I am very uneasy on account of Mrs. Grant and my three children by
her; they will miss me more than any other in Scotland; may God, in
His infinite goodness, stir up some friendly aid for their support,
for it is not in my power at present to give them the smallest
assistance; yet I think they will not absolutely starve in a
Christian land where their father once had friends, and who was
always liberal to the distressed.
I beg you will order the inclosed to be delivered into her own
hand; and I will take it kind if Mrs. Henderson will send for her
and give her good advice. I wish she may be enabled to keep what
little furniture she has together.
I think she should endeavour to get her youngest daughter Jean sent
to Aberdeen to her friends, where she will be well brought up, and
I will order an yearly board to be paid for her, perhaps six pounds
per annum; it will be an ease to Mrs. Grant, and better for the
child. My eldest daughter Cecill should be put apprentice to the
milliner or mantua-making business; but I wish she could learn a
little writing and arithmetic first. I wish to God some of my
friends would take some charge of Cecill; she is a fine, sensible
girl, considering the little opportunity she has had for
improvement. I have been now eighteen days on board, and I expect
to land somewhere to-morrow. The ship rolls a good deal, and it is
with some difficulty I get this wrote, and my paper being exhausted
I shall conclude this epistle. Please make my compliments to Mr.
Clark, and a few other friends, and in particular, to Mr. Balmano,
and acquaint him I glimed the scrive[16] I had of him. He is a
gentleman I have a great regard for. Pray do not forget writing me
a long letter. I am,
Dear Michael,
For ever your’s.
W. B.
Pray do not show this scroll to any but your wife.
(Addressed) Mr. Michael Henderson, Grass-market, Stabler,
Edinburgh.
COPY of a LETTER or UNSIGNED SCROLL, in the handwriting of William
Brodie, and founded on in the Indictment, marked No. 1.
My dear Sir,
By short instructions sent me when I left London, which I think
were drawn up in my cousin Milton’s hand, I was forbid writing to
any one in Britain, Mr. Walker excepted, for a year or two; but
this order, if necessary, I find it not easy for me to comply with,
for I must correspond with my friends in whatever part of the
globe I am, and I hope they will do so with me, and write them when
an opportunity offers. I have gone through much, in every sense of
the word.--J. D. and M.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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