Staffordshire Potteries1 | Stoke-upon-Trent April 4th 1854
Dear Cousin
Being in England – on business matters – for a short time and as I shall pass through London in a week or two on my way to Paris, I write to you to ask your exact address in the great wilderness of London.
I confess myself very desirous to meet you for many – obvious – reasons, among them the necessity I am under of apologising to you for my failure to acknowledge your last kind letter2 and the several papers3 all duly rec’d by me.
I write now because I may remain, perhaps, a very short time in London, and if possible I must see you to satisfy a very natural and proper wish of my own, and of all my family, a wish to meet my – our – nearest Atlantic relative.
Hoping to receive your reply within a week and with my regards to your Mother4 and to your Sister5 I am
very truly Yours | Hector Tyndale
Please address to me to the care of Samuel Asbury Esq:6 | Shelton | Staffordshire.
RI MS JT/1/T/44
RI MS JT/1/TYP/5/1586
Staffordshire Potteries: a well-known industrial area for ceramics in Staffordshire, England. It consisted of potteries in the towns of Tunstall, Burslem, Stoke, Fenton, Longton, and Hanley. As is indicated, Tyndale was writing from Stoke, or Stoke-upon-Trent, the largest city in Staffordshire.
your last kind letter: letter missing, though see letter 0605, which is the last extant letter in their correspondence.
the several papers: not identified.
your Mother: Sarah Tyndall, née McAssey, (1793–1867), Tyndall’s mother and wife of John Tyndall Senior (1792–1847). Sarah descended from a prosperous farming family with lands in Ballybrommell, County Carlow. She was known to have encouraged the education of her children.
your Sister: Emma Tyndall (1817–1904).
Samuel Asbury Esq: a relative of John Astbury (around 1688–1743), a potter who worked in the Staffordshire Potteries (ODNB).
Please cite as “Tyndall0916,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on