Covent Garden, London | June 22, 1845
My Dear Debby1
I declare I don’t know how to commence a letter to you – You must consider me a worthless, ungrateful fellow, and indeed I regret to say that I have afforded you too much grounds for that opinion – but I beg of you not to judge of my feelings by my apparent neglect – I often think of Bally Cromwell2 and never without remembering the kindness which I have always met there. Will you act the part of mediator between me and my aunt and uncle3 – tell them that I am not so bad as appearance indicates and that I shall ever remember them with sincere affection – And Rachel4 – What must I say to soften her anger – Will she not forgive her repentant cousin? Let her think of the time I asked to feed her turkeys and mend her stools and let her reflect that I am the same John Tyndall now with the exception of a trifle of beard and whiskers – let her think on this and she cannot steel herself against me. – She will pronounce my pardon; – I might forge an excuse from the excitement in which I am continually involved but I shall do no such thing I admit that I am guilty – very guilty and I throw myself unreservedly on your mercy –
This is my second trip to London this season – My present business is to give audience before the Lords Committee5 in one of the Northern lands of Railway. I am sworn in the House of Lords on Thursday but don’t expect to be called upon until Wednesday – I may expect a due laceration from the opposing counsel, however I am endeavouring to brace my nerves for the contest and meet the terrors of a [1 word illeg] – with the fortitude of man –
As I don’t know the reception which this will receive I must cut it short and assure you in conclusion that I am with feeling unchanged by time or circumstances,
Your affectionate cousin | John Tyndall
My country address is at
Mrs Wright | Ferguson Street | Halifax, Yorkshire
where I expect to return in a week or ten days. Hope to hear from you then I am in a <1 word missing> JT
From Martin Nevin, Private Collection.
Copy in an unknown hand.
My Dear Debby: Deborah McAssey (b. 1805), the daughter of John McAssey and Mary McAssey (née Smith/Smyth), was Tyndall’s cousin on his mother’s side of the family, although the precise relationship is not known. In 1845 she lived at Ballybromwell, a village in the parish of Fenagh, County Carlow. She emigrated to Wisconsin in April 1847.
Bally Cromwell: possibly a mistranscription, or a play on Ballybromwell, the town in Ireland where Deborah McAssey lived.
my aunt and uncle: possibly John and Mary McAssey, Deborah’s parents.
Rachel: Rachel McAssey, later Rachel Harris (1822-1908). Rachel was Deborah’s younger sister. She would also emigrate to Wisconsin in 1847, where she married her fellow Irishman Richard Harris (1822-63) in October 1847.
give audience before the Lords Committee: Tyndall’s then-employer Richard Carter was the Surveyor of the West Yorkshire Railway. In 1845, the West Yorkshire Railway was competing with a rival company for Parliamentary approval of its railway plans. Tyndall was sent to London to help prepare testimony in favour of the West Yorkshire Railway’s plans.
Please cite as “Tyndall0323,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0323