Preston, Thursday | March 3rd, 1843.
My dear Father
Here I sit enveloped by inkstands, paint cups, and scribbled paper while before me the glorious sun climbs the eastern sky shedding many a bright beam on the page destined for your perusal. You seemed not to like the Illustrated London News,1 very well I’ll send it to you no more. You have exhorted me to patience in your last.2 In some cases this might be needful, but it is not so at present. Repeated collision with the world has deprived my character of those sanguine traits, those high hopes which usually swell in the breast of youth. There is no fear of my being in the least impatient. I say this tho’ I am acquainted with the fact of the Colonel’s having paired off with some other member.3 I saw his name in the Mail.4 I also feel gratefully assured that Mr Bredin will not neglect my interests. I wrote to him some time ago thanking him for his kindness. Do you know did he receive my letters?
I am sorry to hear that poor Mrs Payne is not improved in circumstances. Joe5 owed me a trifle when he left Cork which he has honourably refunded since I came here. I suppose Emma6 is in Cork also. The blast which swept over that family was indeed a withering one – all the result of imprudence. There’s no use however in talking of that now. I had a letter from poor Foy7 yesterday. He is in Manchester at present. He has a great number of respectable friends there, and contrives to spend his time very agreeably among them. I hope as the weather has become somewhat milder that your next letter will be something longer than your last. How is John Murray? Has Mrs Treacy’s8 family left Leighlin yet? Have you and John Mooney come on terms yet?9 I write this in a hurry so you therefore excuse whatever blunders you may meet. Debby10 tells me that John McAssy11 of Carrickfergus12 has written a long letter to the Bishop of Down13 on Apostolic Succession.14 It appeared in the Christian Examiner,15 could you procure the paper for me? If not, find out where the Christian Examiner is published and send me word. My love to my mother and Emma.
Your affectionate son | John Tyndall.
RI MS JT 1/10/3288
LT Transcript Only
Illustrated London News: see letter 0187, n. 7.
your last: letter missing.
the Colonel’s having paired off with some other member: In the parliamentary practice of ‘pairing’ whereby MPs from opposite parties agree to both be absent from a specific division in the House of Commons, Colonel Henry Bruen paired off with William Sydney Clements, 3rd Earl of Leitrim (1806–78), MP for County Leitrim, and did not vote in the division on the Corn Laws on Friday 17 February 1843 (‘Imperial Parliament’, Freeman’s Journal, 20 February 1843, pp. [3–4]).
the Mail: possibly the Waterford Mail, which Tyndall had previously sent to his father; see letter 0117, n. 13. The only other Irish Protestant newspaper with this title was the Dublin Evening Mail.
Joe: Joseph Payne.
Emma: presumably Emma Payne, although not further identified.
a letter from poor Foy: letter 0189.
Mrs Treacy: presumably the wife of John Treacy, whose insolvency and subsequent departure to Australia might be a reason her family was leaving Leighlin Bridge; see letters 0007, 0047 and 0050.
Have you and John Mooney come on terms yet?: They had fallen out when Mooney apparently took an active part in the Roman Catholic boycott of Tyndall, Snr’s shoemaking business following the Carlow election in the summer of 1841; see letters 0084 and 0111.
Debby: Deborah McAssey.
John McAssy: Reverend John McAssey, a Methodist ordained in 1838 who was minister at the Carrickfergus Congregational Church.
Carrickfergus: a town in County Antrim.
Bishop of Down: Richard Mant (1776–1848), Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore.
Apostolic Succession: the succession which links the Christian Church to the original twelve Apostles of Christ; for Roman Catholics this is through the direct lineage of Bishops from Saint Peter, while for Anglicans it is through a continuity of commitment, beliefs and mission. Methodists similarly emphasize the continuity of Christian experience.
Christian Examiner: the Christian Examiner and Church of Ireland Magazine, a monthly periodical founded in Dublin in 1825 to promote evangelical causes in the Anglican Church of Ireland. It was notable for its strident anti-Catholicism.
Please cite as “Tyndall0191,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 4 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0191