cloumel, Kilkenny, Royal Oak, Leighlin Bridge, Carlow, Castledermot, Kilcullen, and Nass, before arriving in Dublin the following night (The Traveller’s New Guide Through Ireland (Dublin: John Cumming, 1819), p. 554).
Fermoy: see letter 0008, n. 5.
Mrs Little: see letter 0121, n. 3.
Co.: County.
Mr Robert Watson: son of John Watson and brother of John Leckey Watson; see nn. 9 and 11.
John Leckey Watson: Watson was elected a life member of the Royal Dublin Society in 1834, and listed as a Magistrate for Carlow in The Dublin Almanac, and General Register of Ireland for 1847. In 1860 he was the High Sheriff of Carlow (Subscribers List for Ierne: or, Anecdotes and Incidents During a Life Chiefly in Ireland (Dublin: W. Curry, 1861), p. xvi). He was a Justice of the Peace for 1867–9, but was deleted from the Royal Dublin Society’s membership list in 1870. The Watson estate in Fenagh consisted of 687 acres in 1878.
Killconner: a village in the parish of Fenagh, County Carlow.
his father: probably the John Watson Esq. recorded in the Tithe Applotment Book for Killconner in 1826.
Tom: not identified.
Dan and Bess: probably Daniel McAssey (b. 1806), Deborah’s younger brother, and his wife Elizabeth.
Sam: probably Samuel McAssey (b. 1815), Deborah’s younger brother.
I think all the boys will go one after another: Deborah had five brothers, and by April 1847 the entire McAssey family, including their parents John and Mary, had emigrated to America, settling in Wisconsin.
Miss James: sister of Sarah Little; see letter 0121.
Nenagh: a market town in Tipperary.
Shroff Tuesday: Shrove Tuesday; see letter 0121, n. 11.
the bug to that insulted you on the night you arrived in Cork: see letter 0118.
Please cite as “Tyndall0125,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0125