Transcription
CATALOG NUMBER VC 1748 D
OBJECT NAME letter
DATE August 7, 1810
AUTHOR Margaret Stuyvesant
Possible: https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/KC7S-V65
RECIPIENT Anne Stevenson [later Van Cortlandt]
MEDIUM Paper, ink
PEOPLE Mrs. [Colos?], “the talkative lady”, “the Captain”, “the
Chancellor”, mama, “sister Ten Broeck”, “Richards the jeweler”,
Captain Boyd, Mrs [Magdalen?] Stevenson, your mother, your
brother James Stevenson, Mrs. Sarah Stevenson Walsh, Mr
Dudley Walsh, their children (“Jr John”, ‘Miss Walsh”, “Ann” and others), [possible Margaret “Peggy” Livingston] (“my mother”),
Dudley Walsh: https://exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/bios/w/dudwalsh.html
Sarah Stevenson Walsh: https://exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/bios/s/sarstevenson.html
“Sister Ten Broeck” - Cornelia Stuyvesant Ten Broeck?: https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/KH2W-QQV
PLACES “Bowery House”, Albany
Possible Bowery House:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuyvesant_Farm (OLDEST)
OR
https://inhabit.corcoran.com/manhattans-oldest-home-44-stuyvesant/ (NEW, but still very OLD)
https://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2492.pdf (see page 5)
By the mid 18th century, many of Manhattan‟s working farms were turned into country retreats for the wealthy. On the east side of the island, the Stuyvesants were was joined to the south by the De Lanceys and the Rutgers, who came to control nearly all the land in what would become the Lower East Side. 8 During this period the patriarch of the Stuyvesant family, Gerardus Stuyvesant, continued to live in the farm house that had stood on the property since the time of his grandfather, the Director-General, while his two sons built refined Georgian manors for themselves. Nicholas William II, the elder brother, took up occupancy in the “Bowery House” in the southern half of the property, while Petrus II resided at “Petersfield” in the northern section.
Footnote 9: Bowery House stood on the north side of St. Mark‟s Place just west of First Avenue. It is unclear when exactly they were erected but most accounts place it before 1765. Stokes 6, 29; Valentine (1862), map facing map 686. A depiction of Bowery House can be found in Valentine (1857), 454.
KEYWORDS steamboat journey from Albany to NYC, lots of ladies on board,
female friendships, female relationships, sheep on board, mock
trial of passengers, inscription on ring for Anne, [hair] bracelets,
pearl, slippers, Mr. Walsh did not accept her invitation, request for
recipe for cement to mend china,
Bowery House August 17th 1810
Your requesting to be made acquainted with the particulars / of the passage, and of my safe arrival here, accorded too much with / my own inclination, for me to delay any longer complying with this / request; be assured my dear Ann that the most lively gratitude for / your kind attention + sincere regard for yourself + family will / render me desirous of being remembered by you, and if an occasional / letter will serve to remind you of one who find so much pleasure in / thinking of you I shall be careful to prevent your forgetting me, __ / you were acquainted with the circumstance of my being disappointed / by M’rs: [Colos] not going in the Steamboat, as I was to have been of her / party; l felt little unpleasant on the occasion, for we females are / dependent beings; by the time I had reasoned on the subject, suffici- / -ently to be reconciled to it, I was agreeably surprised, but her coming / on board at Hudson. __ we had a great number of passengers + more / ladies than rendered it pleasant or comfortable, among the number there / was one whos propensity to talking was neither sanctioned by judg- / -ment nor enlivened by wit, and who’s childish prattle disturbed those / whom the hear + other inconveniences would have suffered to obtain some / rest. __ the following morning we were much amused in attending / court, there were many brought before the bar + the generality found guilty /
[END OF PAGE 1]
The Capt: was among the first of the criminals, the charge alledged was / his having taken sheep on board as freight, but in consideration of / his being in the Employ of the Chancellor whos (sheep they were) his sen - / tence was greatly mitigated. _ the principal offenders were those who had / disturbed the quiet of the preceding night. _ I could not restrain the wish / that the talkative lady might be arranged, but in this case I found ladies / are of a privileged order. __ no accident took place Except the breaking of some / of the machinery which was soon repaired + did not detain us more than / three or four hours; we arrived at about five in the Afternoon; and i had / the happiness of finding my mother + friends in Good health, my coming / was quite a surprise to them as they did not expect me until sister Ten - / Broeck came, she is not yet arrived but we are in hourly Expectation of / seeing her. __ I have been to Richards (the jewellers, he says he can put the / inscription as you wish to have it, by placing the date on the inside. / in case he makes the rings of Equal weight with the one you Gave me / as a pattern, he will charge twelve dollars a piece, but if they are light - / er they will be ten. __ As I thought they would be hands quite as hand - / -some for being thinner I told him not to make them until I receive further / directions from you; he says it will not take him more than a fortnight / to make them, + if you will have the goodness to let me know by the next / steamboat, I will send him word immediately, bow they are to be / done. _ the [hair] bracelets like those of mine, are from nine to twelve dol- / -lars a pair. _ he sets pearl, but has not any small Enough to form a cipher / your slippers are not yet done, I will send them by the return of Cap’t: Boyd / should Mrs: Stevenson or yourself wish to have anything done which will / be in my power to Attned to, you will confer a favor in acquainting /
[END OF PAGE 2]
Me with it. _ please to offer my Affectionate regards to your mother / your brother James + Mrs. Walsh, you may if so disposed, offer the / same to Mr Walsh though I must acknowledge I was not quite / satisfied in his refusing my invitation, As I flattered myself, he would / be repaid for the trouble + fatigue in having my society + the pleasure / of seeing his friend in the Bowery, who would have derived much / pleasure in having him among them; my mother sends her kind love / remember me to the Children, or rather to [Jn’r] John + Miss Walsh with / the children, I suppose Ann will get submit to being reckoned a- / -mong them, with sincere affection + regard your friend
Marg’t Stuyvesant
Should it not be convenient to / you to favor me with an an- / -swer by the next steamboat / depute your brother; as he is / of the quill driving order it / will not be attended with / much trouble to him. _ I shall / however anticipate the pleasure of soon hearing / from yourself . _ have the goodness to let me / know whether it is milk or white of egg which / is to mix’d with the lime for making a ce- / -ment for mending China - M. S.
[END OF PAGE 3]
Steamboat
[ADDRESS]
Miss Stevenson
Misfs Stuyvesant Miss Stuyvesant
Miss Stuyvesant Albany
To the care of / James Stevenson Edq’r:
[LABEL]
Miss M Stuyvesant
To A.V.C.Transcriber
Kathryn AlexanderLanguage
English
